Skip to main content

Managing Failed Payments

Failed payments are a reality for any membership-based business, but Clubworx gives you several tools to handle them efficiently — whether you're dealing with one member or many.

Updated yesterday

This guide covers how to manage failed payments for individual members, process them in bulk, and set up proactive measures to reduce how often they happen in the first place.
​
In this article, we'll discuss:
​Handling a failed payment for an Individual Member
​Managing Failed Payments In Bulk
​Proactive Ways to Reduce Failed Payments

Handling a Failed Payment for an Individual Member

View a Member’s Payment Status

To check a member’s payment status:

  • Search for the member using the Search bar, or

  • Navigate to the People tab and open their profile

If a payment has failed, it will be clearly flagged on their profile.
​


Easily ​Identify Failed Payments

To view all failed payments for a member:

  1. Go to the Payments tab within their profile

  2. Use the Present Search filter at the top

  3. Select All Failures

Tip:
If a member is being notified of a failed payment during booking, this is a quick way to uncover any past failed payments that may have gone unnoticed.
​Please note: If a member is being notified that they have a failed payment when booking, this is a great way to identify any past failed payments that might have gone undetected.

Reschedule a Payment

To retry a failed payment at a later date:

  1. Click the calendar icon next to the failed payment

  2. Select a new date from the calendar

  • The earliest available date is the next day

  • You can choose any future date​

Mark a Payment as Paid (External Methods)

If the member has already paid outside of autopayments:

  1. Click the three dots (⋯) at the end of the payment row

  2. Select the appropriate option:

  • Mark as Paid (Cash) — for cash payments

  • Mark as Paid (POS) — for payments via your terminal

  • Mark as Paid (Other) — for external payment providers not linked to Clubworx

Retry Now

To process the payment right away:

  1. Click the three dots (⋯) next to the payment

  2. Select Retry Now

This will process the payment as a one-off credit card charge.

  • If the member has saved card details, you can use those or enter new ones

  • If no card is saved, you will be prompted to enter card details before processing

Managing Failed Payments in Bulk

If you have multiple failed payments to deal with at once, the Payments tab gives you a business-wide view that makes bulk rescheduling straightforward.
​

  1. Go to the Payments tab at the top of the site.

  2. Use the From and To date pickers to select the relevant time period.

  3. Click Filter, then disable all statuses except Failed to view only payments that require attention.


    Rescheduling payments

    • Individually: Click the calendar icon next to a payment and choose a new date.

    • In bulk: Select the checkboxes beside multiple payments, then choose a new date using the reschedule field at the top of the list.
      ​

    Once rescheduled, the payment status will automatically change to Upcoming, and the system will retry them on the new date. The History column will continue to show the original scheduled date and the number of collection attempts made.
    ​

    Important note

    To view payments that previously failed but have already been automatically rescheduled, filter by the status Upcoming (Auto-reschedule).

Proactive Ways to Reduce the Impact of Failed Payments

Rather than chasing failed payments reactively, Clubworx lets you put systems in place to minimise the problem from the start.
​

1. Auto-Reschedule Failed Payments

You can configure membership plans to automatically retry failed payments—no manual follow-up required. To use this feature, you’ll need a payment processor (such as Ezidebit) integrated with your account.
​

Set Up Auto-Retry for Failed Payments

  1. Go to Settings > Membership Plans

  2. Create a new plan or edit an existing one

  3. Scroll to the Auto-reschedules section

  4. Tick Re-attempt Failed Payments Automatically

  5. Configure:

    • Retry delay: How many days after a failed payment the system should retry

    • Number of attempts: Total retry attempts before stopping​

Important Considerations

  • Keep the number of retry attempts conservative

  • Each failed retry may result in a failed payment fee for your member

Applying This to Existing Members

Auto-reschedule settings won’t automatically apply to members already on a plan.
To update existing memberships, contact the Clubworx support team for assistance.

2. Prevent Members Behind on Payments from Dropping In

You can restrict members with overdue payments from booking or attending classes via your kiosk settings.


Configure Drop-In Restrictions

  1. Go to Settings > Account Profile > Kiosk / Roll Call

  2. Locate the Class Kiosk section

  3. Untick Allow drop-in bookings when member is behind on payments

  • General Kiosk: Untick Allow General Kiosk Check In when member is behind on payments?

What This Does

  • Members with outstanding payments will be blocked from making drop-in bookings

  • Helps ensure payments are up to date before accessing classes
    ​
    Members will also be unable to make bookings through the website calendar or the mobile app if they have outstanding payments.
    ​

3. Send a Pre-Filled Payment Authority Waiver

If a payment fails due to outdated card or bank details, you can make it easy for members to update their information by sending them a pre-filled payment authority waiver.


How to Send a Waiver

You have two options:

  • From the member’s profile

    1. Open the member’s profile

    2. Go to the Waiver tab

    3. Send the pre-filled payment authority waiver
      ​

  • Using automations
    Set up an automation to send the waiver automatically when certain conditions are met (see Automations section below).
    ​

4. Automate Failed Payment Notifications

Set up an automation to notify members as soon as a payment fails—so you don’t have to follow up manually.
​


Create a Failed Payment Automation

  1. Go to Automations > + New Automation

  2. Select Payment Failure as the trigger

You can create a multi-step automation that includes both email and SMS notifications.
​

Communication Options

  • Email

  • SMS

These can be:

  • Sent at the same time, or

  • Staggered over time (e.g. hours or days apart)

If sending multiple emails, space them at least a few hours apart to avoid spam filters.

Optional: Include a Payment Update Waiver

You can also add a step that sends a pre-filled payment authority waiver, allowing members to update their payment details quickly and independently.
​

Finalise and Activate

  1. Review your automation steps

  2. Click Save

  3. Enable it using the toggle on the Automations page

For further help, contact the Clubworx support team at support@clubworx.com.


​

Related Articles
How to automatically reschedule failed payments
My Members Payment Status is "Failed: Add Payment Denied - Only active customers can have payments added to their schedule" but they are active?
[Australia/New Zealand] Your members can retry failed payments via the member app with Ezidebit!
Managing Membership Payments in Clubworx Member Profiles
Payments Overview
Did this answer your question?