The dues payment plan functionality allows for the setup of a payment plan for an individual allowing their dues to be paid in payments and/or set on auto renew. Plans on auto renew will have a plan created in the following dues year. A payment plan can only be setup if the payment is by credit card.
A plan can have multiple payments, on auto renew or not, or just one payment on auto renew. Within a plan multiple items can be paid (ie..dues and contribution(s) or multiple contribution accounts). Each person can have multiple plans in one dues year, but a specific item (ie..dues or a specific contribution account) can’t be covered by more than one plan in a year for the same person.
Initial Setup
The dues payment plan functionality has to be turned on in the system by CDS. If you would like to utilize dues payment plans, please contact CDS support to have this functionality setup and turned on.
Before the functionality can be turned on certain information is required. Each association needs to have custom payment plan programming added to the system to handle the setup of the payment plans per that associations requirements. To create this custom payment plan programming, the answer to these questions are needed.
How many payments in a plan, if allowing multiple payments ?
If the initial payment is made before or in the first month of the dues year, how many payments would be in the plan.
Do you have a “catch up” initial payment ?
If the initial payment, for a renewing member, is made after the first month of the dues year, is the amount in the initial payment increased to “catch up” to the month the payment is being made or is the total due divided over the remaining months.
If your association has 12 monthly payments, and if the person had paid their $480 dues before or in the first month of the dues year, all 12 payments would be $40. If the initial payment is not made until the 3rd month of the dues year, with a “catch up” initial payment the initial payment would be $120 and the 9 subsequent payments would be $40. If there is no “catch up”, the $480 is divided by the 10 months remaining in the year, and the initial payment and all 9 subsequent payments would be $48.
Do you allow those making a one time, full, payment to select to go on auto renew ?
Can contributions be part of a payment plan ?
If yes, which contribution accounts can be included in a plan ?
Do you charge a processing/payment plan fee ?
If yes, how is the fee calculated (flat or percentage) ?
If yes, when is the fee charged (all in the initial payment or across each payment) ?
Do you charge a late fee if the initial payment, for a renewing member, is received after a specified date ?
If yes, what is the first date the late fee is charged ?
If yes, what is the amount of the late fee ?
If yes, when is the fee charged (all in the initial payment or across each payment) ?
Are there any differences in your payment plan structure for new members vs renewing members ?
Will you want emails to be sent to members on a payment plan? Please send samples for the email(s) you want setup.
These payment plan related emails are available to be setup.
Payment Plan Confirmation – Sent when initial payment is made for a monthly plan and the plan is setup. Note: Not sent if payment plan was setup using the Auto Renew Payment Plan routine.
Payment Plan Receipt – Sent when each subsequent monthly payment, after the initial, or one-time payment is processed. The email can have varied text for approvals and declines.
Reauthorization Decline – This email is only applicable for associations using Payflow/Paypal. Sent when reauthorization of the stored token fails. Since usually run 90 days after last payment would only be applicable for one-time plans.
Auto Renewal Setup – Sent after the Auto Renew Payment Plan routine is run and plans for the new dues year are setup.
Payment Plan Reminder – Sent a set number of days prior to when scheduled payment will be processed (applicable for one-time plans) or when the credit card will be expired prior to next scheduled payment.
Which staff person should receive the daily payment plans processed email ?
Once the custom payment plan programming for the setup of the dues payment plans has been loaded to your system and the functionality has been turned on, the below outlines processes related to using the dues payment plan function.
Annual Dues Process
These 4 steps need to be done in the order outlined.
These steps are to be incorporated into the steps outlined in the Post Annual Dues document.
1 - Review custom payment plan program and/or emails
If there are any changes to your associations requirements for the setting up of payment plans (see list of questions above), and/or emails sent to those on a payment plan, those need to be communicated to CDS support with enough lead time for those changes to be made and loaded to your system prior to posting dues in step 2. These changes must be implemented before dues payments are received which can happen any time after dues are posted.
Warning! Do not go beyond step 1 until the updated custom programming and/or payment plan emails have been loaded to your system.
2 - Post dues
Dues are posted as usual (run steps 1 – 19 in the Post Annual Dues document).
Warning! Do not run step 3 until the billings have been posted for the new dues year (step 14 in post annual dues document).
3 - Create new auto renew payment plans
If your association does not have any plans on auto renew in the dues year ending, this step can be skipped.
Note: If you don’t know if your association has auto renew plans run dues – reports – payment plan – payment plan. In wizard step 1 set the dues year to the dues year ending, wizard step 2 select ‘all plan types’, wizard step 3 select ‘all plans’, and in wizard step 4 only check the box for ‘auto renew’.
If your association does have plans on auto renew in the dues year ending, this step needs to be completed before continuing to step 4. Warning! Do not run this step until step 1 and 2 are complete.
Note: If you are intending on contacting those with an auto renew plan in the dues year ending showing what their current plan is and give them the option to go off auto renew, change what items are in the plan, or amount for a contribution, the response must be received and updates must be completed before the auto renew plans for the new dues year are setup. Since step 2 and 3 should be done one right after the other, in reality these changes have to be completed before Post Annual Dues is run.
Warning! In the new auto renew plans, the dues amount may be different, but what items are included in the plan will be the same. If someone wants changes to what items are in the plan, or the amount for a contribution in the new dues year, the plan in the year just ending has to have the auto renew status changed to Active before Auto Renew Payment Plan is run. This is so a plan will not be setup in the new dues year by the Auto Renew Payment Plan routine. The member can then setup a new plan, with different items and/or contribution amounts when they make their initial payment in the new dues year.
Immediately after billings have been posted (see step 14 in post annual dues document) and before creating invoices (see step 21 in post annual dues document), if your association has plans on auto renew in the dues year ending, run Dues – Routines – Special Routines - Auto Renew Payment Plan to create plans in the new dues year for those on auto renew.
Warning! If you wait too long after adding billings for the new dues year to run Auto Renew Payment Plan, members may fully pay when they have an auto renew plan with multiple payments or not understand why they are having to setup a new plan with their payment when they said to go on auto renew in the prior year.
Note: If there is a delay, and the Auto Renew Payment Plan routine is not run until after the first day of the new dues year, plans may be setup with a scheduled payment date in the past. Each state has custom code to determine the scheduled payment dates on the new plans. Example: most societies with one-time payment plans use the first day of the new dues year as the scheduled payment date. Scheduled payments are run early in the morning, so if the Auto Renew Payment Plan routine is not run until the first day of the new dues year, or later, then those plans with a scheduled payment date on the first day of the new dues year will not be processed.
4 - Generate invoices
The generation of dues invoices is done as usual (see steps 21, 22, and 23 in Post Annual Dues document).
Note: Be aware of the option in the Specify Payment Plan Option step of Dues – Routines – Invoice Process – Step 2: Print Original Invoices From Print File that allows for excluding persons on payment plan in current year.
Warning! Plans for the prior year (dues year ending) can have payment plan payments processed all the way up to the final day of that dues year. So if your dues invoice shows a past due balance or the current dues balance (which includes past due), you may need to have the invoice updated so the amount shown is strictly for the new year’s dues, excluding the past due portion being covered by the plan in the dues year ending.
Additional processes related to dues payment plans
Dues Payment and Dues Adjustment
When the dues payment plan functionality is turned on a different Dues Payment screen is used. This dues payment plan dues payment screen, in addition to having the standard dues payment functions, allows for the selection of setting up a payment plan and/or going on auto renew for those paying by credit card.
A payment plan is setup at the time the initial payment is made. A plan can’t be setup without a payment because information needed for subsequent credit card payments can only be captured once an initial payment has been posted. Note: An exception is when Auto Renew Payment Plan is run to setup new plans for those with an existing auto renew plan.
Dues adjustments have no effect on an existing payment plan. An adjustment will affect the dues current balance but the existing payment plan amounts are not affected.
So, if the amount of dues posted needs to be changed for someone who wishes to have a payment plan setup, the dues adjustment must be entered prior to the plan being setup or at the time of the initial payment in the dues payment screen.
Note: Once a plan is setup the processing dates,
amounts, and items being paid in the plan can’t be changed. Contact CDS support
if a plan needs any of this information changed. This includes someone who has
an existing multi-payment plan and the original dues amount was incorrect. A
dues adjustment can be entered to update the net billed amount, but CDS support
needs to be contacted to have the amounts on the future payments in the plan
changed.
Job server
Once a payment plan is setup, in general, there is nothing else to be done. Any future payments will be processed automatically by the job server, which runs daily, on the payment dates assigned.
If your association has emails sent, as part of the process, to people on a payment plan those will also automatically be sent via the job server.
A daily payment plans processed email is sent to the specified staff person with information, including if the payment was processed or declined, for that day’s scheduled payments.
Action will be required on declined payments.
If for some reason the credit card processor could not process the payments or there is a problem with the job server (no daily payment plans processed email would be sent) contact CDS support.
View plan
Payment plans for a person can be viewed by clicking on the Payment Plan link text on the Names Dues tab.
Note: If the person has never had a payment plan the link text is not shown. This will open the View Payment Plan screen.
The payment plan screen is grouped by plan. The parent row displays a summary for each plan and the child rows detail the items, dates and amounts for that plan.
There are three possible Status settings for a plan. An active plan not set on auto renew has a status of Active. An active plan set on auto renew has a status of Auto Renew. A plan that has been cancelled has a status of Cancelled.
Update credit card information
Updates to the credit card used on a payment plan can be made from the view payment plan screen. There are various reasons for needing to update the credit card information on a payment plan. It may be done because someone asks to have the credit card used changed/updated, a payment is declined for an expired card or other issue with the credit card.
To edit card information, including the credit card number, CCV (if used), expiration date, paid by and payor, use the Update Card Info action on the view payment plan screen.
Pay off early
If someone would like to pay off the balance on a plan, use the Pay Balance action on the parent row of the plan to pay off on the view payment plan screen.
Reprocess a payment
If a payment has been declined, once the issue causing the decline has been resolved (updated credit card information or processing issue) use the Reprocess Payment action for that child row on the view payment plan screen to reprocess the declined payment.
Process a missed payment
If a scheduled payment has been missed, once the issue causing it to be missed has been resolved, use the Process Payment action for that child row on the view payment plan screen to process the missed payment.
Cancel plan
The only reason a plan should have to be cancelled is if the items covered in the plan and/or amounts for a contribution in a plan need to be changed. To cancel a plan use the Cancel Payment Plan action on the parent row of the plan to cancel on the view payment plan screen. When a plan is cancelled, if applicable, no additonal payments will be processed through the job server. If the plan was on auto renew that is also cancelled.
Change auto renew setting
When a plan in the current dues year has a Status of Auto Renew, that means the person wants to have a plan, paying for the same items with the same contribution amounts (if applicable), in the next dues year.
If that is no longer the case, use the Remove Auto Renew action on the view payment plan screen which will change the Status from Auto Renew to Active.
If a person has a plan, in the current dues year, with an action of Active and they want to go onto auto renew, use the Select Auto Renew action on the view payment plan screen which will change the Status from Active to Auto Renew.
Reports
The Dues – Reports – Receivables – Past Due Payment Plan report lists those with a dues payment plan who either have a missed or declined payment for a plan with a status of Active or Auto Renew.
The Dues – Reports – Payment Plan – Payment Plan report lists information about dues payment plans for the specified dues year. The report can be run by type of plan, items in the plan, and plan status.