The Goal: Configure the global settings that govern overall membership management — proration, application version, renewal/billing options, drop behavior, and auto-expiration.
Before You Begin:
- You need staff permissions to edit membership settings.
- Decide your business rules ahead of time (e.g., proration cutoff day, whether to allow annual-to-monthly switching, and how dropped members should be handled).
- These settings apply globally across all membership types, so confirm changes with your team before saving.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Click Settings in the left-hand rail.
- Go to Memberships, Settings section, click General Membership Settings.
General Settings
- Prorate Cutoff Day: If proration is enabled on a membership type, this is the day the system will use to determine the prorated amount. By default, this will be set to 15. If a new membership is added prior to this cut-off, the full month’s membership will be charged. If a new membership is added after this cut-off, the new member will not be charged for the month.
- Membership Application Version: The default is set to V2, which is the latest version. Throughout the software, you will be prompted to enable V2 to take advantage of certain functionality.
| NOTE: For more information on the differences between V1 and V2 memberships, please view Add Discount Promo Code to New Memberships. |
Miscellaneous Options
- Allow Recalculate Renewal Billing: If enabled, when setting up your membership types, you have the ability to enable recalculation of membership dues when updates are made to those dues. See Manage Recalculated Pricing for further information.
- Allow Switching from Annual to Monthly: To reduce the burden of annual payments for your members, you have the ability to allow your members to switch from annual to monthly. When this option is enabled, your members will be presented with the option when using the payment link within emailed invoices to pay for their membership dues. See Enable Auto-switch from Annual to Monthly for more information.
- Allow Multiple Membership Purchases on Member Application: If enabled, applicants will be able to choose more than one membership when completing the membership application form. IMPORTANT: This function will only work if the membership types all use the same payment gateway.
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Enforce Date Rules on Fixed Renewal Month Memberships: If this setting is enabled, if a membership has a fixed renewal month (e.g., everyone renews in January) then the system will enforce certain rules for membership dates and prevent staff users from changing those dates. The rules include:
- Membership Start Date:
- No rules or restrictions
- Next Bill Date:
- Always the 1st of the Renewal Month
- Is not editable
- Expiration Date:
- Should expire the day before the 1st of the Renewal Month
- Is not editable
- Membership Start Date:
Drop Settings
- Add Dropped Members to List: Select the list to which you wish to automatically add dropped members. If you have not created a list, see Add a New Email List.
- Remove all Directory Listings: Select this option is you wish a dropped member to automatically be removed from directories.
- Remove from All Lists: Select this option if you wish a dropped member to automatically be removed from all lists.
- Membership Removal Does Not Remove Chapters Or Lists: This setting allows you to configure whether contacts are removed from chapters and lists when the membership is dropped. If this option is not selected, contacts are automatically removed when the member is dropped.
- Default Access Level: Select the Info Hub access level you wish to assign to dropped members.
Renewal and Auto-Expiration Settings
- Auto Expire Memberships: Select this option if you wish the option to setup your membership types for auto-drop. See Membership Auto Drop for further information.
- Send Automatic Emails: If you have enabled auto-drop on your memberships, enable this option if you wish the system to automatically send notifications. See Membership Auto Drop for further information.
Common Pitfalls
- Multiple memberships across different gateways: Allow Multiple Membership Purchases on Member Application only works when all membership types share the same payment gateway. If your types use different gateways, applicants will not be able to select more than one membership.
- Forgetting these are global: Every option on this page applies to all membership types at once. Confirm proration cutoff, drop behavior, and auto-expiration rules with your team before saving, since a change here affects your entire membership.