Novi AMS provides three options for a Member Type's Category:
Individual People
Companies
Companies with Individual Seat Dues
These settings help define who owns the membership, how member benefits flow, and how dues are calculated and billed. You can also configure who receives benefits (e.g., people under a company) and who gets billed for dues.
Guidelines by Association Type
When selecting a member type category, consider how your association is structured:
Trade Associations: Often assign membership to companies and nest individual members (like employees) underneath. This allows individuals to inherit benefits from their company membership.
Hybrid Associations: Typically serve both individuals and companies. Use separate member types to reflect these distinct membership models: one for individuals, and one for companies.
Professional Societies: Usually assign membership to individuals. However, if you plan to offer company memberships for sponsors or partner organizations, you can take advantage of Novi's hybrid functionality to support both structures.
Choosing the Right Member Type Category
Ask yourself: Who does this membership belong to?
If the person moved to another company or retired and no longer had a parent company, would the membership stay with the original company or the person?
If the person retains the membership even after changing companies or retiring, choose Individual People.
If the company retains the membership regardless of employee changes, choose Companies or Companies with Individual Seat Dues (depending on how dues are structured).
Member Type Category Options
Individual People
This option is for memberships that belong to a person, not a company.
Key features:
Member benefits can flow down to child records (e.g., assistants, staff, sub-companies).
The number of inheriting records can be unlimited or have a fixed limit.
Dues amounts are fixed, regardless of how many "children" inherit benefits.
Dues can be billed to a related record (e.g., parent or grandparent).
Membership can be dependent on a related record (e.g., their employer must also be a current member in a different member type).
If this requirement isn't met, then the person's membership status will change from Current to Pending.
Tip: Use this category when individual people are your primary members (e.g., a professional society).
Companies
This option is for memberships that belong to a company.
Key features:
Member benefits can flow to related people or companies.
Benefit flow can be unlimited (default) or limited to a fixed number.
When limited, people with Primary, Billing, or Management Access can select who receives benefits within the allowed limit via the Member Compass > People tab.
Dues are fixed, regardless of the number of inheriting "children" records.
With unlimited benefit flow, dues remain the same whether 1 or 500 people receive benefits.
A company with 1 inheriting person pays the same dues as a company with 5 inheriting people, if the benefit limit is 5.
Dues can be billed to a related record (e.g., parent company).
Membership can be dependent on a related member.
For example, a Property member may be dependent on having a Management Company member in its family (usually as its parent). In this example, if the Management Company is Expired then the Property member will be Pending (which means no member benefits until their parent becomes Current).
Companies with Individual Seat Dues
This membership type belongs to the company, and benefits can be extended to related records.
Key Features:
This type of membership belongs to the company.
Member benefits can flow to related records:
Benefits can flow to children or grandchildren.
Benefits may be unlimited or limited by seat restrictions.
Seat restrictions can include a minimum and/or maximum seat count, or these limits can be left unrestricted.
Seat-based dues amounts are determined by the dues rules you set up.
Example 1: The first inheriting person costs $50, the second and third cost $25 each, and the fourth is free.
Example 2: $100 per person for 1–5 people, reduced to $75 per person for 6 or more.
People with management access can add or remove seats in their Member Compass.
Dues can be billed to a related record (parent or grandparent) by setting that record as the default billable party.
A company’s membership can be dependent on a related record in a different member type.
Example: A property member may be required to have a current management company member as its parent. If the management company expires, the property becomes Pending and loses benefits until the parent’s membership is current again.
If a company member switches to a different seat-based member type, Novi automatically maps their existing seats onto the new member type's seat types.
>> If you are considering using the "Companies with Individual Seat Dues" member type category, check out this article for more information.