Auto-renewing your organization's memberships is a great way to keep your overall membership numbers up each year, as well as make the process easier for your members. You're doing great things - why wouldn't they want to renew?!

In this article:

When auto-renewals occur, two things happen:

Then, an admin will go to the Accounting > Transactions section, review the invoices, and email them out in a batch action.

Later, if someone doesn't pay by the due date, our Non-Renew & Credit process will allow you to easily drop this member(s).

Read more below to learn about these processes...

Auto-Renewal settings are determined for each Member Type on the Renewal tab.

By default, the Member Type's auto-renewal settings are disabled, which is the Member or admin initiated only setting (see screenshot below).

To turn on auto-renewals, go to the Renewal tab of the member type and select one of these options in the Renewal Type section:

These settings work for both anniversary renewals that happen throughout the year as well as calendar renewals that occur on a specific date each year (e.g. December 31st).

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.

Renewal limits can be set on member types with auto-renew enabled. When doing so, there are a few things to consider:

Important Item of Note for the "Limit Renewals To" setting:

To see the exact date that a member will renew, navigate to the Details tab on the member's record. The date displayed is calculated based on the particular member's expiration date and the setting on that member's Member Type.

If the member has elected to auto-pay, there will be an additional message indicating which user's default credit card will be charged. For individual members, this will be the credit card associated with their record, but for a company membership it could be any one of their staff members.

When do auto-renewals run?

When does auto-pay run?

What happens if the staff member who opted into auto-pay for a company leaves the family?

For member types that renew on a calendar-based date, association staff who have enabled Daily Digest emails will be alerted in advance of upcoming renewals. The Daily Digest notification will be included both 14 days and 3 days before a calendar-based member type's auto-renewal runs, allowing an opportunity for association staff to review the member type dues rules and messaging before invoices are created.

For both anniversary-based and calendar-based member types, association staff will be notified via the Daily Digest email when the system automatically renews members.

To update the Daily Digest recipient(s) email address or add additional recipients, this can be changed in Association Settings. It is highly recommend that multiple team members receive the Daily Digest.

>> Learn more about the Daily Digest email.

If you need to edit the email message that is sent with the dues invoices, please check out the article below for more info:

>> Changing the Send Invoice Email Message

By default, Novi does not automatically send out the dues invoices that the system creates when renewals occur. This is done intentionally to give your team an opportunity to review your dues transactions before sending them out. You'll want to review your dues invoices that were created in the Accounting > Transactions section, then email them out.

>>How to Email Dues Invoices

For Anniversary-based renewals: If you're confident that your dues rules are set up correctly and the Member Type is set to auto-renew, then you can check a box on the Renewal tab of the member type to automatically email renewal notices/invoices as soon as they are created.

*This setting is not recommended for Calendar-based renewals.

IMPORTANT: Please double- and triple-check that your dues settings and the message displayed on invoices are set up correctly prior to renewals being generated. 

If renewals are generated, and you notice that dues settings or amounts are incorrect, or a specific member's custom field data driving their dues is incorrect, you will need to recalculate the invoice(s) affected. 

>> Learn how to recalculate open dues invoices in Novi AMS.

Based on the information below, as well as your internal business practices and association bylaws, plan ahead for what steps you'll need to complete when auto-renewed members need to be dropped.

There are two important things to note prior to learning about drops:

Drops in Novi are done by completing Non-Renew and Credits of these members. This process will simultaneously create a credit memo to offset the unpaid dues invoice and will move the member's expiration date back to the previous year. 

When your staff is ready to drop non-paying, auto-renewed members, there are a few steps you'll need to take. When you choose to do these drops is up to you. Typically it is a certain number of days after the dues invoice due date has passed, determined by your association.

>> Instructions on how to Non-Renew and Credit

This will mark them as expired in the database, meaning they have no member benefits, will not appear in the member directory, and any sub-customers inheriting benefits from the member will no longer have membership benefits either.

NOTE: If you do not complete your drops, please be aware that your non-paying members will continue to have member benefits since their expiration date was automatically moved to the following year, and their dues invoice will remain open.
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