Payment Succeeded vs. Invoice Receipt email notifications
Problem statement
This article explains the difference between Invoice Receipt and Payment Succeeded email notifications and when to enable each so you can configure the right notifications for your customers.
Solution
Invoice Receipt is sent whenever an invoice is generated in Chargebee. It is sent regardless of payment status—when a subscription starts, on renewals, and when one-time invoices are created.
Payment Succeeded is sent only when payment on an invoice is successful.
Which notification to enable
Invoice Receipt — Enable this as the default. It is sent every time an invoice is generated and includes payment details and invoice status. It is also sent when customers use offline payment (auto-collection off, invoice in Payment Due).
Payment Succeeded — Enable this if you want a separate notification only when payment succeeds. It is useful for:
Offline payments — Notify customers when you record payment received (e.g., bank transfer, cash, check).
Online payments with dunning — When payment succeeds after retries, customers get a dedicated payment-success notification.
If both notifications are enabled, for online payments both can trigger at the same time (invoice generated and payment success). Chargebee’s Email prioritization feature sends only the Invoice Receipt in that case, since it includes both invoice and payment information, and avoids duplicate emails. For details, see Email workflow and prioritization.