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Downgrade a Membership

Updated
The Goal: Move a contact to a lower membership type using the Downgrade Membership action, and record the change date for your history.

Before You Begin:

  • Know which membership type the member is downgrading to.
  • Note: All changes happen immediately regardless of the date you enter. Changes cannot be future-dated.
  • Downgrading repopulates the fee items and invoice options from the new membership type, so be ready to review them before you save.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. On the member’s Overview tab, in the Memberships section, click the ••• actions control on the membership row. (The section header itself carries only the ⊕ add icon; the actions control sits on the row.)
    Close crop of the Memberships section header plus the membership row, with the ••• ACTIONS control on the row boxed
  2. Click Downgrade Membership. The Edit Membership screen is displayed.
    Memberships section on the member’s Overview tab with the ••• ACTIONS menu open and DOWNGRADE MEMBERSHIP boxed
  3. Configure the following as needed:
    • Type — Select the membership type to which the member is downgrading.
    • Change Date — Enter the date this membership should be recorded as having been downgraded. Usually this is today’s date. The change date lets you indicate a specific date for record-keeping purposes — for example, if the change should occur at the beginning of next month, you could enter that date so it shows when viewing the downgrade history. The change itself, however, still happens today.
    • Staff — Optional, select the staff member handling this downgrade.
    • Next Bill Date — If needed, update the next bill date.
    • Fees — The fee items associated with the new membership type are automatically populated. You may update these as needed.
    • Invoice Options — The invoice options are automatically populated based on this member’s history. You may update as needed.
  4. Click Done. A note indicating that the membership was downgraded is automatically logged on the Communication tab.

Related Membership Changes

Common Pitfalls

  • Treating Change Date as a scheduling field: A future change date is recorded in the downgrade history only. The downgrade itself takes effect immediately — it cannot be future-dated.
  • Accepting the repopulated fees without checking: The fee items come from the new membership type and the invoice options come from the member’s history. Review both before clicking Done.
  • Forgetting you can audit the change: The Membership Change Report may be used to view and analyze all membership changes.

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