RGP Membership Billing Lifecycle

If you're just getting started billing your members, use the chart below as a guide for some "best practices" on using the RGP Billing feature.

Note: Be sure to set up your 3rd party payment processing gateway first! RGP integrates with RGP Stripe Custom, OpenEdge, and ACHWorks. Read more about payment processing gateway options with RGP.  

Setup

• Set up your SendGrid account:
  The Rock Gym Pro email system acts as an interface to manage the emails that are sent to your customers. However, a separate service called SendGrid is required to actually send the emails. Enable your automatic transactional email system with SendGrid and create a SendGrid account so if a member's payment is declined they will receive an email alert.
  
  
• Set up Online Membership Change Request Form:
  With the Online Membership Change Request Form, your customers have the ability to request changes to their membership account directly from your website; changes like, updating contact and payment information freezing and un-freezing an account, and canceling a membership. (Please note this is a Premium Plan feature). If a member's payment is declined during the billing process you can direct them to fill out the change form and their change request will come directly into the RGP system. Your staff can then review and update the card/account on file. If the member owes money, RGP will prompt you to collect the payment when closing the member’s account and then charge their past due balance to their new card.
  
  
• Set up Decline Minimizer 
  Card companies can automatically update expired and outdated customer credit card information daily - resulting in fewer monthly billing declines and more approvals!
  
  If you are using RGP Stripe Custom this feature is automatically enabled for you.
  
  If you’re using OpenEdge for recurring customer billing in the U.S., you will need to request that OpenEdge enables the Decline Minimizer feature on your account.
  
  
• Set up Automated Billing (if using RGP Cloud):
  Automated Billing is an optional feature that allows you to automatically schedule your monthly billing tasks on specific dates and times during month. This feature is available to RGP Cloud users only.

Days Before Billing

• Process requests from Membership Change Form:
  Staff members will know that a customer has requested a change when a peach-colored banner is displayed in Data Entry. See detailed instructions on the Online Membership Change Form support page. 
  
  
• Resolve all Member Warnings in RGP:
  There are a number of reasons why a member's monthly dues can't be collected. Some common errors include: missing billing information, a prepaid member that has moved to an EFT member but still has a prepaid end date on file, a terminated member made “OK” that has a billing date in the past, etc. It's best to correct as many of these errors as possible before you run billing.
  
  Go to Data Entry -->View --> Members With Warnings to see a list of current members in your database who have warnings on their accounts.

Day of Billing

• Post Dues and Bill Customers (if billing manually):
  If you are manually billing your members, you must first Post Dues. This simply means that you will be creating invoices for each membership account and moving the next billing date to the next month. Instructions on how to Post Dues
  
  You also have the option of using the Billing Launch feature. Billing Launch is a one-click action that conveniently processes all of your billing at once. 
  
  
• If you have Automated Billing set up, billing will run automatically.
  Automated Billing is an optional feature that allows you to automatically schedule your monthly billing tasks on specific dates and times during the month. This feature is available to RGP Cloud users only. 
  
  
• Declined Members receive an email notification:
  If a member’s payment is declined and you have your transactional email system set up, they will receive an email with a link to your website directing them to update their payment information. See a sample email below.

Days/Weeks After Billing

• Re-run Billing to pick up any declined members:
  From the Bill All Customers screen, you have the option of retrying only past-due customers.  Simply go to: Manage --> Billing --> Balances Due and select the appropriate option. Some declined cards will actually be approved days after running billing so we recommend retrying declined cards at least 3 days after the initial decline.
  
• Add any possible late fees to members still declined 
  
  
• Terminate & reverse dues
  If a member's payment has been declined for weeks, terminate & reverse dues.

Example Decline Email Sent on Day of Billing:

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{{firstname}}, you are receiving this email because of a billing issue for your {{facilityname}} membership. It looks like the credit card we have on file for you has been declined.

{{body}}

No big deal, happens to the best of us.  Please visit our website to update your billing information and pay your monthly dues so you can continue to enjoy {{facilityname}}.

AVOID $10 LATE FEE: Please visit our website within 5 DAYS to update your payment method. After 5 days, you will be charged a $10 late fee.

UPDATE BILLING INFO ONLINE: Please update your credit card and billing information on our website using the steps below:

Visit our website

Click MY MEMBERSHIP located at the top of the page

Complete the form with your new billing information

Please remember, members MUST pay past due balances prior to climbing.

MEMBERSHIP TERMINATED AFTER 14 DAYS: If we don't hear from you within 14 DAYS, we will assume you want your membership CANCELLED. At that time we will cancel your membership and any membership charges will be reversed. 

We appreciate you as a member and look forward to seeing you soon! Thanks for being part of the {{facilityname}} community!

Sincerely,

The Staff at {{facilityname}}

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