Platform setup

Getting started

How Recova works

Recova integrates with your Stripe account to monitor failed payments. When a payment fails, Recova receives notification via Stripe webhook within seconds, categorizes it by decline type, and initiates a recovery sequence automatically.

Recovery sequences combine AI-written emails with payment retries. The sequence timing varies based on decline type. If payment recovers, remaining steps cancel. When sequences complete without recovery, the payment is marked failed unrecovered with notification to you.

Recova processes every failed payment automatically, though you can intervene on any payment from your dashboard.

Connecting your Stripe account

You connect Stripe once using OAuth. Recova requires read/write access. Write access enables invoice retries on your behalf.

Steps:

1. 01Go to /connect or click Connect Stripe in your onboarding checklist.
2. 02Click Connect with Stripeand you will be redirected to Stripe's authorization page.
3. 03Select your Stripe account and authorize access.
4. 04You are redirected to your Recova dashboard. Monitoring begins immediately.

Disconnecting Stripe

Navigate to Settings → Stripe Connection and click Disconnect. You will confirm the action. After disconnecting, Recova stops monitoring that account and pauses active recovery sequences. Reconnecting restarts monitoring but does not resume paused sequences.

Initial setup

Configure these three elements before your first payment failure for optimal performance.

Sender name

Go to Settings → Email. Set the name appearing in the From field of recovery emails. This pre-fills from your Google account name if you signed up with Google. Change it to a name your customers recognize, typically your first name or company name.

Reply-to email

Also in Settings → Email. Set the reply-to address for recovery emails. Customers who reply will reach this inbox. Use a monitored address, as replying customers often try to fix their payment.

Brand voice

Go to Settings → Brand Voice. Select a voice matching your company's communication style. You can set one voice for all emails or different voices per decline category.

What happens when your first payment fails

No action is required. The entire sequence runs automatically.

Process:

1. 01Stripe fires an invoice.payment_failed webhook to Recova within seconds.
2. 02Recova reads the decline code and classifies the failure as soft, expired, network, or fraud.
3. 03Recova creates a recovery record and schedules steps based on decline type.
4. 04The payment appears in your dashboard under Active payments.
5. 05At the scheduled time, the first step runs. An AI-generated recovery email sends.
6. 06If payment recovers at any point, all remaining steps cancel. You receive notification if enabled.

See the Recovery guide for how to manage payments, read sequences, and understand your dashboard.

Additional features

Expiring card alerts

Once per day, Recova scans all cards across your connected Stripe account for any expiring within the next 30 days. Customers who have not been alerted receive an email with a direct link to update their card in Stripe's Billing Portal before any payment fails.

Expiring card emails use a fixed template, not AI generation. Enable Expiring card notificationsin Settings → Notifications to also receive an alert yourself when these go out.

Win-back sequences

When a customer cancels, Recova checks for a recent unrecovered failed payment. If one exists, the cancellation was involuntary and the existing recovery sequence continues. No win-back is created.

If no recent failed payment exists, the cancellation was voluntary. A 3-email sequence starts automatically at 1 hour, 4 days, and 14 days after cancellation.

If the customer resubscribes, Recova matches the event to the win-back sequence and records the reactivation. Your dashboard shows the count attributed to win-back in the selected date range.

Weekly digest

Every Monday morning, Recova sends a digest summarizing the previous week: failures detected, recoveries, total recovered revenue, and recovery rate for the week.

Enable it in Settings → Notifications → Weekly digest. You can send the digest to a separate email address from your regular notification address.

Slack notifications

Recova can post a notification to a Slack channel when a payment is recovered.

1. 01Go to api.slack.com/apps and create a new app for your workspace.
2. 02Enable Incoming Webhooks and add a webhook to your desired channel.
3. 03Copy the webhook URL.
4. 04Go to Recova Settings → Notifications and paste the URL into the Slack webhook field. Save.

Free lost-revenue audit

Available at /audit without a Recova account. Connects read-only to Stripe, pulls 90 days of failed payment history, and shows what you have lost and what recovery would have returned.

The audit connection is separate from your main Recova Stripe connection and uses read-only access only. Share the link with colleagues or use it to evaluate the opportunity before committing to a paid plan.

Settings reference

Email settings

Found in Settings → Email.

Brand voice

Controls the tone of every AI-generated recovery email. Set one global voice, or a different voice for each decline category. The system uses the most specific voice available. If no category-specific voice is set, the global voice applies.

Merchant context

Three optional fields that feed additional signal into the AI prompt for every recovery email. All improve output quality when set.

Notifications

All email notifications go to the Notification email address, which defaults to your signup email. The weekly digest can go to a separate address set in the Digest email field.

• Recovery. Email when a payment in a recovery sequence is successfully paid.
• Sequence complete. Email when all steps complete without recovery.
• Win-back. Email on win-back activity.
• Expiring cards. Email when an expiring card alert goes out to a customer.
• Slack. Posts to your Slack channel on recovery.
• Weekly digest. Monday morning recovery summary for the previous week.

Team

The Team section is at the bottom of Settings. It shows all current members of your account with their role (Owner or Member) and status (Active or Pending).

Inviting a team member

1. 01Enter the team member's email address in the invite field and click Send invite.
2. 02They receive an email with a link valid for 7 days.
3. 03If they already have a Recova account, clicking the link adds them immediately. If not, the link takes them through signup and then adds them.

Removing a team member

Click Remove next to any member who is not the account owner. You will be asked to confirm. Removed members lose access immediately.

Roles

Owners can manage billing, connect or disconnect Stripe, invite and remove members, and delete the account. Members can view and use the dashboard, payments, and sequence pages but cannot change billing, team, or Stripe connection.

Billing and subscription

Recovery and Disputes are outcome-priced: 20% of payments Recova recovers each month, and 20% of disputes Recova wins, invoiced at the start of the following month. Intelligence is a flat monthly subscription. Audit is always free.

Cancellation

Go to Settings → Account and disconnect your Stripe account or cancel the applicable subscription. You retain access through the end of the current billing period.

Account deletion

Go to Settings → Account → Delete account. Permanent. All data is deleted and cannot be recovered.