# Sample answer: where did we decide to retry failed payments?

A fictional result of the Where did we decide that? recipe: the decision, who made it, a citation, and whether the code still matches.

> [!info]
> **Fictional example.** Tally and the Fernbrook team are invented. This shows the shape of what the *Where did we decide that?* recipe produces.

## The answer

On 12 May the team decided to retry a failed card payment **three times**, two days apart, then mark the invoice *needs attention* and stop. Sam Okafor accepted it after a review with Priya Shah.

> [!quote]
> “Retry three times at two-day intervals. After the third failure, stop retrying, notify the freelancer, and leave the client's card alone.”
>
> Engineering · Payments · Decision: retry failed payments three times, then stop

## Does the code still match?

| Part of the decision | In the code | Matches? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Three retries | MAX\_RETRIES = 3 in lib/billing/retry.ts | Yes |
| Two days apart | RETRY\_DELAY = 48 hours | Yes |
| Notify the freelancer after the last one | Sends a needs-attention email | Yes |
| Stop retrying after the third | A fourth retry is scheduled for annual plans | No |

> [!warning]
> **Drift.** Annual plans get a fourth retry, added in a later pull request with no note in onecell. Either it was a deliberate exception that needs recording, or a bug. Worth asking Sam.

## First-week questions log

- [x] Where did we decide to retry failed payments? Answered above.
- [ ] Is the fourth retry for annual plans intended?