Track Failed Payments in Rails
Never miss a failed charge again
The problem
Failed payments are silent killers of SaaS revenue. A credit card expires. A bank declines a charge. A subscription renewal fails. And unless you have built elaborate alerting into your Rails app, you might not know until the customer churns.
The typical flow is terrible: payment fails, retry fails a few days later, customer gets a dunning email they ignore, subscription cancels, customer leaves. By the time you notice, they have already found an alternative.
Most failed payments are recoverable. The customer wants to stay. They just need to update their payment method. But you need to know about the failure quickly to have a chance at saving them.
The solution
Quicklog alerts you the moment a payment fails. With a simple HTTP call and a tracking call in your controllers, you see which customer, the failure reason, and how much revenue is at risk. You can reach out immediately while the customer still remembers why they signed up.
Set up a dedicated channel for payment failures. Get notified via Slack, Discord, or email. Assign someone to follow up within hours, not days.
Track the pattern of failures too. If you see a spike in declines from a particular card type or region, you can investigate before it becomes a bigger problem in your Rails app.
Why track this?
- Instant alerts on payment failures
- See the failure reason and amount at risk
- Reduce involuntary churn significantly
Quick setup
Add tracking to your Rails app:
require 'net/http'
require 'json'
# Using Quicklog REST API
uri = URI('https://api.quicklog.io/v1/events')
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri)
request['Authorization'] = "Bearer #{ENV['QUICKLOG_API_KEY']}"
request['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
# Track Failed Payments
request.body = {
channel: 'payments',
event: 'payment.failed',
description: "#{user.name} (#{user.email}) - describe what happened",
userId: user.id,
metadata: {
# Add relevant context here
}
}.to_json
http.request(request)Track Failed Payments as an operational analytics workflow
This guide is built for teams that need actionable saas analytics, not just passive reports. By instrumenting track failed payments in Rails, you create a reliable signal that product, growth, and support can use in real time.
In Quicklog, these events become part of a shared timeline with user context, channel grouping, and trend visibility. That makes it easier to connect day-to-day operations with larger product analytics saas goals like activation quality, retention improvement, and faster troubleshooting.
If you are evaluating saas analytics tools, this use case is a strong baseline because it combines technical implementation with clear business outcomes. It also supports adjacent workflows such as analytical crm and failed payment monitoring without requiring a separate analytics stack.
Ready to track failed payments?
Set up in under 5 minutes. See events in your dashboard instantly.