Glossary of Phoenix Terms

This glossary introduces the core concepts you work with in Phoenix. Use it as a reference while setting up stores, managing subscriptions, and processing payments.

A

• Abandoned Cart

  An initiated checkout that was not completed. Phoenix captures these sessions to support recovery strategies and conversion analysis.

• Add-on

  An extra charge attached to an existing subscription. Add-ons can represent premium features, additional services, or upgrades that increase the total subscription cost.

B

• Billing Attempt

  A payment request sent to a gateway during a subscription charge, retry, or manual payment.

• Billing Profile

  A secure record that stores a customer’s payment method for future charges. Phoenix tokenizes this information for renewals, retries, and compliance.

C

• Chargeback

  A dispute initiated by a customer through their bank or card issuer. Phoenix tracks dispute status, deadlines, and reason codes.

• Checkout

  The interface where customers enter billing details and purchase a product. Phoenix processes and stores this data to automatically handle future renewals and retries.

• Collection

  A group of products organized for sales or checkout flows within a store.

• Customer Token

  A secure identifier used to associate a billing profile with future charge attempts. Tokens replace sensitive card data and are PCI compliant.

D

• Decline Code

  A response from a gateway indicating why a charge failed. Phoenix interprets these codes for retry logic, salvage, and reporting.

• Dispute

  A payment challenge filed by an issuer. Phoenix does not decide outcomes but tracks case data, statuses, and deadlines across processors.

• Downgrade

  A change to a subscription that moves the customer to a lower-cost or lower-tier offering. Downgrades may impact pricing, benefits, or billing frequency.

G

• Gateway

  A payment service that processes charge attempts and returns approval or decline responses. Phoenix routes transactions to the correct gateway based on store rules.

• Grace Period

  A configured timeframe in which a subscription remains active after a failed payment. During this period, Phoenix continues recovery attempts while allowing customer access.

M

Meta Conversion API

A Phoenix report that displays purchase events sent to Meta (Facebook) for advertising optimization and attribution.

O

Order

A completed purchase created after a successful transaction. Orders document what was billed and delivered.

P

• Processor

  A financial network behind a gateway responsible for approving or denying charges. Phoenix reads processor codes to generate retries and analytics.

• Product

  An item or subscription plan offered for sale in a store. Products define pricing, billing intervals, and configuration rules.

• Processing Logic

  Automated rules used by Phoenix to renew subscriptions, retry payments, apply salvage, and update analytics without manual effort.

R

• Recovery Strategy

  A store configuration that sets how failed subscription charges should be retried, salvaged, paused, or canceled.

• Renewal

  A scheduled charge that keeps a subscription active. Phoenix handles renewals automatically based on store billing rules and subscription configuration.

S

• Salvage

  A configurable set of payment retry actions triggered after a subscription charge fails. Salvage attempts aim to recover revenue before cancellation.

• Store

  A business entity within Phoenix that defines rules for billing, gateways, products, taxes, and subscriptions. All transactions and profiles belong to a store.

• Subscription

  A recurring plan assigned to a customer. Phoenix manages renewals, billing dates, trials, pauses, and cancellations automatically.

• Subscription Rules

  A store-level control that defines how renewals, trials, retries, grace periods, and cancellations should behave.

T

• Token

  A secure identifier that replaces real payment information. Tokens allow renewals and billing updates without storing sensitive payment data directly.

• Transaction

  A payment attempt submitted through a gateway. Every transaction includes its response code, routing, and technical data used for support and analytics.

• Trial

  A free or discounted period before a subscription begins billing. Phoenix automatically converts trials to paid subscriptions unless cancellation rules are configured.

U

Upgrade

A change that moves a subscription to a higher-tier or more expensive plan. Upgrades may affect immediate billing or apply at the next renewal depending on store settings.

W

Webhook

A notification Phoenix sends to external systems when an event occurs, such as a successful payment, renewal, or dispute update.