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Understand Revenue vs. Failed Billing Cancelled

The Subscription Billing report in Phoenix helps you understand the health of your recurring revenue by showing how much you successfully collect and how much you lose due to billing failures. This article explains what the Revenue and Failed Billing Cancelled columns represent and how you can interpret them.

What This Report Shows​

This report tracks subscription billing activity within your selected date range. It organizes subscription renewals into two outcomes. The way these results change over time helps you evaluate your billing performance and adjust your recovery strategy when needed.

Successful Billing (Revenue)

Revenue comes from billing events that were processed successfully and collected.

Failed Billing Cancelled

These are subscriptions that were cancelled after repeated unsuccessful billing attempts.

Understanding how these two outcomes behave over time helps you evaluate billing performance, spot issues, and adjust your recovery strategy.

Revenue​

Revenue shows the subscription payments successfully captured during the selected period.

What’s Included

Transactions that count toward Revenue:

  • Successful recurring subscription charges

  • Approved renewal payments

  • Charges recovered after retry attempts

  • Payments processed through Stripe, NMI, or blended gateways

  • Charges from any subscription frequency (monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.)

What’s Not Included

Transactions that do not contribute to Revenue:

  • New one-time purchases

  • First-time subscription purchases (depending on your filter settings)

  • Failed subscription renewals

  • Pending charges still in a retry cycle

Why Revenue Matters

Revenue helps you understand:

  • The current value of active subscribers

  • The stability of your recurring income

  • What future periods may look like

  • The impact of your retry and recovery settings

Failed Billing Cancelled​

Failed Billing Cancelled shows the value of subscription renewals that failed and caused the subscription to cancel automatically. This number reflects lost recurring revenue, not temporary failures that are still retrying.

What’s Included

Transactions included in Failed Billing Cancelled:

  • Subscription renewal attempts that failed all retry cycles

  • Charges where the payment method was declined multiple times

  • Subscriptions cancelled automatically due to failed billing

  • Cases where subscribers did not update their payment information in time

What’s Not Included

Transactions not counted as Failed Billing Cancelled:

  • Failed attempts still in an active retry window

  • Voluntary customer cancellations (these appear in other reports)

  • Refunds or chargebacks

  • Trials that end without converting to a paid subscription

Why Failed Billing Cancelled Matters

Failed Billing Cancelled helps you understand:

  • Billing-related churn

  • Revenue lost due to expired cards, insufficient funds, or outdated payment details

  • How effective your retry windows and salvage settings are

  • Whether customers are updating their payment methods when prompted

How to Interpret These Columns Together​

Viewing Revenue and Failed Billing Cancelled together gives you a clearer picture of how your billing system is performing. This comparison helps you identify trends, understand which income streams are stable, and see where billing issues may be leading to cancellations.

Common Scenarios:

ScenarioWhat It MeansAction
High Revenue + Low Failed Billing CancelledYour billing system is working well and customers’ payment methods are valid.Maintain your current retry and salvage settings.
High Failed Billing Cancelled + Low RevenueMany renewals are failing and not recovering, which reduces your recurring income.Review your salvage settings, retry cycles, gateway logs, and update reminders.
Revenue Stable but Failed Billing Cancelled IncreasingIncome remains steady, but billing failures are growing.Check for card expirations or recurring gateway errors.
Revenue Declining and Failed Billing Cancelled IncreasingYou are experiencing billing-related churn.Adjust retry logic, increase reminders, and review gateway routing.

Interpreting the Data Columns​

You can use these columns to understand the overall health of your billing process.

  • Revenue: Shows subscription payments billed and successfully captured during the selected period.

  • Failed Billing Cancelled: Shows renewal attempts that failed and led to subscription cancellation.

  • Health Indicator: You can use these values as a health indicator for your billing performance.

    • If Failed Billing Cancelled is above 10–15% of Revenue, your billing health is weakening.

    • If the value remains below 5%, your recovery settings are performing well.

Best Practices to Improve Billing Health​

You can improve billing performance by adjusting your recovery settings and monitoring failed charges. Here are some practices that help stabilize your recurring revenue:

  • Enable Subscription Salvage so customers receive automatic payment update links.

  • Increase the number of retry attempts based on your billing needs.

  • Use multiple gateways or routing rules to improve approval rates.

  • Review gateway error codes to understand why charges failed.

  • Test subscription billing after making changes to gateways or settings.

To improve your subscription and billing performance, see these guides: