Membership Renewal Process Overview
- Membership Renewal Notifications
- Renewal Form
- Front-end Renewal
- Other Renewal Process Notes
- Ready to Test Your Knowledge?
There are 4 ways a member can have their membership renewed - three of them are available to the member, and one is available to Admins only. The options for renewing a member are detailed below.
The 3 ways a member can renew themselves:
A member can renew their own membership in one of three ways:
- By paying the auto-generated Renewal invoice tied to their renewal notification
- By logging in and submitting a Renewal Form
- By logging in and using the Renew option from the My Profile page
Note: in order for any of the three ways listed above to be available, your Membership Automation switch must have been turned on by an MC Professional team member. If you aren't sure if your Membership Automation switch is on, please contact help@memberclicks.com.
1. Membership Renewal Notifications
Membership Renewal Notifications go out automatically based on a member’s expiration date. There are 3 types of notifications:
- Renewal Notifications: there are 4 opportunities prior to the member's expiration date to send renewal notifications
- Grace Period Notifications: there are 4 opportunities during the membership grace period (if applicable) to send grace period notifications
- Lapsed Notifications: there are 4 opportunities after a member's profile has lapsed to send lapsed notifications
Note:Lapsed profiles no longer have access to log in to your site as that is considered a member benefit. In order to access member benefits, they will need to renew their membership to be in good standing again.
You are able to update the timing and verbiage for these automated Renewal notifications within your MC Professional account under Database > Member Types > Edit Notifications next to each Member Type (this button will appear when you hover over any line)
Each of the notifications can be set up in days (up to 999) or in months (up to 999).
Renewal Notifications:
You can create up to 4 Renewal Notifications to go out before the expiration date in the member's profile. When the first Renewal Notification goes out, a dues invoice is auto-generated using the dues amount inside the Member Type, which starts the member's Renewal Period.
Here's an example of a renewal reminder - the link at the bottom of the message that says "Click here to pay this invoice" is automatically generated.
Here's an example of the auto-generated invoice. The member can click Pay Invoice to pay their invoice with a credit card, or Download Invoice to print the invoice off and mail it in with a check.
**IMPORTANT: Never void a renewal invoice.** If you do, the profile will be taken out of the renewal cycle and never be able to renew again. If you feel like you "need" to void a renewal invoice or you already have, please call our Help Team for instructions on what to do next. 404-879-2800
Grace Period Notifications:
You can create up to 4 Grace Period Notifications to go out before the Grace Period ends (if you don’t have a Grace Period, you’ll skip these and members will go straight from Active to Lapsed). The Grace Period notifications will also include the link to "Click here to pay this invoice."
Lapsed Notifications:
You can create up to 4 Lapsed Notifications to go out after the Grace Period Ends/Membership Lapses. The Lapsed notifications will also include the link to "Click here to pay this invoice."
Notes about the Lapsed Profiles Status:
- Once a member profile moves in to lapsed status the member is no longer in good standing. The member will no longer be able to log in to your site to access member benefits.
- In order to access member benefits, they will need to renew their membership to be in good standing again.
- Lapsed members will only be able to log in to take a renewal form to update their membership status to active.
- Lapsed profiles do count toward your member profile count.
Best Practice Tip: If lapsed profiles do not renew after a year or more, you might want to look at moving those profiles to Prospects to keep your member numbers clean. As a prospect profile, the user can take the membership form to rejoin later on. See: Best Practice: Moving Profiles to Prospects
Tips/FAQs:
- The timing of these notifications is solely based on the expiration date in each member's profile. If at any point the member pays their dues invoice, their expiration date will be updated and they will stop receiving renewal notifications.
- It is the paying of the renewal invoice that renews the member.
- If this is your first time using MC Professional's automated renewal process, you will need to ask your Onboarding Specialist or a Help Team member to turn your Membership Automation on for you. Once Membership Automation is turned ON, that night around midnight, the system will comb through and send the notification that is closest to the member's expiration date to send out.
- It is important to move any Lapsed members back to Active before turning Membership Automation ON. Members that have already Lapsed (those with expiration dates in the past) will not receive notifications and won’t be able to renew.
This document includes a best practice example of each type of notification (Renewal, Grace Period, and Lapsed). We also created a video to show you how to simplify your dues renewal process through automation - check it out here!
2. Renewal Form
Once a member receives their first Renewal Notification and auto-generated invoice, they are considered in their Renewal Period. At that point, the member can take any form with a Membership Section (ex. a Membership Renewal form or an Event Registration form with a membership section) and will see the ability to Renew.
By using a Renewal Form, members have the opportunity to update the Attributes in their profile, and can also choose a different Member Type to renew as if you allow them to. “Renewal Paths” can be designated within each Member Type so that members can upgrade or downgrade their membership by using the Renewal Form if applicable.
For example: if you wanted a “Student Member” to have the opportunity to upgrade their membership to “Professional Member” at renewal time, you could define this within the Student Member Type settings (Database > Member Types > Edit Settings next to Introductory Member > Define Renewal Paths). The amount due on the form will automatically reflect the appropriate amount for the new Member Type.
Then
If you’d like to collect some fields/Attributes for new members and others for renewing members, we recommend creating two separate forms - one Application and one Renewal.
3. Front-end renewal within profile
Once a member receives their first Renewal Notification and auto-generated invoice, they are considered in their Renewal Period. At that point, upon signing in and viewing the My Profile page, members in their Renewal Period will see a Renew button within their profile, which is the final self-service option a member can use to renew.
In the short video below, watch as a member in their Renewal Period navigates to the My Profile page, and uses the Renew button to renew their membership.
Renewing on a member's behalf from the Admin side:
ASA’s (and other Administrators if approved by the ASA’s) can manually process a renewal on the admin side on behalf of a member. To manually place a member in their renewal period, navigate to the member's profile and click on the Actions dropdown in the top righthand corner.
The options you have with renewing a profile on the back-end are:
-
Create an Open Invoice: This option will create an Open invoice "silently" - without sending an email to the member being renewed. This would be useful if you have a one off case where you want to give a member the ability to renew early.
-
Create and Email an Open Invoice: This option will create an Open invoice and send a notification to the member being renewed. The notification will be sent using the verbiage from the New Invoice Email configured in the Invoice Template assigned in Member Type settings. This option is great for a member who has requested a renewal invoice.
-
Create and Pay Invoice Now: This option will create the invoice and take the Admin right to the Open invoice so that a payment may be applied.This would be helpful if a member renewed in person at an event, and you didn't want to confuse them by sending a confirmation email.
This article goes over Processing a Renewal on the Admin Side with lots of screenshots and additional details.
Other Renewal Process Notes:
-
Renewal Payment Settings can be found with the settings for each member type (Database > Member Types > Edit Settings next to each member type). These 3 settings – Invoice Template, Payment Processor, and Revenue Account – allow you to keep your finances in order and should be completed before members begin renewing within MC Professionals.
-
Membership & Expiration Settings can be found within the same section. This area will have already been set up by your Onboarding Specialist for current member types, but the Grace Period can still be updated as needed.
-
Renewal Settings can be found within the same section as well. This is where you can determine the Renewal Path from earlier in this article.
Ready to Test Your Knowledge?
We created this video so that you can test your knowledge about the automated renewal process.
Comments
25 comments
If offline payment is selected for "Renewal Payment" settings, then will members get an invoice in the first renewal notice? We selected offline payment because we wanted to force members to take the membership form again (because we wanted them to consider making a voluntary donation that wasn't included in their membership dues). So, I want to make sure that they are forced to take the form instead of just paying the invoice when they get their first renewal notice.
Jeanine - If Offline Payment is selected, renewal reminders will still include an invoice (there is not a way to turn that off) but the invoice will NOT be payable online with a card. The member would either need to take a renewal form to pay, or print out the invoice and mail in a check. I hope that helps!
If I use the "silently create an open invoice" option for renewals, does that mean that the member will never receive any reminder notifications at all for the invoice? Or does it mean that the member will not receive an initial email when the invoice is created, but will receive reminder notifications afterward?
Hi Aaron - I set up this test scenario in my demo site to confirm whether the regular renewal reminders will still send if you 'silently' open an invoice. My testing confirmed that the renewal reminders set up for each Member Type (under Database > Member Types > Edit Notifications) will still to send on schedule even if the invoice is silently opened. It's also worth mentioning that for Renewal invoices, the reminders inside the invoice template don't apply (under Financial > Invoices > Invoice Templates), as the renewal reminders set up for the Member Type override them. I hope that helps!
Kinsey -
We have a free member type that only lasts for one year. During our first renewal process recently, all of these free members were automatically renewed as the same free member because the invoice generated was for $0 and therefore immediately indicated as paid. How can I ensure that free members are not automatically renewed and instead must take the membership form (that is subject to the renewal paths all leading to paid memberships)?
Thanks,
Jeanine
Hello Jeanine! I've gone ahead and created a ticket for you with our Help Team so they can best address this set-up for you. We'll be in touch!
How can we find out who the renewal notice is/was sent to? When I look at the message history per the organization profile, there is a copy of the message but not who it was sent to. The only way I can think to find out is to weed through the Reporting > Messages but that would take too long based on the number of renewals sent on the particular date. There has got to be an easier way. Thanks!
Hey there Carolyn! For Organization/Client Member Types, the renewal notice is sent to the email that is in the Organization's profile.
This is my question too Carolyn, opening EACH message requires way to much time and when asked to share a list of the notifications, I was to look in my Saved Searches, which I see, but there is no way to access it or see what profiles were selected. There has go to be a better way!
I agree with Carolyn and Kristen. I submitted a ticket yesterday asking for a report that would help to identify status such as sent, opened, bounced, etc. Otherwise, there are too many individual notifications to review.
Quick question that isn't clear from this Help topic. If my member's expiration date is set for April 30 and I set the first notice to go out 2 months in advance, will it be sent on February 28 (or 29) or March 1?
Hello Jill! Since it's months, you can expect your notification to go out the last day of February.
I want to CHANGE the GRACE PERIOD - if I do so, will the change be applied to invoices that were already sent? If not, I am going to need a work-around, as we have decided NEVER to make our unpaid members "Lapsed" but to continue to encourage them to pay throughout the year. Right now we have it set up that once they reach 6 months after the due date, they will be made Lapsed. How can I address this situation?
Jen Gordon, PODS Association
Hey Jen! I see you sent this to our Help team, and they've sent you a response. For anyone else who is curious:
"If you change the Grace Period in the Member Type Settings, this change will apply to all users who have not yet been moved to the Graced status. If you have users who have already been moved to Graced, you will want to change their status to Active, and then the system will automatically move them back to Graced at midnight with the new Grace Period applied. They will receive a new notification."
I do not see the Lapsed member renewal dropdown in my Membership Type area. Is that an update or is something not set?
If we do not want Lapsed members to ever be able to renew, but instead they will need to fill in a new application. How do I ensure this happens?
We have our renewal path setup as described above; students may either renew as a student or as a professional. What I need to be able to see or search for, is professional members that were once student members. We like to calculate conversion rates to see how many of our students stick around after they graduate and the dues rate increases. I know you can view membership history on individual profiles so the information is there, but I am unable to figure out how to calculate this. I really do not wish to create a Student Application though I supposed you could search by "Completed submission of Student Application AND Regular Application". Is there a way to search for this without changing anything?
Hey Ryan! At this time, there is not a way for that. I would suggest the separate Forms in the interim, but also be sure to leave us some feedback so that our Product team is aware of it!
What time do all these notifications drop?
Hey Josh! When the notifications go out is completely contingent on your members' Expiration Dates, and the timing you've set-up in your Notification areas. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our Help Team at help@memberclicks.com or 404-879-2800!
I see here that it is recommended to set Lapsed members to Active because they will not otherwise receive renewal notices with expiration dates that have passed. But changing their status to Active doesn't actually change their expiration date--does changing it to Active somehow put Lapsed members into a process that WILL generate renewal notices? I can easily set all Lapsed to Active. I'm less comfortable updating all the expiration dates as that will give these members rights on the website they have not paid for.
Hey Carolyn! Great question. You only need to set Lapsed members to Active if you - or they - are just getting started in the system. At midnight every night, if your Membership Automation is ON, the system will read everyone's Expiration Date's and move them to the appropriate status, as well as send the appropriate message.
If you have any uncertainty about where you sit, feel free to reach out to our Help Team at help@memberclicks.com or 404-879-2800! We'll be happy to clarify your setup.
Does the system automatically send open invoice reminders and late payment notices for the system generated renewal invoices? If it makes a difference, I do not plan to attach the renewal invoice to our membership notifications.
Hey Sara! If under Database > Member Types you have reminder Notifications set-up, then they will go out automatically. It's entirely up to you if the invoice is attached or not, so you can leave it un-attached as you mentioned, and only the notification goes out. I hope that helps!
Thanks, Jay. Does the system send open invoice reminders for the automatically generated renewal invoices?
If you have more than one notification set up, the additional notifications will continue to go out until either 1) all notifications have gone out or 2) the invoice is paid, at which point the notifications stop.
Please sign in to leave a comment.