How to send failed payment alerts to Slack, and what to do next

To send failed payment alerts to Slack with ChargeBell, connect Stripe and Slack, turn on payment failed, send it to a billing channel with an owner, and send a test alert. The alert covers payment_intent.payment_failed. It doesn't cover every invoice.payment_failed case, so watch invoice failures in Stripe or another tool. The playbook below starts once the alert lands.

Set up failed payment alerts in Slack

1. 1

   Connect Stripe and Slack

   Approve read-only Stripe access and choose your Slack workspace in ChargeBell.

2. 2

   Route payment failed

   Turn on the critical payment failed alert and pick a billing channel with a named owner. It's on by default, so check the setting and the @channel mention.

3. 3

   Test both paths

   Send a ChargeBell test alert, then check a real PaymentIntent failure. If you bill subscriptions, also watch invoice.payment_failed in Stripe, including invoices with no payment method.

Why a failed payment is a churn risk

A failed payment can end a subscription even though the customer never asked to cancel. What happens next depends on the invoice and your Stripe Billing retry settings. Check both before you decide when to follow up.

If nobody on your team or the customer's side sees the failure, it can turn into a cancellation. Measure failed invoices, successful retries, and final subscription status in your own Stripe data to find where your team can help.

Know which Stripe event you're reading

payment_intent.payment_failed fires when a payment attempt fails. ChargeBell turns it into a critical Slack alert with Stripe's failure message, or card declined if there's no message. It doesn't include the decline code or retry date. `invoice.payment_failed` fires when an invoice fails, which can happen without a failed PaymentIntent, for example when no payment method is saved. ChargeBell doesn't map that invoice event. Watch it in Stripe or another tool, and use the Stripe decline code guide for each code and next step.

Hour 0: sort the alert

The first job is sorting. The Slack alert gives you a failure message. Open its Stripe link to see the decline code, advice code, and retry state before you pick a response.

• Soft declines, such as insufficient_funds, often clear on their own. Stripe Smart Retries retries them automatically, so the usual move is to wait and watch.
• Hard declines, such as expired_card, lost_card, and stolen_card, can't succeed until the customer adds a new payment method. Waiting won't fix them. Someone has to contact the customer.

Don't assume a failure is soft from a generic Slack message. Stripe may have a more specific decline or advice code, and the next step can differ by payment method. Use Stripe's decline code reference when you sort.

Compare that with a hard decline on a larger account. The alert has the same shape, but the message tells you waiting won't help.

Before anyone acts, reply in the alert's Slack thread with the owner's name. One owner per failure means two people don't email the same customer, and nobody assumes someone else has it.

Hours 0 to 24: act on hard declines and large accounts

Outreach does the most good on day one. Spend it on failures retries can't fix and on accounts you can't afford to lose.

1. Hard declines get a message the same day. Ask the customer to update their card and link to the page where they can do it. Keep it short and neutral. Their card on file was declined, and this is how to fix it.
2. High-value accounts get a personal note, whatever the decline. An annual plan or your largest monthly customer deserves a message from a founder or account owner, even on a soft decline.
3. Everything else waits for the first retry. For a small soft decline, leave a note in the thread and move on.

Hours 24 to 72: follow up on repeat failures

Check Stripe for the retry schedule and invoice state. A later invoice.payment_failed can mean another failed attempt, but ChargeBell doesn't alert on it. Your invoice monitor or a daily Stripe check should catch those cases.

• A soft decline fails again. Retries alone aren't working. Send the card update message you held back on day one.
• A hard-decline customer hasn't replied. Follow up once through another channel if you have one, such as an in-app notice or a note from their account owner.
• A large account is still failing. The founder or account owner should talk to them directly. This is about the relationship, not billing.

Don't message everyone on every retry. Aim for one clear, timely message per customer. A string of emails reads like a collections notice.

After 72 hours: let retries run and watch the outcome

Once you've contacted the customers who need help, let the retry policy in your Stripe account run. The schedule and number of attempts vary. Watch the invoice and subscription status for a recovery or a cancellation.

• Recovered. A successful retry can trigger a separate ChargeBell payment recovered alert. It doesn't post in the failure's thread, so check the invoice in Stripe before you close the case.
• Canceled. If retries run out, the subscription can end. A subscription canceled alert is your last cue to send a win-back message to a customer who never chose to leave.

If a thread has no recovery and no update from the owner after a few days, someone should check the customer in Stripe.

Who owns what

Send failed payment alerts where someone will act

The playbook works only if a person sees the alert quickly. Send failed payments to a channel your team reads, like #billing or #founders, not a busy channel where wins and failures mix. ChargeBell sends each alert type to its own channel, so failures and wins can go to different places.

• Failures skip quiet hours. ChargeBell marks the failed payment alert critical, so it posts right away, even overnight. You see a midnight decline before Stripe's next retry.
• They can mention @channel. With the critical mention setting on, everyone in the channel gets notified.
• Routine alerts stay elsewhere. If wins stay out of the failures channel, nobody mutes it. How to avoid noisy Stripe notifications covers the settings.

For one routine across failures and disputes, see how to build a payment incident workflow in Slack. Track retention after recovery in your own subscription cohorts.