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Membership Renewal Overview

Updated
The Goal: Understand how membership renewals work in GrowthZone and how to correct your database when a contact accidentally re-applies for a membership instead of renewing it.

Before You Begin:

  • Confirm whether the contact uses Autopay, Auto-Approve, or both — these two functions affect the renewal process differently.
  • NOTE: This guidance is NOT for Realtors that use the NAR gateway.
  • If the contact has Autopay set up, check whether the credit card on file was carried over. Unapplied payments from the processes below may appear on the individual contact record for the reapply. See the Use Cases for an Unapplied Payment.
  • NOTE for QBO Integration Users: QuickBooks Online does not support unapplied payments in the same way that is possible in GrowthZone. We discourage unapplying payments when using the QuickBooks Online integration. If you do unapply a payment in GrowthZone, you may need to make manual changes in QuickBooks Online to accurately reflect this GrowthZone action.

Microlearning Overview

[Video TBD]

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Membership Application Renewal Flowchart — NOT Auto-Approve. Use this flow when a member is renewing and the application is not set to auto-approve.
    Important for Autopay: If you have changed the membership (i.e. upgrading or downgrading), the card stored and attached for scheduled billing will NOT remain connected. You will have to manually link the stored payment profile to the old/existing scheduled billing.

     

  2. Membership Application Set to Auto-Approve. If the Auto-Approve function is set up for a contact who is renewing, watch for additional scenarios. If a member fills out the membership application while the system is set to auto-approve, the member will end up with TWO memberships.
    Important for Auto-Approve when the member also has Autopay turned on: If two membership applications are created and one needs to be deleted or changed, check the card stored for scheduled billing. A card saved for Autopay will NOT be saved when deleting a membership application. The card is NOT stored when you delete and keep a contact. You will have to manually link a payment profile to the old/existing scheduled billing.

     

  3. Use Case: Member Forgot They Paid Their Renewal. Here is the scenario: a member recently paid their renewal invoice as they normally would. Then, a couple of months later, the member applied for a new membership because they forgot they already renewed. Use this flowchart to fix their membership status in GrowthZone.

     

Common Pitfalls

  • Re-applying instead of renewing: When a member submits a new application instead of renewing, and the system is set to auto-approve, they end up with two memberships that must be cleaned up.
  • Losing the stored payment card: Changing, deleting, or re-applying a membership breaks the link between the stored Autopay card and scheduled billing. Always re-link the payment profile manually afterward.

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