Selling memberships

Memberships

A membership is a plan your customers pay for every week, month, quarter or year. It covers a set number of classes each period, for example 8 classes a month, or unlimited classes. Their card is saved on your own Square or Stripe account and charged again automatically at each renewal until they cancel.

A membership is personal. A member books one spot per class and can never book two classes that overlap. This is the difference from a class pass, which is a code anyone holding it can use, for several spots at once.

Turning memberships on

1. Connect Square or Stripe first. See Payment integrations.
2. Go to Settings → Features and switch on Memberships. It starts off for every business.
3. Open Memberships in the admin menu and add your first plan.

You cannot switch memberships off while anyone still has an active membership, one waiting on a payment, or a paused one. The Features page tells you how many members you have. Cancel their memberships first, then switch the feature off. This stops cards being charged for a feature you can no longer see.

Membership plans

• Name, price and how often it renews. Every week, every month, every 3 months or every year. The price is before tax. Choose the tax rates for memberships at the top of the plans page.
• Classes per period. Leave it blank for unlimited. Classes a member does not use do not carry over to the next period.
• Classes per day. The most classes a member can book on one day. Leave it blank for no limit.
• Only these classes. Leave every class unticked to cover all classes that accept memberships. Each class has an Accept memberships box on its form, ticked by default. Courses and private events never take memberships.
• Introductory price. A lower price for the first few periods. An introductory price of 0 is a free trial. The card is saved but nothing is charged until the trial ends.
• Signup fee. Charged once, with the first payment.
• Minimum commitment. The fewest periods a member pays for. A member who cancels sooner keeps their membership, and keeps paying, until that many periods are paid. You can waive it when you cancel for them.
• Ends after. The plan ends on its own after this many payments. Leave it blank to renew until the member cancels.
• Members can pause. Lets members pause their own membership from their customer account, for up to the Longest pause you set (1 to 12 periods). Off by default. You can always pause a member yourself.
• On sale. A plan taken off sale is hidden from buyers. Members already on it keep it.

Each member keeps the terms they signed up to. Changing a plan's price or rules later only affects people who join after the change. The one exception is Members can pause, which applies to existing members as soon as you save it.

Selling memberships

Customers can find your memberships in three ways.

• Booking links. The Plans page under Memberships has a link to all your plans and one for each plan on sale. Put them in emails, social media posts or buttons on your website.
• A banner on your booking page. A "Become a member" banner above your classes opens your plans.
• A link at checkout. Customers who are not members yet see "Not a member yet? See memberships" when they book a class.

You can switch the banner and the checkout link off under "On your booking page" on the Plans page. Neither shows while no plan is on sale. You can also write your own heading and text for the banner there. Left blank, the banner uses ours, in each customer's language. The booking links always work. Each one adds ?fc_membership= to your booking page address, and the same ending works on any page of your website that has the booking widget.

• Each plan shows its signup fee and any intro offer, such as a free first month, before the buyer chooses it. A free trial shows the day of the first charge and how much it will be.
• The buyer enters their details and card and ticks a box agreeing that the membership renews automatically at the price shown until they cancel. If the plan has a minimum commitment, the box says so.
• Straight after buying, the member can choose Book a class and book without being asked for an email code.
• If you take payments with Stripe and have Apple Pay and Google Pay on, buyers can also pay with them. The wallet card is saved for renewals like any other card. With Square, memberships take cards only, because Square cannot save an Apple Pay or Google Pay card for later renewals.
• The member gets a welcome email with what they paid, their card, when it next renews and for how much, any minimum commitment, and a link to their customer account.
• You get an email too. It goes to the owner and to every user with Email this user about bookings, sales and refunds ticked on their user in Settings → Users, the same people who hear about new bookings. Users with the staff role never get it, because it shows the customer's email address.

Moving members over from another system

If your members already pay you through another system, you can move them over without charging them twice or changing their billing day.

1. Go to Memberships → Members and choose Add a member.
2. Enter their name and email and choose their plan. Plans that are off sale are listed too, so a member can keep an older price.
3. Pick First payment here, the day their last payment to your old system runs out. It must be after today and no more than one billing period away.
4. Choose Email the invitation. FullClass emails them a link, and shows it to you so you can send it yourself too.

The member opens the link, saves a card and agrees to the renewal terms. Nothing is charged that day and there is no signup fee or intro price. Their classes are covered from then on, and their card is first charged on the date you picked. The link works once, until that date or for 30 days, whichever is sooner. Remember to stop their billing in your old system.

Renewals and failed payments

• FullClass charges the saved card when each period ends, and emails the member a receipt.
• Yearly members are reminded a week ahead. Seven days before a yearly membership renews, the member is emailed the date, the amount with tax, and a link to their account where they can cancel.
• Free trials are reminded before the first charge. A week before the trial ends (two days for a weekly plan), the member is emailed when they will first be charged and how much.
• If the card is declined, the membership stops covering classes straight away, so nobody books on a period that is not paid. The member is emailed a link to pay. FullClass tries the card again 1, 3 and 7 days after the renewal date. If it still fails, the membership ends and the member is told.
• If the bank wants the member to approve the payment, FullClass does not try again by itself. The member is emailed a link to approve it.
• The payment link works for 14 days. On it the member can approve the payment or pay with a different card, which then becomes the card for later renewals. Once paid, the membership covers classes again and its next renewal is counted from that day.
• Updating the card. Members can change the card their renewals are charged to with Update card in their customer account. You can also open a member and choose Email card update link. The link works for 14 days. If the membership is waiting on a declined payment, the new card is tried within about 15 minutes.

Booking with a membership

Members book on your normal booking page. At the last step they choose Have a membership? and type their email. FullClass emails them a 6-digit code to prove it is them.

• If they tick Remember this device, they will not be asked for a code again on that phone or computer for 60 days after their last booking.
• Members signed in to their customer account can skip the code. Under Memberships they choose Book a class, which opens your booking page with them already signed in. The device is then remembered the same way.
• A member who has already signed the class's waiver is not asked to sign it again. If you publish a new version of the waiver, they sign that once. The phone number they enter is saved to their customer record for next time.
• A covered class costs nothing. The booking is for one spot. Promo codes and gift cards cannot be used with a membership. Add-ons are still paid for by card.
• FullClass refuses the membership when the class is not covered, starts after the period that has been paid for, would go over the classes left or the daily limit, or overlaps another class the member booked with it. The member can still pay for the class as usual.
• You can book a member in from the admin too. Choose the membership in the Use membership list on the booking form. No code is needed, but the same checks apply.

Moving a member to another class

Use Switch event on the booking, as for any other booking. The membership moves with it and nothing is charged or refunded. The move is refused if the new class is not covered by the plan, is outside the paid period, would go over the daily limit, or overlaps another class the member booked with it.

When a member cancels a class

If they cancel within the class's cancellation policy, in time to have been given a refund or credit, the class goes back to their membership. Later than that, or if they do not come, the class counts as used. When you cancel a member's booking, or cancel the whole event, the class always goes back.

Managing members

• Memberships → Members lists everyone with a membership and where each one is in its billing. Open a member to see their payments, payment attempts and the classes they booked with it. The customer's page shows their memberships too.
• Cancel at period end lets the member keep what they paid for, then stops. Cancel now ends it at once. Neither refunds anything by itself. Refund a payment from its row if you want to give money back.
• Members can cancel for themselves from Memberships in their customer account. Their cancel takes effect at the end of the period, or at the end of their commitment if that is later, and they can change their mind before then. If they are still inside a minimum commitment, they are shown each payment that is still to come before they confirm.
• When a member cancels, they get an email with the date it ends and any payments still to come. When they cancel it themselves, you get an email too, sent to the same people who hear about new members.

Pausing a membership

A pause starts when the period the member already paid for ends, so they keep every class they paid for and nothing is refunded. While paused, the membership does not cover bookings and the card is not charged. When the pause ends, the card is charged for a new period and billing restarts from that day.

• Open a member and choose Pause, then how long. The member is emailed the dates. You can Cancel pause until it starts, and Resume now ends a pause early. The card is charged within about 15 minutes.
• If the plan has Members can pause on, members can pause from Memberships in their customer account, and call off their own pause before it starts.
• Only an active membership that renews can be paused. One that is set to end, already has a pause, or is waiting on a payment cannot.

Changing a member's plan

Members can change plan from Memberships in their customer account, and you can from the member's page with Change plan. The list shows your other plans on sale and what each one costs today.

• Moving to a dearer plan happens at once. The member pays the difference for the rest of the period they already paid for, with tax. A plan with a different renewal interval, such as monthly to yearly, starts its first period that day, less the unused part of the old period.
• Moving to a cheaper plan happens at the next renewal, so the member keeps what they paid for. Until then the member, or you, can keep the current plan instead. Canceling the membership also calls off the change.
• Nothing is ever refunded to the card. The new plan's intro price and signup fee do not apply, and a member's commitment never ends sooner because they changed plan.
• If the member's bank asks them to approve the payment, they are taken to a page to approve it, and the plan changes once they do. A change you make for a member cannot be approved by you, so it is called off and you are told.
• Only an active membership that renews can change plan. One that is past due, paused or set to pause, or set to end cannot.

Erasing a member's data

When you erase a customer's personal data, FullClass first ends their memberships, forgets their saved card at Square or Stripe, and forgets their remembered devices. If the memberships cannot be ended, nothing is erased and you are asked to try again, so a card is never charged for someone whose details are gone.

What memberships do not do yet

• Late cancel and no-show fees are not available yet.
• Free memberships you give away are not available yet.
• There is no fixed billing day. Each membership renews on the day it started.
• Family memberships and direct debit are not available.
• Apple Pay and Google Pay are not offered for memberships on Square.