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
Navigate to the Member Type's Settings tab to view and edit these settings.
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.
If No Frontend Registration is Available on Any Member Types
If no member types are available to join from the frontend, and a record doesn’t have a member type already assigned, the Member Compass will not display the Membership widget that says "Interested in Membership? Join Now!" to prospects, expired members, or non-Members.
Signup Process
Association admins can determine levels of processing on the path to membership:
New Members Require Admin Approval: Should admin 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 this option 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 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.
Email Notifications
Notify Admins Via Daily Digest If Member Joins or Renews with $0 Dues:
With this setting enabled (on member types with dues rules), if a member is renewed without being charged, the Daily Digest email includes the name of the member and links to the record.
Notify Via Email for Each New Signup or Applicant:
An email notification will be sent to listed emails whenever a new membership signup or applicant is received.
The email notification includes the following details:
Member's Name
Date and Time of Submission
Who submitted the registration or application
Member Type
Transaction Type
Dues Amount
Quick Links to: Recent Signups, the company/person record that initiated membership
Dependent On
Some organizations have member types that are dependent on another member type.
Dependent On Example: 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 is dependent on the "Management" member type.
Leave all the boxes unchecked if the member type is not dependent upon any other member types.
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 settings determine the remaining information that appears on the dues 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.
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.
This message will be added to Invoices and Sales Receipts (not just Invoices).
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 an "Open" or "Overdue" transaction status can be recalculated (i.e. updated) using this button.
Note: The 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 renewal section (located on the Renewal tab of each Member Type) focuses on when renewals run and what dates appear on the renewal invoice, along with customizable email messages to accompany your renewal notice emails.
These settings apply universally to all members in the member type.
Expiration
Anniversary Renewals
Expires After: Anniversary member types expire a certain amount of time after signup. Expiring 1 Year after signup is the most common, but this can also be months or days.
Anniversary dues will not have prorations since all terms will be the same length.
Standardized Expiration Dates
True anniversary date (default)
Expiration date is set exactly 365 days from the member's join date
This is considered the most straightforward and equitable option for both members and the organization.
First day of the renewal month
Calculated as the first day of the month that falls 365 days after the join date.
This method results in the average member losing roughly half a month of membership.
Last day of the renewal month
Calculated as the last day of the month that falls 365 days after the join date.
This method results in the average member gaining roughly half a month of membership.
Standardized Expiration Date Examples:
True Anniversary Date: A member joining on September 15th expires September 15th of the following year.
First Day of renewal Month: A member joining on September 15th expires September 1st of the following year.
Last Day of renewal month: A member joining on September 15th expires September 30th of the following year.
Modifying Current Setting to a Standardized Expiration Date
When changes are made to this setting, the system provides a bulk update feature for existing member records.
A warning prompt is displayed: "Are you sure you want to update the expiration date for all member records including the current and grace periods?"
Calendar Renewals
This setting is for associations with Memberships that give the same membership period to everyone (for example, January 1 - December 31). All the members in this type expire on the same day. This is commonly December 31st, but can be set to another calendar date.
Multi-Year Initial Terms
Some calendar year associations begin giving an expiration date in the following year for new members that sign up after a certain date. 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 but 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 checked:
the system will automatically renew all seats, even if one or more seats are empty/unassigned.
If this setting is unchecked:
Empty seats will be removed from the member's record, which will reduce their total seat count.
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 add 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.
Having it checked (ON) is in favor of the association. The renewal invoice would include unassigned seats and members would have to reach out to the association so an admin could remove the seat from the invoice/membership.
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)