Creating a membership fee plan

A membership fee plan determines what a group of members pays and how often. This article explains how to create a plan and which choices you make along the way.

How membership fees are structured

Membership fees in 4planning have three layers. Once you understand those, the rest follows:

1. A fee plan — what gets paid: a name, an amount and an interval.
2. A subscription — which member is linked to which plan, and with which payment method.
3. An instalment — the individual payment that is created automatically each period.

So you create a plan first, link members to it, and the system then creates the instalments by itself.

Step 1: Go to Membership fees

1. Open Finance in the menu.
2. Click Membership fees.

Step 2: Create a new plan

1. Click Create plan.
2. Give the plan a recognisable name, for example Seniors, Youth or Supporting member. Members see this name on their payment page and in the emails.
3. Enter the amount to be paid each period.
4. Choose the interval: yearly, monthly, weekly or one-off.
5. For a yearly plan you can turn on Fixed payment date each year. See below.
6. Save the plan.

The payment method belongs to the subscription

You do not set how a member pays on the plan, but per subscription. That way members on the same plan can pay differently: most choose between direct debit and iDEAL themselves, while the odd one pays by direct debit only or outside the app. See Setting up a subscription and Direct debit, iDEAL or outside the app.

A fixed payment date each year

Without a fixed date, every member pays on their own day: someone who joins in October pays every October after that. If you want everyone to pay on the same day, for example 1 February, turn on Fixed payment date each year on a yearly plan and choose the day and month.

• A new member pays when joining and then every year on the fixed date.
• With Late joiners pay on the fixed date, anyone who joins from a chosen date onwards does not pay on joining, but first pays on the fixed date. If you choose 1 November with a fixed date of 1 February, anyone joining in November, December or January first pays on 1 February.
• A new member skips the first date if it falls within this many months prevents someone from paying twice in quick succession. Set it to 3 and someone who joins in December 2026 next pays in February 2028: February 2027 falls within those three months and is skipped. At 0 nobody skips anything.
• Running subscriptions switch to the fixed date after their next instalment.

Step 3: Link members

A plan does nothing until members are attached to it. Link members through a subscription and choose how they pay: the member chooses between direct debit and iDEAL, automatic direct debit only, or outside the app. See Setting up a subscription.

Tips for effective use

• Prefer a few clear plans over many exceptions. One plan per member type works best in practice.
• Choose the interval deliberately: monthly collection lowers the threshold for members, yearly saves you work and service charges. Preferably put members on a monthly plan on automatic direct debit, otherwise they receive a payment request every month.
• If you change a plan's amount, check what that does to running subscriptions — instalments that are already queued do not change retroactively.

Frequently asked questions

• Can I let members pay in instalments? Yes, choose the interval monthly or weekly. The system then creates a new instalment each period.
• Can a member have several plans? Yes, a member can be linked to more than one subscription, for example a basic fee plus a contribution for an extra activity.
• What happens to a plan I delete? Do not delete a plan while subscriptions are still running on it. Stop those subscriptions first.