Subscription & Recurring Revenue Logic in GoHighLevel
Want to lock down your subscription logic and minimize revenue leakage?
TLDR: Recurring revenue is stronger than one-time sales—but only if your billing system, automations, and failover logic are solid. This post covers how to handle payment status changes, dunning, upgrades, pauses, and retention flows in GoHighLevel.
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Why recurring logic is core, not optional
- Subscription income is sustainable vs front-loaded sales
- You need systems to manage churn, failed payments, upgrades, and reactivations
- Poor logic means revenue leaks, angry customers, adoption drop-offs
Key billing & subscription states you must manage
- Active — payments are current
- Grace / Trial — trial or grace period before cancellation
- Past due / failed — payment issues need recovery logic
- Paused / suspended — temporary holds for accounts
- Cancelled / lapsed — full termination and/or reactivation flows
- Upgrades / downgrades — changing tiers mid-subscription
Core automations & flows to build
- Onboarding & welcome — after signup, deliver access, orientation
- Renewal reminders — before next billing date, warn about upcoming charge
- Failed payment recovery (dunning) — retry logic, notifications, downgrade paths
- Pause / suspension — temporary holds and messaging for expired accounts
- Upgrade / downgrade paths — allow customers to shift tiers smoothly
- Cancellation flows — offer retention paths, exit surveys, win-back sequences
- Reactivation / win-back campaigns — target former users to return
Example flow (generic)
- Customer signs up for Premium – $79/month
- Automatic onboarding email + access tag
- 2 days before renewal → friendly reminder email
- If payment fails → “payment failed” notice + retry
- After 3 retries → pause account, notify user
- If paused > 30 days → move to lapsed state
- Offer a “come back” discount via reactivation sequence
Common pitfalls
- Not handling failed payments → revenue leaks
- No downgrade logic → customers stuck without flexibility
- No retention offers → high churn
- No reactivation campaigns → lost opportunity
- Hard-coded logic that’s not tagged-based