Membership Expiration Dates

How Expiration Dates Are Calculated

Membership Start Date + Term Length = Membership Expiration Date

Example:

• Membership Start Date = 3/14/2020
• Term Length = 12 months
• Membership Expiration Date = 3/13/2021

Automatic Expiration Date Updates

Once an expiration date has been set the first time, the system updates it automatically in the following cases:

• A payment or credit is applied to an invoice tied to a membership. When payment is made on an open invoice associated with an Upgrade, Downgrade, Adjust or Renewal activity item, the expiration date of that activity item becomes the expiration date of the membership. Allow one to two minutes for the expiration date to update after the payment is applied.
  To check whether an invoice is associated with a membership, open the contact record and click the membership in the Memberships panel on the Overview tab. If the invoice is associated, the Membership Activity item shows a linked invoice reference in the activity row.
• New and Reactivate activations are set to the full-term expiration date immediately, whether or not they have been paid. You can change the expiration date back to an earlier date by hand if you would rather have payment drive the update.
• Imported invoices are often not tied to a membership, so payments made against them cannot update the expiration date automatically. These need a manual update. The next invoice generated for that membership will then update automatically.

Example Scenario

• My membership is 12 months long and renews on January 1st every year.
• I signed up in January 2023 and paid my invoice, so I am up to date. My Expiration Date and Future Expiration Date are both 12/31/23.
• In November 2023, renewal invoices are created for memberships with a Next Bill Date of January 1, 2024. At that point my Expiration Date is still 12/31/23, but my Future Expiration Date is now 12/31/24 — because an invoice was created by the system running billing. A standalone invoice created by hand would not do this.
• If I pay my membership invoice: my Expiration Date changes to 12/31/24 and both dates match.
• If I do not pay: my Expiration Date stays at 12/31/23. What happens next depends on your setup:
  • My membership may be dropped.
  • My membership may show as Expired on reports, prompting staff to drop it by hand or to get in touch.
  • If auto-drop is enabled, the system drops me once my expiration date plus any grace period is reached.