Billing Anchor and Dunning
Two features that make Stripe collections tidier. The billing anchor aligns the client’s due dates to the day they actually pay with their card. Dunning alerts you when a charge fails, so you can step in right away.
This feature is available on the Professional plan and above. If you don’t see it in the app, check your plan in Subscription Plans.
Billing anchor: aligning the due dates
On the first payment received via Stripe for a client, SalesControl sets their “billing day” to that date: from that moment the still-open installments shift their due day to align with the real day the client is charged.
- It happens only with the client’s first Stripe payment: later payments no longer shift anything.
- It changes only the day of the installments still to be paid: it doesn’t touch the contract duration, amounts, commissions or bonuses.
- The installments you had already marked paid by hand stay where they are.
The alignment starts from a payment received through Stripe. A client whose payments have always been recorded by hand will align only on their first real Stripe payment.
Controls in the client detail page
In the client detail page you’ll find, tied to Stripe:
- a badge with the client’s current billing day;
- the “Re-anchor from Stripe” button to manually realign the due dates to the latest Stripe payment;
- the controls to link or unlink the client to their Stripe Customer (linking or unlinking requires the
can_edit_clientspermission).
Dunning: failed charges
If a card charge fails (for example an expired card or insufficient funds), SalesControl automatically alerts the Closer and the Admin, stating the reason for the decline. This way you can reach out to the client and fix the payment method without waiting to notice it from the figures.
The client can be alerted too, by email or in their chat: the type is called Payment failed and it sits among the notifications, with its own channels and recipients. The message to the client always carries a link to put it right: if the charge came from a Stripe invoice it is that invoice, which stays payable; otherwise it is their service’s payment links.
The paragraph about updating the card
When your agency has set up the Stripe customer portal, a paragraph with the link to update the card is appended to the client email automatically: the client opens it, Stripe emails them a sign-in link, and they change the payment method without going through you. You do not have to write anything.
The same link is available as the card_update_link variable in the texts of Payment failed, Payment Reminder and Contract Expiry: useful above all for clients on automatic billing, for whom “update your card” is the only action worth asking. The portal is activated once under Settings › Integrations › Stripe customer portal; without it the variable stays empty. See Reminders for Clients on Automatic Billing.
Channels, recipients and text for Payment failed are governed like any other alert: see Push and Email Notifications.