Annual Subscriptions

The Booking Service provides support for issuing and tracking annual subscription payments.

Here we cover

• creating subscription invoices
• emailing subscription invoices
• tracking financial status of members

Creating Subscription Invoices

There are three ways of creating subscription invoices, in order of how likely you are to use them (and how recommended they are):

• In a batch, based on the subscription amount defined for each member class
• In a batch uploaded as a spreadsheet
• individually by creating a transaction

To create the annual batch of subscription invoices using the Member Class to define the subscription amount, follow the on-screen directions via Admin Menu → Member & Transaction → Send Subscription Invoices.
Don’t skip any steps – it is important to review Member Classes to check the subscription amounts are correct, and the text description may need updating for the new year. The description is used as the description field on the invoices.

If you create subs invoices and notice a mistake, you need to call support to have them deleted. It becomes extremely difficult to delete subs invoices if subsequent transactions exist in the database, so be quick. Alternatively we can help you issue any additional credit or invoice transactions to make good. Individual transactions can be reversed, e.g. if a member was given an incorrect member class.

Creating the invoices is the first step, after which you can bulk email all the invoices. A link to the email template is provided, so review that. Before sending the emails, you can send 10 test emails to any email address (typically to yourself). Each of the test emails is formatted with details pertaining to a real member, e.g. their name and transaction data. Proof-reading the emails in your own in-box often finds mistakes that you missed when reviewing the template.

The second way to create subs invoices is to prepare a spreadsheet for uploading transactions via admin menu → member & transaction → upload transactions. You would select INVOICE and then tick “make them subscription invoices”. If you tick “send an email to each member”, the email will use the subscription invoice template (same as creating the invoices as a batch, above).

The third way is to insert a transaction, choose INVOICE and tick “is subscription invoice”. If you email from this screen, the subscription invoice template is used, as above.

Tracking Member’s Financial Status

This is done by means of a date in each member’s record in the Member Database:

After this date, the member is considered unfinancial by The Booking Service. This date field is also maintained in non-member records or records belonging to people who don’t pay subs (e.g. life members, family members), and can control whether those names can be included in bookings.

Subscription invoices have a special property. For each subscription invoice on a member’s ledger that is not marked as “invoice paid”, clearing the member’s balance will advance their paid-to date by one year. So don’t create half-yearly subscription invoices! A member behind by more than one year should have more than one unpaid subscription invoice, so their paid-to date will advance by more than one year if they clear their outstanding balance. The automatic update to the member’s Paid-to date applies if the member clears their balance (including when you manually create a receipt, if it clears the member’s balance, and including issuing a credit that clears the member’s balance, which can happen if you or a member cancels a booking). If a member is the Principal Member of other entries in your member database, any of their related members who do not pay any annual subscription will have their paid-to date updated to match their principal member.

The subscription will also be automatically marked as paid, and the paid-to date updated if you have turned on PAY_SUBS_INVOICE in the Site Configuration and the member pays their subscription amount via the “pay subscription” page. This page appears automatically in the members’ menu when you turn on the configuration item. If you create a receipt manually that covers the member’s subscription the same will happen even if the amount does not clear the member’s balance. This works by deducting outstanding booking fees from the member’s balance owing. If this is zero or in credit after the payment, all subs invoices are marked as paid and the member’s paid-to date is updated. Note this only applies if PAY_SUBS_INVOICE is ticked in Config Items.

Note that invoices not connected to any booking are included in the calculation along with subs invoices. So if for example you invoice for lockers or ski racks e.g. by using the Auxilliary Unit feature, the member’s payment would need to clear these invoices as well as their subs invoices in order to advance their paid-to date.

If PAY_SUBS_INVOICE is not ticked, and the member pays their subs other than as above, (for example EFT of subs amount, but leaving a remaining debit balance) you will need to manually:

• mark the subscription invoices as paid
• advance the member’s paid-to date by one year

You can filter the member list by financial status (that will include all entries, not just those that pay subs).

You can bulk email only financial or unfinancial entries in the member database via Bulk Email to Members.

You can turn on the rule that prevents making a booking when unfinancial by setting the configuration item REQUIRE_MEMBERS_FINANCIAL to YES