What is dunning for an ISP?
Dunning is the process of contacting subscribers about overdue payments in a defined, escalating order. For most businesses it ends with a collections agency. For an internet provider it has an extra lever the subscriber feels immediately: the service itself can be suspended, and restored the moment the account is brought current.
That lever is why dunning is an operations problem, not only a finance one. A suspension that happens late leaks revenue; one that happens by mistake creates a support call and an angry customer; a reconnection that waits until Monday morning turns a paying subscriber into a churn risk. The policy and the system that executes it matter equally.
How do you design a dunning policy?
Write the policy down before you automate it. Every ISP’s numbers differ, but the decisions are the same five:
- 1.Reminder schedule. When reminders go out relative to the due date, and in which channel: a notice before the due date, then reminders after it.
- 2.Grace period. How long a past-due account keeps full service before anything changes.
- 3.Suspension threshold. The aging point — and, if you want one, a minimum balance — at which service is suspended.
- 4.Reconnection rule. Restore service on confirmed payment, not on a promise to pay, and at any hour, not only during business hours.
- 5.Exceptions. Accounts that are never auto-suspended or that get a longer runway: active payment plans, open billing disputes, medical or hardship flags, commercial accounts on contract.
- DueSep 01
- ReminderSep 08
- SuspendedSep 15
- Paid via linkSep 18 14:02
- ReconnectedSep 18 14:04
The single most common failure is not the schedule — it is the gap between the rule and the network. If a person has to read an aging report and then suspend accounts by hand, the policy only runs when that person has time.
What is the difference between soft and firm collections?
Soft collections assume the subscriber intends to pay: a friendly reminder, a direct link, a question about whether the due date still works. Most past-due accounts are not bad payers — they are forgetful, distracted, or waiting for an arrangement nobody offered them. Soft collections should resolve the majority of cases.
Firm collections begin when soft steps have not worked: a clear statement of the balance, the suspension date and what happens next. The tone stays calm and factual. The goal is still payment, not escalation.
Payment plans sit between the two. Splitting a balance — part today, the rest on a set date — often recovers money that would otherwise age into a write-off. Two rules keep plans honest: take the first payment at the moment the plan is agreed, and exempt accounts on an active plan from automatic suspension until a scheduled payment is missed.
How should suspension and reconnection work?
Suspension should be a change in service state that your billing system triggers directly, not a ticket for the network team. On fixed wireless and many fiber networks that means updating the subscriber’s RADIUS profile, often with a Change of Authorization (CoA) so the change takes effect on the live session; on fiber it can also mean a change at the OLT or ONU.
Reconnection is where most operators lose goodwill. It should fire on a confirmed payment — cleared, not promised — and it should run at 2 AM on a Sunday the same as on a Tuesday afternoon. Many operators also redirect suspended subscribers to a payment page instead of cutting them off entirely, so the fastest path back online is paying.
| ID | Event | Detail | Status | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #48201 | Auto-suspend | Past due · 4 days · policy DUNN-04 | Suspended | −1 service |
| #48202 | Auto-reconnect | ACH payment cleared · $74.00 | Reconnected | 2 min |
| #48203 | Cycle invoicing | Taxes, USF and E911 applied · emailed | Issued | 2,418 docs |
| #48204 | Payment reconciled | Paid via reminder link · matched to invoice | Cleared | +$74.00 |
How do you make it easy for subscribers to pay?
Every step between the reminder and the payment loses some subscribers. The shortest path is paying inside the message that asked for it: pay-by-text, where the subscriber confirms a stored method or follows a secure link from the SMS itself.
- Offer the methods subscribers already use: ACH bank debit, credit and debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- Store payment methods securely so the next cycle is one confirmation instead of re-entering a card.
- Encourage autopay at signup and after every successful recovery — it prevents the next past-due cycle.
- Reconcile payments against the invoice automatically, so a paid account is never suspended because a payment sat unmatched.
See how the billing and collections agent sends reminders and your payment links, and how the platform reconciles and reconnects.
What compliance rules apply to ISP collections?
This section is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state and by service type — confirm your policy with counsel before you automate it.
- Calls and texts. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and FCC rules restrict autodialed, prerecorded and artificial-voice calls to wireless numbers without the called party’s prior express consent, and the FCC treats texts sent with an autodialer as calls. Subscribers can revoke consent by any reasonable means, so honor opt-outs across channels.
- Business texting. Carriers require application-to-person messages sent from ordinary 10-digit numbers to be registered as a brand and campaign through The Campaign Registry — known as 10DLC registration. Unregistered traffic is filtered or blocked.
- Notice before suspension. Some states, franchise agreements and subscriber contracts set notice requirements before service is suspended or disconnected. Build those notice windows into the schedule rather than handling them by exception.
- Outside collection agencies. If you hand accounts to a third-party agency, federal and state debt collection rules apply to how that agency contacts your subscribers.
Which collections metrics should an ISP track?
Five numbers tell you whether the policy is working. Track them every cycle, and compare cycles rather than reading any one in isolation.
| Metric | What it measures | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Collection rate | Share of the billed cycle collected, measured at a fixed point after the due date | The headline number for the whole policy |
| Days sales outstanding (DSO) | Average days between invoice and payment | Rising DSO signals friction before balances age into write-offs |
| Suspension rate | Share of accounts suspended in a cycle | Too high means soft steps are failing; too low may mean rules are not enforced |
| Time to reconnect | Minutes from confirmed payment to restored service | Directly drives repeat calls and churn after a suspension |
| Payment-plan kept rate | Share of scheduled plan payments made on time | Shows whether plan terms are realistic |
Where does Inerxia fit?
The Inerxia Operating System suspends and reconnects automatically on your own dunning rules — the aging thresholds, grace periods and exceptions you set — and reconnection fires on confirmed payment at any hour.
Inerxia works with the payment processor you already use. Reminders carry your own payment link, and when your processor confirms the payment the platform reconciles it against the invoice you already issued.
The billing and collections agent sends reminders, runs soft and firm collections and negotiates payment plans over voice and text, sends your payment link in the same conversation, and the platform restores service as soon as your processor confirms the payment.