GrowthZone Dues Billing Guide
This guide outlines the settings and processes we have tested to make sure your membership dues billing — and any dues increases — run smoothly, and should apply to the majority of associations using GrowthZone, including industry-specific editions (minus any specialized system terminology). Most of this guide focuses on fixed renewal membership billing (i.e., memberships that are all billed at the same time once per year) but almost all of the processes are also useful even if you bill your members monthly. Steps that are specifically for fixed renewal memberships are clearly labeled.
If you have questions about whether a particular setting or workflow is right for your association, contact our support team. If you have successfully run billing in the past using different settings and processes, keep doing what works for you.
1.1 – Finance General Settings
These settings enable and disable different features in the system. Because these dues are typically billed once a year, the suggestions below favor giving your team control over your billing instead of automating the process.
Article: General Finance Settings
- Ensure you have a Logo for Invoices and StatementsThe logo on Finance General Settings is used in the <logo> merge field on your invoice and statement templates. If you need precise placement and sizing, insert your logo directly onto your invoice template(s) in Settings → Document Generation Templates. Note: in that case you would remove the <logo> merge field from your template.
- Disable Automated BillingAutomated Billing is useful if you frequently bill members for a small set of items, but can complicate your process by requiring you to constantly monitor when members will receive invoices. When enabled, this feature hides advanced controls to set the invoice date and due date of your dues invoices.
- Set Lead Time Days to Greater Than ZeroThis field restricts access to Invoice Before Autopayment when set to 0. The exact value only matters if you're using automated billing. Since you're
not, set this to 15 — a reasonable default if you choose to use automated billing in the future. - Enable Invoice Before AutopaymentWith Invoice Before Autopayment enabled, invoices that indicate the invoice will be paid by payment profile (on a specific date) generate when you run your upcoming billing. You can set the date these automatic charges happen when generating your membership dues invoices.
- Disable Auto-Apply Credits to Newly Created InvoicesThis should be disabled if you frequently credit members for specific items. If this is enabled when running your billing, credits for things like event registrations or sponsorships will be applied to membership dues. Members may have been planning to use a credit for something similar in the future and could be unpleasantly surprised when they discover it was already used.
2.1 – Enforce Date Rules on Fixed Renewal Month Memberships
This setting prevents you from unintentionally changing the Next Bill Dates for scheduled billing items linked to memberships that renew on a certain date. It prevents most situations where a member does not receive a membership dues invoice when they should have.
2.2 – Fixed Renewal Memberships: Membership Type Settings
Fixed renewal Membership Types for association dues should be set to have everyone renew on the start date of the membership period. Even if you bill for memberships in advance or in arrears, this date should be the start date of the membership term (often the start of your fiscal year or the start of a new year).
Article: Add a New Membership Type
- Term Length Should be 12 Months
All association dues membership types should be set to a term length of 12 (months).
- Renewal Pricing Should be “Do not recalculate price”
You may have previously configured your membership types to recalculate. The newer feature for dues increases (see section 2.3) is faster and easier. Set your membership to “Do not recalculate price” so you can use it.
- End Type Should be “Manually Ended”
GrowthZone can automatically drop members who have not paid for a set number of days after their original invoice date. We strongly suggest setting your membership to “Manually ended” for association membership types.
- Set “Renew Everyone On” to January 1st
This setting helps the system follow the membership year as defined by your association.
2.3 – Fixed Renewal Memberships: Membership Pricing Changes
This feature allows you to define when to charge increased membership dues and have the system automatically bill at that new rate for charges on or after a certain date. You can set this for 1 or more fee items on a membership. This feature does not yet work with formula-based pricing.
Article: Effective Date Pricing
To set new prices for a membership on a certain date:
- Edit the membership type's pricing.
- Enable “Change Prices On…”
- Pick your desired date for new pricing to start.
- Enter new prices in the “Price on <Date from step 3>” column. Note: leaving a field blank in this column carries the current price forward. (If using levels, see note below.)
- Save your changes.
Repeat for each affected membership type.
For associations using Levels within Membership Types: set the “Change Pricing on…” date within the Membership Type pricing screen, then make pricing adjustments on the Level(s) itself.
Note: to use this feature, please ensure:
- Your membership type is set to a specific “renew everyone on” date (noted in section 2.2 of this guide)
- Membership recalculation is disabled (noted in section 2.2 of this guide)
- Formula based pricing is disabled
3.1 – Fixed Renewal Memberships: Review Next Bill Dates
We built a tool to help associations identify members (if any) that may have the wrong next bill dates for their annual scheduled billings. Because your association has set the “renews on” date to Jan 1 for association memberships, the system can use that information to flag next bill dates that don't align with the expected date. Use this tool to double-check that members will be billed and charged on the dates you expect.
Article: Review Next Bill Dates
To use this tool:
- Open the Review Next Bill Dates tool in your Finance Rail under the Administrative section's Mass Updates link.
- Review the members listed (if any).
- Note: members listed here have next bill dates that aren't expected — meaning, the current Next Bill date is different from the “Renews on…” date set on each membership type. Notice the “Current Next Bill Date” and “Proposed Next Bill Date” columns.
- Filter results (if needed) by Status, Membership Type, or Current Next Bill Date. Then click “Load” to see the proposed results.
- Click “Update” to kick off a mass change for those filtered results, updating Current Next Bill Date to Proposed Next Bill Date. This updates all scheduled billing with incorrect next bill dates even though only the first 500 are listed. If you have more than 500, use the Download button at the top of the screen to review every scheduled billing item that will be changed.
3.2 – Review Reports to Validate Membership Billing
Use the reports listed below to confirm that your data is complete and accurate. Verifying this data — though sometimes time-consuming — catches unintended issues before you run billing. Save your reports so you can easily run them each time you prepare to generate upcoming billing.
- Confirm All Active Members Have Scheduled Billing
Use the Membership Report for verification. See Verify that All Members have a Scheduled Billing. If the member doesn't have a scheduled billing, use the upgrade/downgrade options to assign one.
- Confirm All Scheduled Billing is Set for the Correct Amount
Use the Membership Report to verify that active memberships have correct scheduled billing amounts. See View Report of Active Members Scheduled Billing Accuracy. If the scheduled billing amounts are not correct, use the adjust membership option to update the schedule.
- Confirm Dropped Members Do Not Have Scheduled Billing
If a dropped or non-member has a scheduled membership billing, this is rare and will require our support team to fix. Use the Membership Report for verification. See View Report of All Dropped/Non-Members With a Recurring Billing.
- Confirm Members Have an Email Address to Receive Their Invoice
Use the Membership Report for verification. See View Report of Active Members Missing Billing Contact and Billing Email. If the membership does not have a billing contact or address information, use the adjust membership option to assign this information to the membership.
- Check for Expired Payment Profiles
Use the Stored Payment Profiles Report to check expiration dates. If updates are needed, contact your members to access the Info Hub to update.
4.1 – Review Invoice Template(s)
We suggest creating a new invoice template for each year's association dues billing. This gives you a chance to review your dues deductibility statement and update other policies that may have changed since last year. See View/Modify Invoice Templates for instructions if you wish to review and update your template.
4.2 – Review Email Template to Send with Invoices
Creating a new email template for each year's association dues billing makes it easy for you and your staff to collaborate on your billing preparations. Using a new email template can help trigger discussions around dues deductibility statements or other policies you want members to see both in their dues email and on their invoice document. See Create and Manage Email Templates if you wish to review and update your email templates.
4.3 – Review Member-Facing Automated Messages
The following emails are sent to members throughout the invoicing and payment process. Review the templates below to make sure they accurately describe your association's processes and follow your brand standards.
- The Online Payment Receipt email template is sent when the system successfully charges a saved credit card, or when a member pays an invoice with a credit card.
- The Recurring Charge Failed email template is sent if a member has saved a credit card, but the payment processor has an issue charging it.
Note: whether you've created a new email template or just want to double-check which template will be sent, set the correct email template in the Automated Messages area of setup. See Automated Messaging for more information.
4.4 – Ensure Staff Enable Billing Related Notifications
Make sure you and your staff receive the right notifications to keep your billing process running smoothly. Just like an airplane safety video, set your own notifications before assisting the rest of your team with theirs. To modify your notifications, click your name in the top right of the screen, then click My Notifications. View all Billing-related notifications by setting the Category to “Billing/Finance”. Review a few key notifications, listed below.
Article: Subscribe to Automated Staff Notifications
- Auto Payment Failed — Sent if the payment processor cannot charge a saved credit card.
- Charge Capture Failed — Very rare. Sent if the payment processor successfully authorizes a charge with a card but cannot capture the payment. (Credit Card Lingo 101: an authorization is sometimes called a “hold” and checks if a card is valid and can accept a charge for the total amount. A capture is a request to move money from the credit card bank, e.g., Visa, to the payment processor.)
- Duplicate Charge Detected — Sent if a member tries to pay the same amount twice in a short period. Guardrails on the invoice payment page and in the Info Hub usually prevent this, but sometimes members find a way.
Failure to Send Receipt — Sent if a GrowthZone issue prevents a member from receiving a receipt. Members can access receipts from the Info Hub, or you can email the member a receipt from Contact → Billing tab → Actions next to the payment.
You are now ready to generate your invoices for membership dues! Review the critical steps listed below to get started. The steps below use an example of a membership year that begins on January 1st and is billed several months in advance. Adjust the dates as needed for your association and by-laws.
Article: Generate Invoices for Upcoming (Recurring) Billing
5.1 – Filtering Scheduled Billing Items
Click the Customize Results button to filter to the memberships you want to generate invoices for.
- Set the Month dropdown to January – 2024.
- Select your Association Membership Type(s) from the Membership
Notes:
- The system will only generate invoices for the scheduled billing items displayed from your filtering.
- If using the “Change Pricing on…” feature (from section 2.3), on the Upcoming Billing tab you'll still see the old pricing in the amount column. An icon next to the amount indicates the price will change. The effective date pricing will be used when you run billing.
5.2 – Generate Invoices
Click the Actions button and choose Run Upcoming Billing. A few fields to set on this screen:
- Enable the Advanced Options
- Set your desired Invoice Date (example: 10/1/2023).
- Set your desired Due Date (example: 11/1/2023).
- Set your desired Scheduled Payment Date (example: 11/1/2023). This is when members with saved credit cards will be charged for their association dues.
- Select the Invoice Template you created or reviewed earlier.
- Click Run to generate your invoices.
For more instructions, visit Generate Invoices for Upcoming (Recurring) Billing in our Knowledge Base.
Once invoices have been generated, deliver them from the Sales/Invoices tab in the Billing module. Members who have saved a credit card for dues billing will receive an invoice noting that their card will be charged on the Scheduled Payment Date you selected when running billing. All other members will receive a traditional invoice.
Articles: Deliver Invoices Pending Delivery and/or Deliver Renewal Invoices
In-app guide available, under the “Need Help?” tab.
Note: we recommend using the Sales/Invoices tab to deliver your invoices. However, if you have previously sent invoices from the Pending Delivery tab, feel free to continue using that process. Just be sure to clear out the Pending Delivery tab before running upcoming billing.
6.1 – Filter to Select Invoices
To deliver the newly generated invoices, go to the Sales/Invoices tab and customize your filters:
- Set the Invoice Date to 10/1/2023 (or the date your association desires).
- Set the Fee Item to be one of the line items of your membership. This will include all your membership dues invoices but exclude any other invoices created with the same invoice date.
6.2 – Email Invoices
After filtering the invoices, prepare to send them by clicking Actions and selecting Email Invoices/Statements.
- Set the Template field to the email template you previously created.
- Set the From email address where you'd like to receive billing questions or notices about bounced emails.
- Check Select All to send all membership dues invoices (if shown). Critical if handling more than 500 invoices. This ensures that all of your members receive their invoice at the same time.
- Review the message to make sure everything looks correct.
- Click Send to email your invoices.
Open the “Need Help?” sidebar in GrowthZone to find the Association Post-Billing Guide that helps with collections, late fees, and drops.