In the Chargebee dashboard, navigate to Settings → Dunning Management to configure the retry schedule for failed payments — set the number of retry attempts and the delay between each attempt (in days).
Enable Smart Dunning (if available on your Chargebee plan) which uses ML to optimize retry timing per customer rather than using a fixed schedule.
Configure dunning email notifications in Chargebee → Email Notifications to send automated payment failure and retry notification emails to customers.
Set up a Chargebee webhook endpoint in Settings → API Keys and Webhooks, subscribing to `payment_failed`, `invoice_updated`, and `subscription_cancelled` events.
In your webhook handler, inspect the `event_type` and the attached invoice or subscription object to determine dunning state and trigger supplementary actions (e.g., customer support escalation after final retry).
Test dunning flows in the Chargebee test environment (available within the same site under test mode) using Chargebee's built-in test payment gateways.
Known gotchas
Chargebee's dunning settings apply globally to all subscriptions on a site by default. If you need per-plan or per-customer dunning behavior, use Chargebee's payment intent retry overrides or hierarchy features where available — check current Chargebee plan feature availability.
Chargebee webhooks can be delivered out of order or multiple times for the same event. Implement idempotent webhook handlers using the `event.id` field and track processed events to avoid double-processing dunning actions.
When Chargebee exhausts dunning retries and cancels a subscription, reopening it requires a reactivation API call or a new checkout. The cancellation is not automatically reversible by a successful payment retry initiated outside Chargebee.
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