Membership Policy is where an organization says how its membership runs, once, instead of typing the same decisions onto every record. It is the membership counterpart of Employer Policy, and it sits under Members › Membership Policy.

A default that grants something is deliberately set to nothing. An organization that has not said how long it waits before a membership lapses should not have the product deciding for it, and a visibly empty box you have to fill in is better than a number that was guessed and is quietly wrong.

Joining

Two things about a record that is about to be created.

Membership numbers
A prefix, how many digits, and where counting starts. The next number is shown on the page as you change the format, so you can see what you are about to issue.
New records
The membership type and the standing a new record starts on. Both can still be changed on the record before it is saved.
A number typed by hand is never touched.

The format only fills the gap when a number was not given, which is how an organization brings its existing numbers across. Counting reads the digits after the prefix, so adding a prefix later carries on from where the plain numbers stopped rather than starting again at one.

Starting new records as Inactive suits an organization that admits people formally: the record exists, dues are not charged, and the portal is not offered until somebody changes the standing.

Membership types

A type is the kind of membership somebody holds and what it costs. Members › Membership Types holds the list: a name, an optional internal description, the dues amount, how often they are charged — one time, monthly, quarterly, every six months or yearly — the order it appears in selection lists, and whether it is still offered for new members.

A type with no dues is free.

Zero dues creates no billing relationship at all: no invoice, no reminder, nothing to go unpaid. Most organizations have at least one.

Because the cost lives on the type rather than on each member, changing what a Full membership costs does not mean editing everybody who holds one. Retiring a type leaves it on the members who already hold it and stops it being offered for new ones; deleting it leaves those members without a type and never deletes a person.

Renewal dates are anchored to the day somebody joined and each cycle is measured from that anchor, so a membership that began on 31 January does not drift to the 28th and stay there.

Dues and renewal

What each type costs and how often it is charged belongs to Membership Types. This tab is about when the charge happens.

Raise dues automatically
On by default. Dues are queued by the same nightly run that raises every other invoice, so a member’s dues land on the same invoice as anything else they owe that day. Off means nothing is charged until somebody presses Charge dues on a record.
Raise this many days early
How far ahead of the renewal date the invoice goes out. 0 follows the general billing setting, which is what this read before the page existed.
Remind this many days before
A note that renewal is coming, ahead of the invoice itself. 0 means none, and the invoice is the first anyone hears of it.
Dues depend on the scheduler.

Nothing is charged automatically unless the daily automation is running. See Automation and scheduler.

Dues are billed to the client account attached to the membership. A membership with no client account is skipped and shown on its own record rather than failing the run for everybody else. A single membership can also be paused from its own record without switching charging off for everyone.

Standing

The lapsed standing existed from the day the level shipped and nothing ever set it: an organization had to notice an unpaid membership itself. This tab is the rule that does it, and it is deliberately narrow.

  • Only an active membership ever lapses, and only when you have asked for it.
  • Only an unpaid dues invoice counts. Any other unpaid invoice is a purchase, and somebody who has not paid for a book has not stopped being a member.
  • The grace period runs from the day the invoice fell due, not from the day it was sent, so thirty days means thirty days late.
  • Nothing is archived, deleted or unlinked. A lapsed membership keeps its record, its history and its sign-in.
  • Only a membership this rule lapsed comes back on its own when the dues are settled. One you marked lapsed yourself stays exactly as you left it.

Standing is reviewed on the same nightly run that raises the dues, straight after the charges, so a membership invoiced today is not judged overdue tonight. A grace period of 0 means memberships never lapse on their own, and lapsing cannot be switched on without one.

Lapsing removes standing, not access.

A lapsed member can still sign in. That is what lets somebody pay and put it right without needing you.

Self service

What each member sees when they sign in. Everything here is about their own record and nobody else’s.

Contact details
Phone and address only. Standing, type and membership number are never editable from the portal. Off means the form is not offered at all, rather than shown and then refused.
Dues and renewal
The amount, the cycle and the next renewal date.
Giving history
What was given and when, which is what somebody needs at the end of a tax year. A gift recorded as anonymous is still shown to the person who gave it.
Documents
Everything attached to the record becomes visible to the person it is about, so check what is filed there before switching this on.

Email addresses are not on this tab. Those are given out one person at a time on each record, and how many is set under Webmail.

What changes when you save

Policy applies from the moment it is saved. Memberships already on the books keep the numbers and the standing they have; nothing is renumbered or re-judged retrospectively.