Library · Payment orchestration · How to run this
Run first-try, net, and unique billing
You are measuring whether a cascade recovered orders or only multiplied auths. First-try and net share one unique-order set. Unique billing does not.
Pair: First-try vs net vs unique billing on Payment orchestration.
Pick the grain before you type
Unique orders are bills you meant to collect. One row per checkout or per rebill cycle, not per hop. Adyen’s merchant order reference is the same idea: link retries to one order.
First-try approvals are recycle 0, Initial, attempt 1. Routing lives here.
Net approvals are unique orders that billed at least once after the hops you allow. Keep the denominator as unique orders. If you drop retries into that denominator, net moves for the wrong reason.
Total attempts are gateway or CRM transaction rows, retries included. Type them when a cascade ran. Skip them on one MID with no retry — the calculator reuses unique orders.
Unique successful bills can stay blank. Blank uses net approvals. Type it only when a bill can succeed twice in the window (duplicate capture, split tender) and you need the distinct-success count.
Cascade vs one MID
This only works if you say which world you are in.
On one MID with no retry, first-try, net, and unique billing should sit together. If they do not, you counted extra auths (duplicates, AVS-only posts) as orders, or you missed approvals.
On a cascade, net should sit above first-try. Unique billing should sit below net because retries stay in the attempt count. If unique billing still matches net, your CRM already grouped declines. Type the gateway attempt file if you want the rate that still sees hops.
Do not treat a 10-point net lift as health. Hard fails sent to a second MID inflate net and can raise chargebacks. Cut hops on When retries pollute a merchant account.
After the readout
Read the three percents in order: first-try, net, unique billing. If first-try is the hole, change the first route. If net never moves, the retry list is not earning its auths. If net is fine and unique billing is not, cut hops.
Related: MIDs (every hop lands on one), payments (auth fees on those extra attempts), When retries pollute a merchant account (auths per recovered order), CRM unique declines vs gateway messages (collapsed CRM grain).
Procedure
- Name unique orders once. One row per bill, not per hop.
- Count first-try approvals (attempt 1 / Initial / recycle 0).
- Count unique orders that billed after the hops you allow. That is net.
- If a cascade ran, count total attempts including retries. That denominator is unique billing.
- Read first-try, net, then unique billing. Do not stop at net.
Failure modes
- Putting retry rows in the net denominator.
- Calling a large net lift ‘health’ while unique billing fell.
- Mixing a CRM unique-order export with a gateway attempt file in one row.
- Assuming 80% is a healthy line.
Worked example
None on this page yet. When one lands it will be a real case: what broke, the number, and what changed. Not a composite.
Glossary
- Unique billing rate
- Unique successful bills divided by attempts that still include cascade retries. Not the same as net unless retries were already collapsed.
- Net approval
- Unique orders that billed after allowed retries, still on the original unique-order set.
- First-try approval
- Unique orders approved on attempt 1. Routing is judged here, not on the retry list.
Work with us — We run this job on your accounts. Services
FAQ
- Is unique billing the same as net approval?
- No. Net uses unique orders in the denominator. Unique billing uses attempts that still include cascade retries. They match only when you did not retry, or when the CRM already grouped declines.
- Which CRM report do I copy?
- CheckoutChamp Billing Report splits Initial vs Recycle vs Total. Transaction Summary “unique products / unique declines” has already collapsed retries. Do not mix those grains in one row.
- Why not assume 80% is healthy?
- That is a slide, not this account. Type the counts. Compare first-try, net, and unique billing to each other, not to a number from this page.