Monthly Payments with CIM

Some organizations may wish to collect dues on a monthly basis.  To offer this to members, you will need to allow for a monthly automatic credit card payment or bank debit.  (Otherwise, you'll be relying on members manually processing a payment each month).  To do this, the MMS features an interface with Authorize.net's Customer Information Module (CIM).  Using CIM allows the MMS to store credit card info, and charge a members card on a monthly basis.

Managing monthly membership is more complex than annual membership, so it is important to understand how this portion of the system works so that when problems pop-up, you'll be able to determine the problem, and use the tools to solve the problem.

Invoices

Just like annual membership, monthly membership is handled by creating invoice records that correspond to the term of membership, in this case the term of membership is one month-long.  When a member joins, the effective date is by default the join date (but can be altered by customization), and the expiration date would be 1 month later (example: if the member joins on the 10th, the term expires on the 10th of the next month).

Invoice Record Posting

You have the option of manually posting invoice records for members using Create Renewal Invoice Records by Date, or having it done automatically at night.  For monthly membership, we recommend having batch renewals turned on, so that members are automatically renewed at night.  This keeps things consistent as to when invoices are posted for members.  Please ask us to turn on batch renewals for you.

There is a timeframe that dictates when a renewal invoice record is posted.  By default, it is 15 days, but can be changed - look for "Invoice Posting Lead (monthly invoices)".  The 15 day timeframe means that a renewal invoice is posted in the system 15 days before ex piration.  So if a member's current term expires on May 20, a renewal invoice is posted on May 5.

Autopay Information

For members on monthly plans, they have the option to have auto-pay information on file, so that as invoices are posted, payments are processed using their card on file and recorded in the system.  Note: autopay is triggered based on open invoices, both dues invoices and non-dues invoices.  So, if you post a non-dues invoice for a member with autopay, these invoices will also be automatically paid at night.

Entering autopay information (card info on file)

• When a members joins online using a monthly plan, and then pays online; autopay information is stored at that time.
• Admin-level user can update the auto-pay information using member database admin.  Look for the 'ap' link to the right of the member's info
• The Member can update their auto-pay information themselves by logging into the member's area - 'Enter Autopay Info'

Autopay Payment Posting

Once an invoice is posted, it's a candidate for payment using the member's autopay information.  There is another timeframe for payment "Auto-pay Lead".  This is the number of days before the invoice date that the system will attempt to process a payment.  By default it's 0 days, but it can be changed.  This lead time is set up so that invoices can be posted ahead of time, but payments are not necessarily processed immediately. (Example: on May 5, an invoice is posted 15 days before the current expiration of May 20th.  May 20 then becomes the effective date/invoice date of the new invoice, but payment for this invoice is not processed until 3 days before the invoice date, which would be May 17th.)  Please ask us to turn on batch payments (autopay) for you.

Email Notifications

renewal invoice notifications - optional for handling monthly members, these can be sent automatically, and can include a PDF of the invoice.  They include links in them for the member to renew or to cancel

payment receipts - when an autopay payment is processed, an email is sent to the member informing them of this.

payment error notification - if an autopay payment fails, an email message is sent to the member asking them to log-in and correct their autopay info.

Reports

To make it easier to manage auto-pay, there is a report in member billing - "Members with Auto-Pay".  This shows the members with auto-pay set up, and includes unpaid invoices and error messages from attempted payments.  To the right are links to view details on the member's transactions, as well as a link to update their auto-pay info.  Next to the invoices, are links to process payment - this will allow you to process payment immediately using the auto-pay info for a member (as opposed to waiting for it to process at night).

At the top is also a link to "View Member Timelines", which allows you get an at-a-glance look of these member's transactions. 

*Note: Auto-Pay does not process event or store invoices.