This guide shows you how to create a new Membership for your clients and explains what each setting does.
The information in this article is relevant to businesses using PhorestPay.
In this Article
Video Guide
Creating a Membership
To begin, go to Manager > Memberships.
Here, you will see a list of any existing Memberships that have been previously set up. To start creating a new Membership, select Add Membership.
Next, choose the type of Membership you would like to create. You can choose between Credit, Service, and Discount.
Not sure which Membership to create? Click here for a detailed guide on each type, including their ideal businesses and key benefits.
Membership Details
After choosing your Membership type, enter the initial Details.
| Billing frequency: | Billing frequency is how often your recurring membership charge is billed; you can set it in any increment of weeks/months/years (every 1 month, every 6 weeks, etc.). The billing cycle is calculated from the membership start date. For example, if a membership starts on the 3rd of the month with a billing frequency of 1 month, the next billing will occur on the 3rd of the following month. |
| Recurring fee: | This is the fee you will charge the client every week, month, or year. |
| Signup fee: | This is a one-off fee that customers pay when they purchase the membership, in addition to their recurring fee. |
| Signup fee tax: | This is the tax rate added to the Sign-up Fee. Please note that tax rates are not applied to the recurring fee for credit-based Memberships. Tax is applied when services are redeemed. |
| Membership has an end: |
You can set whether your membership has a duration (term limit) or uses a rolling approach. The rolling approach (setting toggle off) is the default setting. To apply a duration, enable Membership has an end, then select how many Cycles the membership will last for. The cycle will be based on the Billing Frequency you have set. For example, if you have set a billing frequency of ‘every 1 month', and you have added that it would end after 12 cycles, then your members will receive the membership for one year, after which they will expire, benefits will no longer be available, and any accumulated credit will expire. |
Adding Membership Benefits
Benefits are the rewards clients receive after purchasing a membership. A membership can have one or multiple benefits. To begin adding a benefit, continue and select New Benefit.
Depending on the type of Membership you are creating, you can choose from different Benefits to add.
Credit
A Credit benefit allows clients to use a $ amount of credit toward services and/or products each billing cycle.
To create a Credit benefit, enter the total Credit Amount and select whether it applies to Services and Retail. You can set it for all services, specific categories, individual services, all retail products, or select retail brands only.
Recurring Service
The Recurring Service option allows you to offer a set number of selected services that clients can redeem on a recurring basis.
You can offer a single service, multiple services, a choice between certain services, or a combination of select services with some choices.
To add multiple services, add your first service, specify the number of Total Sessions, click Add Benefit, and then repeat the process to add another service.
To create service choices, add one service, then click Add option to add another. When you specify Total Sessions in a choice, the number of remaining sessions decreases each time someone books any choice.
Service benefits refresh each time the Membership bills. Setting a Renewal Frequency lets you change that by setting how many billing cycles pass before the sessions refresh.
For example, on a Membership billed monthly, a Renewal Frequency of 3 gives the client their sessions once every three months while they continue to be billed each month.
Service Discount and Retail Discount
The Service Discount and Retail Discount options enable clients with this membership to automatically receive a set discount amount on services and/or retail purchases.
You can choose to apply the discount to all services, specific categories, individual services, all retail products, or select retail brands only.
When creating a Credit type Membership, you can also choose to make the discount Only available after credit is spent, meaning clients will only start to receive the discount automatically after they have used all of the Credit available to them in that billing cycle.
Custom
A Custom benefit is an informational perk added to a Membership to highlight non-monetary extras like "Free coffee," "VIP events," or "Free parking." These benefits are not processed or booked in the Phorest system; they serve as short text items shown on the Membership Benefits tab, during online purchases, and in the client’s Membership view.
Allowing Memberships to be Purchased Online
Next, choose whether the Membership can be purchased online.
For more information on online Memberships and how they work, click here.
Adding Terms and Activating the Membership
Finally, add the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) to your Membership (if applicable); they will be displayed to clients online. Then click Save to finish.
You can also copy and paste T&Cs between Memberships. However, if you are using Phorest desktop (as opposed to Phorest in a browser), right-click copy/paste isn't available. On a Mac, use Command + C to copy and Command + V to paste. On Windows, use Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste.
Your membership is now active and ready to sell to clients. Click here for more information on selling a membership.
Allowing Membership Benefits to Rollover/Accumulate
You can set a limit on the total number of credits or services a member can hold in their balance at any time by going to Memberships > Settings.
This setting applies across all of your Memberships rather than to an individual Membership plan, so changing it affects every Membership you offer.