Membership Expiration Dates

How Expiration Dates Are Calculated

Membership Start Date + Membership Term length = Membership Expiration Date

Example:

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

Automatic Expiration Date Updates

After being set the first time, expiration dates are automatically updated by the system when:

• A payment or credit is applied on an invoice tied to a membership. When the 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 1–2 minutes for the expiration date to update after payment is applied. 
  To see if an invoice is associated with a membership, click on the membership in the Membership section when on the contact's Profile tab. If associated, the Membership Activity item will show a linked Invoice # in that activity column.
• New and Reactivate activations are currently set to the next year (full term length) expiration date immediately — whether or not they are paid. You can manually change the expiration back to an earlier date if you wish, allowing the payment of that item to update the expiration date. See Managing Expiration Dates below.
• Imported invoices are not often tied to a membership, so payments made against those cannot automatically update the expiration date. A manual update of the expiration date for these would be required. Then the next invoice generated for this membership will 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 currently 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 remains 12/31/23, but my Future Expiration Date is now set to 12/31/24 (because an invoice was created by the system running billing — a standalone invoice created manually 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. Depending on your system setup:
  • My membership may be dropped.
  • My membership may show as Expired on reports, prompting staff to drop it manually or reach out.
  • If auto-drop is enabled, the system will auto-drop me once my expiration date plus any grace period is reached.