# How automations work

Learn how to customize subscription and invoice workflows with automations.

Stripe Billing automations are a no-code way to build custom, automated workflows to streamline your business processes, enhance customer communication, and improve revenue recovery efforts.

Tailor automated workflows to fit your specific use case, for example:

- [Custom dunning flow for annual subscribers](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/automation-recipes.md#custom-dunning-flow)
- [Notify your team when high value invoices are overdue](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/automation-recipes.md#invoice-overdue-notifications)
- [Email a confirmation when a subscription is canceled](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/automation-recipes.md#subscription-cancellation-confirmation)

Workflows consist of triggers, filter conditions, and actions. This guide describes how to use those to build and configure your own custom automation. Follow an [automation recipe](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/automation-recipes.md) to get started with common use cases.

## Set up automations

To get started with automations, follow these steps:

1. In the Stripe Dashboard, go to the [Automations tab](https://dashboard.stripe.com/test/revenue_recovery/automations) in Billing.
1. Click **New automation** or press the **n** key.
1. Name the automation.
1. Select the event that you want to trigger the automation.
1. (Optional) Add [filter conditions](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/automations.md#choose-filter-conditions) so that your automation only runs when the specified conditions are met.
1. Add a sequence of actions and delays.
1. (Optional) If the selected trigger applies to other automations, drag the new automation to the desired position in the priority order, then click **Save**.

> When using automations, the [next_payment_attempt](https://docs.stripe.com/api/invoices/object.md#invoice_object-next_payment_attempt) is no longer set in `invoice.payment_failed` webhooks but is set in `invoice.updated` webhooks.

## Choose a trigger

You can choose from five triggers:

| Trigger                    | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           | Example use case                                                                                                                                             |
| -------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Invoice due date upcoming  | Actions are executed relative to the due date of the invoice. The automation terminates when the invoice is paid or voided. This trigger is only for invoices with `collection_method` set to `send_invoice`.                                                         | Manage customer communication by scheduling `invoice.will_be_due` webhooks at custom intervals.                                                              |
| Invoice is finalized       | Triggered when an invoice is finalized. The automation terminates when the invoice is paid, voided, or [auto_advance](https://docs.stripe.com/api/invoices/object.md#invoice_object-auto_advance) is turned off.                                                      | Mark invoices for certain customer segments as uncollectible (write-off) after a period of time.                                                             |
| Invoice is overdue         | Triggered when an invoice becomes overdue. The automation terminates when the invoice is paid, voided, or [auto_advance](https://docs.stripe.com/api/invoices/object.md#invoice_object-auto_advance) is turned off. This trigger is only for invoices of type `send`. | Manage customer communication by scheduling `invoice.overdue` webhooks at custom intervals. Manage collections by scheduling emails to the collections team. |
| Subscription is canceled   | Trigger when a subscription is canceled.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              | Email a cancellation confirmation to the customer. Optionally include a cancellation reason survey.                                                          |
| Subscription payment fails | Triggered when a subscription invoice payment fails its first attempt. The automation terminates when the invoice is paid, voided, or [auto_advance](https://docs.stripe.com/api/invoices/object.md#invoice_object-auto_advance) is turned off.                       | - Custom retry behavior for a subset of customers
  - Notify your collections team of high-value payment failures.                                           |

## Choose filter conditions

After selecting a trigger, you can add one or more filter conditions. These conditions need to be met for your automation to run. For example, if you filter for customers on annual subscriptions, the automation only runs if there are annual subscriptions.

Depending on the trigger, the following filter conditions are available:

| Condition             | Description                                                                                                                                                         |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Customer metadata     | A key-value pair to match on customer [metadata](https://docs.stripe.com/api/metadata.md).                                                                          |
| Invoice metadata      | A key-value pair to match on invoice [metadata](https://docs.stripe.com/api/metadata.md).                                                                           |
| Invoice amount        | A minimum or maximum amount per invoice defined in your default currency. Invoices not denominated in your default currency are evaluated against their conversion. |
| Subscription interval | Limit to yearly or monthly subscriptions.                                                                                                                           |
| Product               | Limit to invoices or subscriptions that contain at least one of the products specified.                                                                             |

You can use the [Metadata API field](https://docs.stripe.com/api/metadata.md) to directly apply metadata for customers and invoices.

## Choose actions

The following table describes the available actions for the various triggers:

| Action                               | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        | Supported triggers                                                     |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Set retry policy                     | A retry policy defines how failed charges are retried. This action allows you to create a custom policy and attach it to an invoice.                                                                                                                               | Subscription payment fails                                             |
| Mark subscription unpaid             | The subscription continues to generate invoices each billing period, which remain in `draft` status.                                                                                                                                                               | Subscription payment fails                                             |
| Cancel subscription                  | Canceling subscriptions disables creating new invoices for the subscription and stops automatic collection of all invoices from the subscription by setting `auto_advance` to `false`. *When you cancel a subscription, the Automation immediately stops running.* | Subscription payment fails                                             |
| Mark invoice uncollectible           | The customer is unlikely to pay this invoice and you want to treat it as bad debt in your accounting process.                                                                                                                                                      | - Subscription payment fails
  - Invoice finalized
  - Invoice overdue |
| Send team email                      | Email a custom memo, along with details about the trigger to a team member or internal email address.                                                                                                                                                              | All triggers                                                           |
| Send subscription cancellation email | Email a cancellation confirmation to your customers. You also have the option to include a survey link to collection cancellation reasons.                                                                                                                         | Subscription is canceled                                               |
| Send `invoice.will_be_due` webhook   | You can schedule this webhook to be triggered with custom delays to get reminders about an invoice that’s about to be due.                                                                                                                                         | Invoice due date is set                                                |

## Manage and edit your automations

This section describes how to priority order and pause or stop automations. These actions help make sure your automations run as expected.

### Priority ordering

You can configure multiple automations for the same trigger, but each event only triggers one automation. When an event occurs that applies to multiple automations, Stripe checks their filter conditions in priority order and runs the first one that matches. All other automations are ignored.

If an automation executes, it ignores your global settings.

- **Scenario A**: You create an automation for the `Subscription payment fails` event with no conditions applied. In this scenario, the automation runs every time a subscription payment fails. Your default settings for subscription payment failure won’t run.

- **Scenario B**:  You create an automation for the `Subscription payment fails` event with the condition that the invoice must be greater than 100 USD. In this scenario, the automation runs if the subscription payment fails and the invoice is over 100 USD. If a subscription payment fails and the invoice is less than 100 USD, your default settings for subscription payment failure run instead.

To change a trigger’s priority order, open the list of automations, click the overflow menu (⋯) for any of that trigger’s automations, and select **Update priority**. You can also select it from the **Actions** menu on the automation details page. In the **Set priority** panel, drag each automation to the desired position and then click **Save**.

### Pausing or stopping automations

To switch off or pause an automation, go to the [Automations tab](https://dashboard.stripe.com/test/revenue_recovery/automations) on the Revenue recovery page and turn off that automation’s toggle. If any executions are in progress for that automation, you can let them finish or immediately cancel all of them.

You can turn the automation on again at any time.