Newspack uses Woo to process your reader-revenue payments through Stripe. This means all account management should be done through Newspack’s WooCommerce menus, and not through Stripe’s interface.

This is important because Woo sends all account information to Stripe, but Stripe sends only some information to Woo. So if you make changes directly in Stripe, it may not be reflected in Woo on your site, causing problems for you and your donors or financial subscribers.

It’s important to become familiar with the language used by Woo. We have a page that explains some basic terms and what happens when a payment is made.

On this page, we’ll explain ways in which you can manage accounts. Links to the right will jump down the page to the appropriate section.

Taking action on an account

Send an email to reset password or get an authentication link

Your Customers and Subscribers can change their password themselves on their My Account page. (Tip: Once on your site, the reader can add /my-account at the end of the URL to get to that page). But you may get a request from someone asking you to help them.

Every Customer and Subscriber can be sent an email to help them access their account. From the main Users list (not a submenu under Woo), use the search box in the top right to find the person. When hovering over their name, you’ll see the option to send the password reset.

You can also send them an authentication link, sometimes called a “magic link” that will log them in. This doesn’t change the password.

Refund a payment

Refunds are processed from the Order list, a submenu under Woo.

  1. From that list, search for the person’s name using the search box in the upper right corner.
  2. Click on the Order number in the first column.
  3. On the resulting page, scroll down to the Item area, in the main part of the page.
  4. Click on “Refund” in the lower left corner.
  5. In the fields that open, you can make a full refund or a partial refund by filling in the “Refund amount” field.
  6. Click “Refund $XXX via Stripe.

A new entry will appear in the “Order notes” section on the right to confirm. The reader will receive an email that confirms that Stripe has processed the refund.

These instructions from WooCommerce include a video tutorial.

Important note: If this refund was made because someone accidentally made a recurring donation or payment, follow this procedure to cancel any future charges. Making a refund only affects a single, completed payment.

Cancel or pause a subscription

A Subscription will charge your reader at a regular interval, usually each month or annually. Canceling a subscription will cancel future payments. However, canceling a subscription will not issue a refund for previous payments. For that, follow this procedure after canceling the subscription.

  1. Go to the Subscriptions list, a submenu under Woo
  2. Search for the reader’s name or email using the search box in the upper right corner.
  3. Hovering over the green “Active” button in the first column will show options to either
    • indefinitely suspend the payments, but keep the Subscription in place to allow a later restart, or
    • cancel the Subscription permanently and immediately end any Membership access.
  4. To see the details, click on the Subscription number, which starts with #. Note, don’t click on the name or email; that just takes you to their User profile.
  5. The “Subscription status” field will reflect the choice made on the previous screen. Or if you didn’t make a choice on the previous screen, you can change the status to “Cancelled,” “Pending cancellation” or “On hold” here.
    • “Cancelled” immediately ends any Membership access and the Subscription cannot be restarted.
    • “Pending cancellation” means the reader will continue to enjoy any Membership access provided by the Subscription through the time period already paid. The Subscription will cancel permanently on what would have been the next payment date.
    • “On hold” will immediately end any Membership access that the Subscription provides, such as the ability to see members-only content. But the Subscription can be restarted at any time.

Failed payments

What happens when a payment fails?

A payment can fail for a variety of reasons, but it’s not the end of the process on Newspack. WooCommerce will try again five times in the next seven days. The Order will be set to “Pending” and the Subscription will be set to “on hold.” With each new attempt, Stripe will report back to the “Order notes” section of the reader’s Subscription whether it succeeded or failed. If not successful after the last try, the Order is marked “failed” and the Subscription set to “on hold.”

The five tries differ in when they email the site’s owner and the subscriber. You can see the details here.

When does WooCommerce try again when a payment fails?

First try

  • WooCommerce waits 12 hours between failed payment and first retry attempt.
  • No email is sent to the subscriber.
  • “Payment Retry” email is sent to store owners (if enabled) to notify of failed payment and scheduled retry attempt. No action is needed on the part of the publisher for the retry to take place.
  • Order’s status is set to Pending.
  • Subscription’s status is set to On-hold.

Second try

  • WooCommerce waits another 12 hours to retry.
  • “Customer Payment Retry” is sent to the subscriber (if enabled) to notify of failed payment and scheduled retry attempt. No action is needed on the part of the subscriber for the retry to take place; but this lets them know so they can check with their credit-card company or review their card on file.
  • “Payment Retry” email is sent to store owners.
  • Order’s status unchanged.
  • Subscription’s status unchanged.

Third try

  • WooCommerce waits another 24 hours to retry.
  • No email is sent to the subscriber.
  • “Payment Retry” email is sent to store owners.
  • Order’s status unchanged.
  • Subscription’s status unchanged.

Fourth try

  • WooCommerce waits another 48 hours to retry.
  • “Customer Payment Retry” email is sent to the subscriber, same as second try.
  • “Payment Retry” is sent to store owners, same as above.
  • Order’s status unchanged.
  • Subscription’s status unchanged.

Fifth try

  • WooCommerce waits another 72 hours.
  • “Customer Payment Retry” email is sent to the customer.
  • “Payment Retry” email is sent to store owners.
  • Order’s status unchanged.
  • Subscription’s status unchanged.

After the fifth retry is processed and fails, the renewal order is marked “Failed” and the customer is sent the “Customer Renewal Invoice” email, if enabled.

Where can I track the retries?

On the reader’s individual Subscription. It shows the time until the next try in the right column under “Billing Schedule.”

In the list of Orders.

In a WooCommerce report called Failed Payment Retry.

Support Home

On this page:

Reader Revenue Table of Contents