Understand recovery for an earlier subscription payment¶
An earlier subscription payment request can remain saved even when its checkout cannot be safely continued. That record can prevent another subscription quote. Recovery investigates the original request and, in a narrowly approved case, retires it while preserving its payment history.
Availability: this recovery is disabled by default and currently limited to an explicitly approved staging test case. It is not a generally available production recovery option. The intended screen family is still being checked against Final Screens, so this page explains the rules and outcomes without prescribing unverified screen steps.
Choose the right kind of help¶
Several payment problems have different recovery paths:
| Situation | Relevant explanation |
|---|---|
| You need to check an original hosted payment or a payment that may have succeeded | Check the original hosted payment. |
| A failed or expired payment qualifies for a linked replacement using its original terms | Subscription checkout retry. |
| A saved, noninitial subscription request blocks a new quote and qualifies for the guarded investigation | The saved-checkout recovery explained here. |
| An initial workspace payment has not completed workspace preparation or access | Workspace creation and payment and the original checkout's status. |
| Money may have arrived after an earlier request was retired | Keep the original reference and obtain payment review before considering another quote. |
The guarded path does not create a replacement checkout. An ordinary retry preserves original terms; a separate new quote is reviewed at current terms. Keep those decisions distinct when explaining the request to an administrator or support team.
Who can request recovery¶
A current organization administrator must act in the correct workspace. The platform checks the administrator's account, current membership and workspace authority again during processing. Knowing a payment reference, having an old administrator session or holding platform staff read access does not confer recovery authority.
The workspace must be active or suspended specifically for billing. Initial workspace subscription payments use their own completion and recovery process. Changing accounts, workspaces or permissions during an investigation can prevent the saved request from being released.
The service's wider contract recognizes trial-conversion, renewal and plan-change requests. Its current release exception is much narrower: only the approved trial-conversion staging case can pass the configured grant. Seeing a request offered for investigation does not establish that the exception will be approved.
What happens during an investigation¶
The platform saves a recovery request tied to the earlier payment before its background investigation. A saved acknowledgement means the request was recorded. It does not mean recovery has finished.
Processing checks current authority and the original payment binding, looks for existing local payment evidence, and makes a bounded authenticated lookup of the original reference in the approved current test account. A found transaction blocks the special absence exception even when that transaction is pending or failed. A provider error, changed account or incomplete evidence keeps the request protected for review.
A missing reference in that current test account cannot prove that the historical payment was never dispatched or settled. The exception retains that uncertainty explicitly. It is not a general rule for declaring a payment unpaid.
For an allowed case, Billing first records a durable block against replaying the old checkout. Platform then checks the original payment revision, saved terms and current subscription under its own authority. Billing must receive the matching acknowledgement before recovery can be presented as confirmed. A concurrent successful payment or changed subscription can change the outcome.
Understand the result¶
| Result | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| No recovery request identified | This read found no applicable saved recovery. It is not a receipt, a complete payment audit or permission to bypass normal quote checks. |
| Earlier request can be checked | You may be able to request an investigation. The case has not yet passed all release checks. |
| Recovery is being checked | Keep the original reference and wait for a confirmed result. The saved request can still need further review. |
| Review required | Evidence, authority or the exact case grant could not support release. Ask an authorized administrator or support team to review the original request. |
| Recovery confirmed | The original intent has been retired for retry and the required owners agree. You may separately review a new quote if current permissions and commercial checks allow it. |
| Payment detected | Payment evidence for the earlier request requires review before another quote. Recovery itself does not apply that payment or issue a refund. |
| Status unavailable | The platform could not confirm the result. Refresh Billing and read the saved status before another submission. An error or timeout does not prove that no request was saved. |
The current Tenant Admin implementation presents recovery status alongside subscription actions and keeps new subscription payment and plan-change controls unavailable while a relevant recovery is unresolved. Those safeguards supplement the server's checks. A page message or a visible action is not payment acceptance.
There is no promised completion time. A slow acknowledgement, unavailable authority service or interrupted response can leave an investigation unresolved. Repeated submissions are not a way to make payment evidence disappear.
Review a new quote separately¶
Confirmed recovery preserves the earlier record and the current subscription. It does not activate a plan, change seats, change the billing period, restore product access, cancel a provider subscription, take another payment or submit a plan change.
If you decide to proceed after confirmation, review the proposed plan, seat count, billing period, price, tax, payment-method consent and any effective date through the normal quote process. Current commercial rules and administrator authority still apply. A recovery confirmation is not an offer to reuse the earlier price or silently transfer its consent to another payment.
Members and managers should continue to use the workspace's actual access status. Accepted subscription coverage, product access and an individual member's permissions remain separate from a retired payment request.
If a payment appears later¶
Retiring the local intent cannot stop an external payment that was already in progress. Exactly matched, verified late receipts are preserved against the original recovery for human review. They do not automatically fulfill the old plan, modify a later request or trigger a refund, credit or replacement charge.
Do not discard the original reference or describe the old request as definitively unpaid. A confirmed recovery may later need payment review when new evidence arrives.
Information to keep for support¶
Keep the workspace name, original payment reference, recovery reference if supplied, approximate request time, displayed result and any provider receipt reference. Explain whether you are checking an initial payment, an ordinary retry or this guarded saved-checkout investigation.
After a lost response, return to Billing's current status before starting another request. Ask support to reconcile the saved identities and evidence. Do not send passwords, session tokens, private payment links, full card details or provider credentials in an ordinary support message.