A Brief Background on Account Signup
Novi gives you the choice to allow or not allow non-member account signup, which means that you have the option to allow individuals to create a login on the website without having any member benefits.
Some associations allow non-member signup for things like easier tracking of non-member guest event registration for individuals who come to multiple events but aren't members.
Some associations want only individuals who are related to current company members in their database, so they don't want to allow this type of signup.
Both are perfectly valid scenarios, but your scenario is a little different than these...
For your scenario - where you have a member type(s) in which benefits are limited to only a certain number of people - we handle this a little differently, for a few reasons:
All new signups under these companies are considered non-members until you (an admin), or someone with management access (including the Primary Contact and Billing Contact), select them to receive benefits.
If we followed the typical rules in this scenario and you weren't allowing non-members, new individual would not be able to create a login at all. If you were allowing non-members, the messaging they see wouldn't quite apply to them.
The article below includes the following topics:
How to give a person membership benefits (i.e. a "seat")
How to add a limit
1. First, confirm on the Details tab of the member type that the Member Type Category is set as Companies. Then navigate to the Member Benefits tab.
2. Make sure the checkbox is checked for Dues Paying Member's Children (People) to receive limited benefits.
3. Click on the gear icon next to the family relationship.
4. Type the number in the field.
This indicates the maximum amount of people that can inherit benefits from any member of this member type.
Note that the amount of dues this member pays will be the same, no matter how many people inherit (up to the limit). For example, in the screenshot below the limit is set as 3 people - this means the dues amount will be the same whether the company has one person or three people inheriting benefits. If this is not correct for your member type because the dues amount should vary based on the number of people, check out the Member Type Category for "Companies with Individual Seat Dues" instead.
5. After adding the limit, click the Save button (top right).
Example of a member type with benefit flow
limited to 3 people for each company member:
What happens when an individual creates an account under a company member?
Individuals creating an account under a company with limited benefit flow will be able to create an account regardless of the setting described in the first section above, but note that it will be a non-member account at first.
When a new account is created under their company, the people with management access to that company will receive a notification email. At that point, they can either:
login to their Member Compass and manage the "People" list themself (e.g. give the new person benefits or remove them if the person should not be in this family)
or they can reach out to you and you can assign benefits to the new person on the backend
If a new account is created under the company but the new person is not designated to receive benefits, they will retain their account login but have no special privileges, benefits, or pricing on the site. In other words, they will be a Non-Member but still listed on the "People" list of their parent company.
Note: This will only apply to individuals attempting to create an account under a company in a member type where the number of people getting benefits is limited. Individuals choosing a non-member parent in other member types, or individuals choosing no parent will still not be able to create an account if you do not allow non-member signups.
What can members see regarding the people under their company?
When logged into their Member Compass, the primary contact of a company, billing contact, or a person with management access can view the "People" list of their direct parent company.
These individuals can see who is currently receiving benefits from the company and who is not by referencing the Member Status column on the "People" tab.
The statuses could appear as any of the following:
Checkmark = Inheriting (#1 in the image below)
Individuals who are receiving benefits from their company.
These people do not pay their own dues - they "inherit" benefits from their parent company. (This company's status is either Current or Grace Period.)
Plus Sign with "Assign Seat" = Non-Member (#2 in the image below)
Individuals who are not receiving benefits from their company, but there is an available seat that could be assigned to this person.
If the seat is assigned, the individual will then have a checkmark (see above).
Prospect (#3 in the image below)
Individuals who have an individual-based member type assigned on their record, but have not joined yet.
These people would pay their own dues (if they joined AND if their member type has dues rules) and would still be prospective members even if they were removed from their company's family.
In order for this person to have a seat and inherit benefits from the company, an admin would need to remove the member type from the person's record. Then a seat can be assigned by an admin or a user on the frontend who has management access.
Current (#4 in the image below)
Individuals who are receiving benefits from their own personal membership.
These people pay their own dues (if applicable on their individual member type), and they would still be current members even if they were removed from their company's family.
These individuals do not count toward the number of people receiving benefits from the company since they have their own individual memberships.
Blank = Non-Member
Individuals who are not receiving benefits from their company, and there is not an available seat that could be assigned to this person.
These people also do not have an "individual" member type of their own, and therefore do not fall under any of the statuses above.
Please Note: Members cannot remove benefits from other individuals while also keeping them on the "People" list.
They must click the "Remove Person" link in the Action column (on the right), or they will need to reach out to an association admin to make the changes on the backend.
This is to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the feature (though we'd all like to hope this wouldn't happen, it's a safeguard for your association from deceitful behavior). For example, if we allowed this, the primary contact could hypothetically give benefits to one person, register them for an event at the member price, move the benefits to another person, register them at the member pricing, etc. Not ideal, right?
How to give a person benefits as a member from the frontend
1. A person with management access to the company should log in and go to their Member Compass.
2. On the People tab, find the person who should receive benefits.
3. In the Member Status column, click on the "Assign Seat" plus mark. This will assign a seat to that individual and change their membership status from Non-Member to Inheriting.
How to give a person benefits as an admin on the backend
1. Go to the dues-paying member's record on the backend (i.e. the parent company).
When the membership has a limited benefit flow, you can see a summary of the total seats and also the number of unassigned seats in the top right corner of the parent member's record. In the screenshot below there are 3 total seats, with 1 unassigned seat.
2. On the People tab, find the person who should receive benefits.
In the screenshot example below, we're going to give the 1 unassigned seat to Rosa Fischer.
3. In the Member Benefits column, click on the red circle to toggle it to a green checkmark. This will change the person's membership status from Non-Member to Inheriting.
