Changing Membership Levels / Billing For Member
You can change the membership level and type of billing for your members at any time.
- Click on the Members card to open the account
- Click on Membership Billing
- From here you can see your members’ current membership level, add-on(s), expiration date and billing method. To make changes click on the Update button.
- To select a different membership level click on the drop down menu to pick the new level
- To select/deselect an add-on simply click the checkbox next to the add-on(s)
You will now need to select a billing option which in most cases will be the system's default Manual/Unassigned billing option.
Continue reading below to determine the best option for your needs.
Manual / Unassigned Billing (recommended)
When making changes to a member's billing it is usually best practice to select “manual/unassigned billing”. You will see this is the default option selected when making billing changes to your members account. Manual/unassigned billing serves simply as an administrative placeholder allowing you to make changes to the members billing without needing to process a payment on the members behalf.
Note that members do not see the reference to the manual/unassigned billing option. Rather, when the member is due for renewal they will simply select one of the billing options you have made available for the membership level.
Automatic Recurring Credit Card Billing
If your member is currently on automatic recurring credit card billing it may be possible to retain the card on file when making changes to their membership level/add-on(s). To attempt to retain the card on file when making the change follow these steps:
- Follow steps 1-5 above to first make the necessary changes
- Check the box next to the automatic recurring credit card billing option
- Check the box “migrate billing _ use existing payment method on file (no charge/pro-rating)”
- Click Save
Credit Card (non-automatic)
You should not select a non-automatic credit card billing option as an admin unless you are processing payment on the members behalf. For this reason we recommend you select the “manual/unassigned” billing option mentioned above.
Offline Billing
You will see these billing options If your membership level(s) offer offline billing (e.g. pay by check/cash/etc).. However, in general you should not select the offline billing option as an admin even if your member is paying offline - select the “manual/unassigned” billing option instead.
When selecting an offline billing option as the admin, there are 2 settings:
- Payment due for current period
- Current period end date
The values in these fields are processed and stored in the members account as a balance due. This balance due will then be included in the member’s next renewal payment. This will affect dynamic billing calculations - such as for upgrades, downgrades, late renewals, etc - which can often lead to unexpected billing amounts.
To avoid unexpected results, it’s best to select the “manual/unassigned” billing option to allow our system to calculate the renewal amounts normally.
Send New Member Welcome Email
When making changes to your members membership billing you will see an option to send the new member welcome email. This may be tempting to do when working with a member who may have misplaced their original welcome email. However, note that current security practices require that all passwords that are stored in the database be stored in a form that is irreversibly encrypted. ie. Once the password is set and stored, nobody is able to figure out what the plain text password is from the stored password, not even us. So the only time we are able to send the password in an email is when the password is being set at the same time. The password for the account is set/reset under the following circumstances:
1. When the account is created and the original welcome email is sent
2. When the user requests a new password
3. When the user or admin sets a password through the Member Manage or Member Admin form
When an admin switches membership levels for a member the password for the account is not being reset, so we have no way to show the password in the email because we do not know what it is. That would mean if you opt to send the new member welcome email to an existing member they would receive the email but the [password] tag included in the email would be shown as *******.
If you are switching membership levels as part of an approval process, we recommend that you send out the password with the welcome email that is sent during application, and remove the password from the welcome email of the approved membership level. Users can always access their account even while the application is pending, the important thing is to block their access to membership benefits - such as listing in the directory, member only tickets, member only content, etc. All of which can be accomplished by limiting access to specific membership levels or folders.
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