Membership renewal settings

To renew their memberships, members can log into your Wild Apricot site, click the Renew button and then pay the renewal invoice. You can automate the membership renewal process with timed reminders and actions for each membership level. You can also provide for a membership renewal invoice to be automatically generated and emailed to members a specific number of days before their renewal date.

To fully automate the renewal process, you can set up recurring payments. With recurring payments, membership dues can be automatically charged on a regular schedule, saving your members the trouble of having to manually renew their membership.

Membership renewal settings can be accessed under the Renewal policy tab for each membership level. Renewal settings apply to overdue active members, and members with a status of Pending - Renewal or Pending - Level change. They do not apply to lapsed members, or members with a status of Pending - New.

Members within a membership bundle all share the same renewal date, which is defined on the bundle administrator's membership record.

Viewing the Renewal policy tab

To change the renewal settings for a particular membership level, follow these steps:

1. Hover over the Members menu and select the Levels option.
2. Select the level you want to modify.
3. Click the Renewal policy tab.
4. Adjust your policy settings as required. See below for a description of each setting.
5. Click Save.

Setting the renewal period and date

From each membership level's Renewal policy tab, you can set the renewal period – the interval of the membership (Never, Monthly, Quarterly, Twice a year, Every x years) – and the renewal date – either the date the member joins (join date), or a specific date (e.g. 1st or 15th of the month).

The join date is the date the membership application was submitted. If the membership level requires payment or approval before activation, then the join date (and thereby, the next renewal date) may be different from the member since date, which is the date the membership was activated.

For example:

In this example, both Bob and Mary have signed up for membership on the 13th of May. Bob has signed up for Gold membership while Mary picked Silver membership. Both of these membership levels have a monthly renewal period; however, the Gold membership renews from the Join date whereas the Silver membership renews from a Specific date (e.g. every 15th of a month). In this case, Bob will have an entire month before his next renewal due date and payment are due, but Mary will only have 2 days until her first renewal because her membership renews on the 15th of every month irrespective of the date she joined. See Renewal date calculation (below) for more details on renewal date calculation.

You have the option of allowing membership dues for new members to be adjusted proportionally according to the actual remaining time before the next renewal date. For more information, see Prorating membership dues for new applications.

Setting up automatic recurring payments

From the Renewal policy tab, you can set up recurring payments so that memberships can be automatically renewed on a regular schedule.

Recurring payments are only supported for paid plans, and not for renewal periods greater than one year.

Before you can enable recurring payments for membership levels, you must configure your payment settings. For more information, see Recurring payments.

To enable recurring payments for a membership level, click Enabled under Automatic recurring payments.

If you chose a specific date rather than the join date for the renewal period, new members will be billed the full membership fee for the period between the join date and the first renewal date. You cannot enable prorating of membership fees for levels with automatic recurring payments.

Limiting renewals

From the Renewal policy tab, you can limit renewals to a single renewal period ahead, and control when members can renew.

If you check the Limit renewal to 1 period ahead option, then members cannot renew an infinite number of periods into the future. With this option enabled, you can also choose to limit renewals to a certain number of days or months before the membership expires. These options are only available after you select a renewal period (above).

When a member is prevented from renewing because of these limits, a notice informing the member of the next possible renewal date will appear in place of the Renew button.

If you uncheck the Limit renewal to 1 period ahead option then your members will be able click the Renew button within their member profile and renew as many periods into the future as they wish.

Enabling renewal reminders and actions

From the Renewal policy tab, you can enable the following renewal reminders and actions.

14 (default) days before renewal date

Generate invoice and change status to Pending - Renewal
A membership renewal invoice will be generated and the membership status will be changed to Pending - Renewal. This option is not available for levels with automatic recurring payments.

Email invoice
A membership renewal notice and invoice will be emailed to active members who have not yet renewed. Depending on your routing settings, a copy of the email may also be sent to one or more administrators. If the member clicks the View invoice online link within the emailed invoice, they will be able to view and pay the invoice online without logging in.

If you remove the View invoice online link from the default invoice template, it will not be automatically added to your email.

Once this option is enabled, the renewal invoice will be emailed regardless of the settings on Invoice settings screen. This option is not available for levels with automatic recurring payments.

Send renewal reminder email 1
A separate reminder email will be sent to the member and/or site or bundle administrator. To modify the reminder email, click the renewal reminder email 1 link.

7 (default) days before renewal date

Send renewal reminder email 2
Reminder email will be sent to the member and/or site or bundle administrator. To modify the reminder email, click the renewal reminder email 2 link.

Renewal date

Send renewal day email notice
Renewal day email notice will be sent to the member and/or site or bundle administrator. To modify the renewal day email notice, click the renewal day email notice link.

If not renewed within 7 (default) days

Change renewal period to never
Renewal period for the member will be changed to Never.

Change membership level to
Membership level for the member will be changed to the level you choose.

Send grace period email notice
Grace period email notice will be sent to the member and/or site or bundle administrator. To modify the grace period email notice, click the grace period email notice link.

If not renewed within 14 (default) days

Void renewal invoice
Membership renewal invoice will be automatically voided for members with a status of Pending - Renewal if not fully paid within the specified number of days following the renewal date. The invoice will be voided whether generated automatically or manually. When you enable this option, the Change status to lapsed option is automatically enabled.

Change status to lapsed
Membership status of the member will be changed to Lapsed.

Change renewal period to never
Renewal period for the member will be changed to Never.

Change membership level
Membership level for the member will be changed to the level you choose.

Suspend membership
Suspend the member, converting them to a non-member contact. Membership details will be remembered, and the membership can be resumed by an administrator. For more information, see Suspending a membership.

Archive record
Archive the member's record.

Send lapsed email notice
Lapsed email notice will be sent to the member and/or site or bundle administrator. To modify the lapsed email notice, click the lapsed email notice link.

You can also control who receives the following renewal notifications. In each case, you can send the notification to the member and/or your organization contact. For bundle levels, you can choose to send them to the bundle member, bundle administrator, and/or organization contact.

Renewal pending email
Sent when a renewal invoice has been automatically generated by the system or manually generated by the administrator, or when the member has already started the renewal but has not completed the payment.

Renewal confirmed email
Sent after renewal was paid or confirmed manually by an administrator.

Credit card expiry notification
Sent two weeks before and on the date of credit card expiry. Applies only to Stripe, Authorize.Net, and Payflow Pro payment gateways.

Recurring renewal failed email
Sent when online payment for renewing a recurring membership fails.

When you create a membership level, the renewal reminder emails are copied from the default membership emails. You can customize the default membership emails or modify reminder emails for individual membership levels.

If the member is lapsed, overdue, or within a week of their renewal date, a status message will appear in the bottom right corner when they log in.

Renewal date calculation

A member's next renewal date is calculated differently depending on whether the member is applying for a new membership or renewing an existing membership.

For new memberships

The renewal date for a new membership is set when the new member's status become Active – which occurs when membership application with online payment was automatically confirmed and recorded or when an administrator activates member manually – and is calculated according to the membership level's renewal policy – specifically its renewal period and renewal date. The renewal date can be a specific date or the member's join date, which is the date on which the membership application was submitted. 

If the membership requires approval then the join date can be earlier than the Member since date, which is the date on which the membership was approved.

The table below shows the next renewal date for a membership that became active on September 15, 2015.

When the level's renewal date is set to a specific date, you can apply prorating so that fees are adjusted to reflect the abbreviated period before the member's next renewal date. For more information, see Prorating membership dues for new applications.

For membership renewals

The next renewal date for a member renewing their membership depends on their status, their membership level's renewal policy, and the date of renewal relative to their current renewal date.

The table below shows the next renewal date for a membership that renews on March 15, 2015.

Whenever your membership level renews on a specific date, check that renewal due date (day and month only) of individual members in this level matches that specific date. If these dates differ then member will not be renewed for the full period. For example, if the level is set up with an annual period and a specific date of July 15th, you have to make sure that members renewal date are also set to July 15th (the difference can happen due to member records imported with certain renewal dates or due to manual editing of records by administrators

Member can renew their membership via email or from their member profile your Wild Apricot site. For more information, see Renewing membership or changing levels. Only members with a status of Active or Lapsed can renew their memberships.

Renewals are handled differently for members with automatic recurring payments and for bundle members. For more information, see Recurring payments and Membership bundles.

For member level changes

When switching to a different membership level, the next renewal date will be calculated based on new level settings and payment date.

The full price of the new membership term will be billed. There is currently no pro-rating based on the previous membership level.

If you want your members to have an option to switch to another level make sure that Level security options are set up to allow members to switch to other levels. For more information, see Membership levels.

Automatically generating membership renewal invoices

For each membership level, you can provide for a membership renewal invoice to be automatically generated and emailed to members a specific number of days before their renewal date.

If you automatically generate a renewal notice, then optional extra membership costs cannot be selected as part of the renewal process. Also, you cannot use discounts for renewals with this option enabled.

To enable automatic generation of renewal invoices:

1. Hover over the Members menu and select the Levels option.
2. Select the level for which you want automatic generation of renewal notices.
3. Click Renewal policy.
4. Under Renewal reminders and actions, enter the number of days in advance of the renewal date to email the invoice.
5. Check the Generate invoice and changing status to Pending - Renewal option.
6. Check the Email invoice option.
   
7. Click Save.

The membership renewal notice will be automatically generated and emailed to active members the specified number of days in advance of their renewal date. On that day, the membership status will be changed to Pending - Renewal.

A copy of the email may also be sent to administrators depending on your routing settings.

Automatic invoice generations will be added to the audit log.

Automatically voiding overdue membership renewal invoices

You can provide for membership renewal notices to be automatically voided a certain number of days after the renewal date.

Automatically voiding overdue invoices helps you avoid situations where members accidentally pay old invoices after renewing their membership and thereby pay twice while potentially changing their renewal date.

To enable automatic deletion of renewal invoices:

1. Hover over the Members menu and select the Levels option.
2. Select the level for which you want automatic voiding of renewal notices.
3. Click Renewal policy.
4. Under If not renewed within x days, enter the number of days after the renewal date to void the invoice.
5. Check the Void renewal invoice option.
   
   The Change status to lapsed option is automatically enabled.
6. Click Save.

The membership renewal invoice will be automatically voided for members with a status of Pending - Renewal if not fully paid within the specified number of days following the renewal date. The invoice will be voided whether generated automatically or manually.

The voiding will be recorded in the audit log.