Member Type Settings

Dial in your association's member type settings, dues renewals and accounting.

Pete Zimek, CAE avatar
Written by Pete Zimek, CAE
Updated over a week ago

In addition to being the core classification for all dues-paying members, Member Types determine how member benefits flow to related companies and people. They also set general rules as to how members of their type will signup & renew.

Each member type holds a set of dues rules that determine how much those members will ultimately pay for their membership.

In this article:


Signups & Renewal

Payment Details

  • Require Credit Card or ACH Payment for Self-Signups: If this is not enabled, then a new member can request to be invoiced.

Signup Details

Associations can customize the following on each member type:

  • Allow Frontend Registration: Should website visitors be able to sign up for this member type, or would you prefer that staff process a new membership signup?

  • Allow Frontend Registration Only with Secret Link: This button generates a URL for members to register themselves on the frontend.

Signup Process

Associations can determine levels of processing on the path to membership:

  • New Members Require Admin Approval: Do you want your staff to approve new members before they start receiving benefits? More info.

    • AE Tip™: Many associations that do not require a credit card payment at signup choose to require admin approval before their new members start receiving benefits. This allows staff to hold back benefits until after the invoice is paid.

  • Require Application Before Processing Dues: If this is enabled, no membership dues will be presented and no membership benefits will be granted until the member is approved. More info.

    • When this setting is applied, it is required for New Members Required Admin Approval setting to also be applied.

    • AE Tip™: The applicant feature should be reserved for organizations with strict join policies that require thorough vetting for membership. If the majority of members in a member type are approved, the applicant process is not recommended for use in that member type.

Dependent On

The easiest way to explain "dependent on" is through an example. Some organizations have member types that are dependent on one another.  For a Property Member to obtain membership and be current, their management company must have its membership current. In this case, the "Property" member type would be dependent on the "Management" member type. See the screenshot below- this is located on the Settings tab of the member type.

If the member type is not dependent upon any other member types, leave all Dependent On boxes unchecked.


Accounting

Dues rules contain most of the accounting information for new membership signups and renewals since they correspond to the line items on a traditional QuickBooks invoice. When it comes to dues, the Member Type determines the remaining information that will appear on the invoice itself.

Member Type > Settings tab > Accounting section:


Default Billable Party for Dues

Default Billable Party for Dues refers to the party who is automatically responsible for paying dues. The default setting for a new Member Type is Member Itself, but if you have members who always rely on a different, related member to pay their dues, you can change their Default Billable Party for Dues to Parent or Grandparent.

Message Displayed on Invoice

Great for legal notices, thank you's, renewal information, promotional information, or even a list of the initiatives accomplished and/or benefits members received over the past year. You can also use merge fields to add membership dates to the transaction (more info below).

  • The "message displayed on invoice" field is located on the Settings tab of each member type, so the message can be the same or unique.

  • There is a 900 character limit imposed by QuickBooks.

  • If this verbiage needs to be updated each year, schedule a time to do so before auto-renewals are run. If you forget, no worries! After editing the message you can recalculate the open dues invoices in that member type.

Merge Fields/Merge Tags for Invoice Message

To add the membership period the transaction will cover, use the merge fields below. Please Note: This message will show on all dues transactions, so keep the messaging applicable to both new signups and renewals. Also, tags are case-sensitive.

  • [[Membership Period Start Date]] - Would be replaced upon generating a dues transaction with the start date of the membership period covered by the dues invoice formatted as m/dd/yyyy.

  • [[New Expiration Date]] - Would be replaced upon generating a dues transaction with the new expiration date formatted as m/dd/yyyy.

  • [[Current Expiration Date]] - Would be replaced upon generating a dues transaction with the current expiration date formatted as m/dd/yyyy. Please keep in mind that new members do not have a current expiration date, so this would show as N/A for them.

Example of Member Type Settings:

Example Invoice:

How to Enlarge the Message Field:

Department

Member types can be assigned to a QuickBooks Department.

"Recalculate Open Dues Invoices" Button

There may be times that you need a do-over for a dues invoice or multiple dues invoices because you notice something is incorrect on an existing invoice. No problem! Invoices that are labeled as "Dues Invoice" type in Novi and have a transaction status of "Open" or "Overdue" can be recalculated (i.e. updated) using this button.

  • Note that this button on the Settings tab of the member type will update all of the open dues invoices for the Member Type you're on.

>> Learn more about how you can recalculate Dues Invoices in bulk by member type or a specific invoice only.


Renewals

The entire renewal section (found on the Renewal tab of each Member Type) is centered around dues and dues rules, as well as customizable email messages to go along with your renewal notice emails.

These are settings that apply universally to all members in that member type.

Expiration

  • Anniversary Date - Anniversary date member types expire a certain amount of time after signup. Expiring 12 months after signup is the most common. Anniversary date dues will not have prorations since all terms will be the same length.

  • Calendar Year - This refers to associations with member types that expire every December 31st or on some other calendar date that an association sets.

Multi-Year Initial Terms

After a certain date, some calendar year associations begin signing new members up with expiration dates in the following year. This setting is only available for Calendar renewals.

  • AE Tip™: Associations use multi-year initial terms to answer the question "Why would I sign up for the last couple of months of this year when I can wait a few months to sign up next year?

Additional Seats

This setting is only available for member types with a Member Type Category of Companies with Individual Seat Dues, and it determines how much (if anything) will be charged if a new seat is purchased in the period after a company has renewed and before the new term has started.

A note on the proration setting:

  • For anniversary renewals, this is a new concept of having proration but it only applies to new seats mid-year, not for the main membership.

  • For calendar renewals, this proration setting only applies to new seats being added. Proration for the main member dues is over on the dues rule(s).

New Member Definition

Novi empowers associations to decide when a late renewal should be treated as a new member. Before this period expires, late renewing members will not be entitled to any proration in their dues rules. Once the period is expired, proration rules are in full effect.

This setting also helps to define the "New Member" dues rule condition. Completely new members and prior members whose expiration date is beyond the "Treat expired member as a new member" timeframe are considered "new" members.

Renewal Limits

Novi allows for the limitation of renewals within a member type. Examples include:

  • Trial memberships at a free rate that cannot be renewed.

  • Student memberships that should only last a certain number of (consecutive) years and then they should "roll" to the next membership level.

If using renewal limits, consider the following questions:

  • How many times can an organization/individual renew into this member type? (example: a 3-year consecutive term would be 2 renewals)

  • If using auto-renew, what member type should these members move to next when the limitation is reached?

  • AE Tip™: If the "Limit Renewals To" setting in the screenshot above only has one member type checked, then members will be automatically moved to that member type once they've reached the limit of renewals in their current member type.

Unassigned Seats

This setting is only available for member types with a Member Type Category of Companies with Individual Seat Dues. When this setting is turned on the system will automatically renew all seats, even if one or more seats are empty/unassigned.

If this setting is off/unchecked, empty seats will be removed from the member's record, which will reduce their total seat count, and they will not be charged for the unassigned seat(s) on their renewal invoice. At that point, if they want to add the seat back to their membership they can do so from their Member Compass (if they have management access to the company), or an admin can do it for them on the backend.

Need some help deciding how to handle this setting? Consider the following:

  • Having this unchecked (OFF) is in favor of the member because unassigned seats are dropped at renewal.

Grace Period

Novi allows associations to establish a grace period for expired members so they can continue to receive member benefits after their expiration date has passed. This setting is global to the members of that member type and is defined by the number of days after a member's expiration date. One-off exceptions cannot be made.

  • AE Tip™: The grace period only applies to members who are NOT set to auto-renew. If your organization auto-renews members, then the grace period setting is hidden.

Renewal Type Settings

Renewal Notice Emails (a.k.a. Smart Renewal Notices)

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