Track Failed Payments in Express
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 Express 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 npm install @quicklog/sdk and a tracking call in your route handlers, 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 Express app.
Why track this?
- Instant alerts on payment failures
- See the failure reason and amount at risk
- Reduce involuntary churn significantly
Quick setup
Install the SDK:
npm install @quicklog/sdkAdd tracking to your Express app:
const { Quicklog } = require('@quicklog/sdk')
const ql = new Quicklog(process.env.QUICKLOG_API_KEY)
// Track Failed Payments
await ql.track({
channel: 'payments',
event: 'payment.failed',
description: 'Describe what happened',
user: {
id: user.id,
email: user.email,
name: user.name
},
metadata: {
// Add relevant context here
}
})Express tips
- Add tracking in your Stripe webhook handler before sending the 200 response
- Include request ID and timestamp for correlating failures with your logs
- Set up webhook retry handling with idempotency keys to avoid duplicate alerts
Ready to track failed payments?
Set up in under 5 minutes. See events in your dashboard instantly.