Training Webinar: Membership Billing

What We Covered

• Order of operations in the process
• Generating orders + invoices for members approaching renewal
• Processing credit cards for auto-renewals
• Sending reminders of the renewal date
• Dropping members who have expired

Questions + Answers

Can we run billing runs for open invoice reminders for other apps? For example, setting up a weekly recurring billing run for open invoices for registrations or store orders?

No - membership billing runs only include membership-related invoices and orders. 

Is there ever a risk of creating duplicate orders or sending duplicate renewal notices/reminders?

No - once an order has been created for a renewal, you cannot create another one. The member can only be billed once.

You can, however, send multiple reminders if you so choose.

Do you have to have an open order and an open invoice for the member to use the portal to pay?

Yes - in order for a member to pay for renewing their membership, an order and invoice must exist and the invoice must be in Open status. 

With other processes (ex: membership join, event registration, merchandise purchase), the system automatically generates the order and invoice during the checkout process.

So, it doesn't auto-renew automatically? Do you need to run these each month?

To automatically charge credit cards and process renewals for members who have opted for automatic renewal, you need to do a little bit of setup.

Part One - Setting Up the Template

1. Navigate to Membership Setup.
2. Under Billing, select Templates and then click the "+ Create Billing Template" button.
3. Name your template (we recommend something like "Automatic Renewals").
4. Find the Generate Renewal Orders option and enable it.
5. You will be prompted to select an expiration date timeframe. Using the drop-down menu, you can choose by year, quarter, month, week, or billing run date.
6. Given that these members have elected to auto-renew, you don't need to send a billing notice. Leave that blank.
7. You may determine if the orders and invoices should be pro forma or not.
8. You can also choose to segment the template by membership types, packages, or sub-statuses.
9. Find the Process Credit Cards for Auto-Renewal Members option and enable it.
10. You will be prompted to select an expiration date timeframe. Using the drop-down menu, you can choose by year, quarter, month, week, or billing run date. But remember - expiration date timeframe needs to match the Renewal Orders setting!
11. If you would like to notify members of any successes or failures during the process, select a corresponding notice.
12. Again, you can choose to segment the template by membership types, packages, or sub-statuses. But remember - the segments need to match the Renewal Orders setting!
13. Scroll to the bottom and click the "Save Changes" button.

Part Two - Setting Up the Recurring Run

1. Navigate to Membership Setup.
2. Under Billing, select Recurring Runs and then click the "+ Create Recurring Billing Run" button.
3. Name your recurring run (we recommend using the same name as the template you just created).
4. You will be prompted to select a billing template - select the one for automatic renewals.
5. Rhythm will pre-process the billing run in advance so that you have time to review before executing it. Select the number of days you will need of advance notice.
6. Then comes the Billing Run Schedule option. How you fill this out is entirely dependent on how often your organization processes renewals. You can choose:
   • Frequency: yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily
   • Day or date: day of the week or specific date within a month
   • Time: the specific time you'd like the billing run to execute
7. Scroll to the bottom and click the "Save Changes" button.

Is there a quick way to see how many members are signed up for auto-renewal?

Yes - you can create a query.

1. Navigate to Membership and then select Queries from the left menu.
2. Click the "New Query" button over on the right. You will be presented with Query Type options. Depending on your organization's membership structure and your goals of the query, you may select:
   • Memberships - All
   • Memberships - Downstream
   • Memberships - Principals
3. Once you have made a selection, click the "Continue" button.
4. On the next page, find the Criteria section in the top-left and click the "Edit Criteria" button.
5. In the Query Criteria editor, set the condition below and then press the "Save Changes" button.
   • Renew Automatically [equals] Yes
6. As with any query, you can determine which fields you want to be displayed. For the purposes of this query, you may want to include Membership Type, Renewal Date, and Renewal Payment Card Expiration.
7. Once everything looks good, press the "Run" button in the top-right corner.
8. The total number of members in this query is the total number of members that are signed up for auto-renewal!