Croquet England Logo
Croquet England Logo

Subscription and Membership Management

toggle Contents... -

DatabaseHelp Online Croquet England Directory Help.

This page details how to manage your organisation's subscription (or membership) renewals and how to record the associated payments. The processes to Add, Modify and Delete Club Members are described on a separate page.

Introduction

Subscription Memberships are managed as subscriptions by the club's administrators. Each organisation manages its own subscriptions, usually renewing them annually; Croquet England is responsible for managing Standard subscriptions to it once a club creates them, though the club remains responsible for indicating if it is the Primary Club for each of its members through their club subscription record.

Most clubs have more than one kind of subscription so each subscription also references a Subscription Type (e.g. Social Member). The Subscription Type defines the characteristics and privileges of the subscription or membership, including its cost. Its settings apply to all subscriptions of that type.

Expired subscriptions are not deleted, they remain in the database but are no longer routinely visible.

A Subscription joins a person to a club or other organisation and so is a type of Connector (which are also used for labels, such as officer roles, and groups, such as committees). Connectors expire and come into effect automatically according to their date settings with midnight being the change-over point: a subscription (or connection) starts immediately after midnight on its start date and ends at midnight on its end date. To expire a subscription immediately, set its end date to yesterday (or use the Delete expire feature). To start a new subscription, set its start date to today or earlier.

The Do Not Renew setting in a subscription indicates that an individual wishes their subscription to run to term but not renew (e.g. they notify the club mid-year that they will not rejoin the following year but want to enjoy benefits already paid for).

Managing Subscriptions

Subscriptions can be recorded in the database as not expiring until the administrator decides otherwise, or they can be actively managed, including recording payments and chasing non-payers.

Subscriptions that have no payment associated with them, for example, members of clubs where the club separately manages payments, are marked as status Not Managed.

When a managed subscription is created (or extended), it is marked as status Due, and when payment is made, it is marked as Paid.

Subscriptions can be dealt with in bulk with an admin process, for example, to mark renewals as due for payment, or to expire those who have not paid three months after the due date. In brief: the administrator can:

Croquet England does not presently support clubs by taking payment for subscriptions online or through Direct Debit, though it does so for its own subscriptions - club admins should, therefore, ignore any mention here of online payment and Direct Debit, though the CSV file interfaces can be used to generate a bank demand file and bulk update payment records for clubs that use a Direct Debit payment service.

Admins may process a membership payment for an individual subscription, automatically marking the subscription status as Paid. This is accomplished as follows:

A user may make an online payment (CqE only) to settle a subscription that is marked as Due, unless their record is marked as having a Direct Debit arrangement in place.

Bulk Upload of Subscription Payments

Records of multiple subscription payments might exist in a spreadsheet file, for example by downloading from a bank account statement. The set of payments can be saved as a CSV file and uploaded to update member subscriptions.

The CSV file need only contain the Name and Amount, but each line could also specify the Date, Payment Method (MoP), and/or Reference code.

The uploaded CSV is processed line-by-line, by searching the organisation's members for one whose display name matches all or part of the imported line. If only one member matches, it is used, else an error is raised and the CSV is not imported. The matching method can be improved on request, presently it must be an exact match or match the first part of the Display Name - for example, "Dave K" in the Name column of the uploaded CSV would match a member named "Dave Kibble" (but would also match if one were called "Dave Kildare" and in that case would generate an error and not import any of the payments).

After uploading, if each data row in the uploaded CSV file matches a subscription that is marked as Due, a payment record is raised for the member, and their subscription is marked as Paid.

If any errors are detected, no payments are imported and all errors are displayed so they can be corrected and another upload tried.

The feature can be found as menu option PAY BACS Upload Payments CSV on the admin menu under Subscription Payments.

Note: the first row of the CSV file must be the headings, rows 2 onwards contain the data (one membership payment per row), and there can be no blank rows.

Primary Club and Club Membership

Croquet England Club subscriptions are based on the number of playing members the club has. If a person is a member of more than one club, only one club needs to count them as a playing member; this is managed by one club membership being declared as the player's Primary Club membership. In general, a club should assume it is a member's Primary Club unless told otherwise. Many clubs offer a second club discount that takes into account that they do not pay anything to Croquet England for that player. The system ensures a person has only one Primary Club - the one last declared as such.

Club subscription types include a parameter Is Playing Member: Primary Club members of that type are included in the member count for the Croquet England per-capita subscription fee.

An individual can join a club online by clicking the Add Membership button on the Memberships tab of their personal details record. Club admins may control this capability by the available online settings of its subscription types (default: available). Anyone can create a new online account and use this mechanism to apply to join a club - which is a good way to capture the details of new club members.

New memberships of clubs cannot be paid online through the online Croquet England Directory, so "join online" does nothing more than send an email request to the club's secretary, which contains a link for a club administrator to follow and click "Save" if they agree (adding any payment information if they are using the online Croquet England Directory for that purpose). The link emailed to the club secretary reduces their workload as much as possible by taking them immediately to the point in the add-member process that would have been reached had they navigated through the options already selected by the prospective member. This includes options to simultaneously create a Croquet England Standard Subscription, as well as choosing whether to set the club to be the new member's Primary Club.

An individual who is a member of one or more clubs may select any of their memberships as being their Primary Club. Likewise, the relevant club admins can set a subscription to their club as the member's Primary Club.

No one can make a club "not their Primary Club", other than by assigning a new Primary Club or by terminating a Primary Club membership (which leaves them with no Primary Club).

People who have no Primary Club but have active club memberships are assigned to their most recently joined club as their Primary Club by an overnight automatic process.

Visual Clues

Three stylings are used in listings to help make sense of the subscription being viewed:

Changing Subscription Type and Terminating a Subscription

Admin may modify a member's subscription, or they can do it for themselves.

Click the View view icon in a membership line and select the option Change Subscription or Options, then select from Change Subscription Type or End Subscription.

Resigning members are automatically set to Do Not Renew and their subscription continues for the existing subscription period, or their subscription is terminated immediately. This is most easily accomplished by using the Delete expire feature.

To support offers, such as an introductory rate, a subscription type may link to another subscription type that is to be used when renewing. For example, a year-one discounted subscription type would be renewed as a regular one. This is done by setting the introductory subscription to Do Not Renew and creating a new subscription (of the new type) to start the day after the current one expires. Thankfully, that process is automated.

Changes During Renewal

Care must be taken when changing a member's subscription type, especially during a renewal period where their subscription type changes (for example year-one to year-two). If the subscription year is January to December, and renewal bills are sent out in November:

Organisation Configuration for Subscriptions

An organisation has several properties that govern aspects of all its subscriptions:

Subscription Types Configuration

Apart from the name, code, description, other basic information, and organisation-specific rights, subscription types accept the following parameters, which have special uses:

Subscription Renewal Process (Bulk Action)

To manage the organisation's membership subscriptions, Admin, usually a short while before subscriptions expire, does the following for subscriptions other than Croquet England Standard subscriptions:

  1. Check that the membership subscription types and rates are correct and complete, updating them as necessary
  2. Check that there are no unpaid subscriptions from the previous period - if there are, they should be cancelled to avoid mixing them up with the renewals
    • Cancelling will mark any Due payment to Unpaid
  3. Having selected all subscriptions a single button push can update continuing subscriptions marking them Due and extending their end date as follows:
    1. Select all active subscribers for action on the Subscribers List screen:
      1. In the screen header section, select all the subscription types, which is most easily done by clicking the Select All checkbox. Then click List Selected Subscribers
      2. When the chosen subscribers are listed, click the Select All tickbox at the foot of the page so that each subscription record has a ticked checkbox next to it
    2. From the action buttons at the foot of the page, click Renew Selected. The system then does the following:
      1. Subscriptions already marked Do Not Renew are ignored (and thereby allowed to expire at their end date)
      2. Subscriptions that have not yet come into effect are ignored - they are follow-on subscriptions that have been paid for already
      3. Subscriptions already marked as payment Due are ignored - they are candidates to manually expire
      4. Subscriptions that end more than six months hence are ignored - they are assumed to be a multi-year deal or lifetime member. Note that unmanaged subscriptions have an end date of Never. Croquet England Standard subscriptions also have an end date of Never
      5. Other Subscriptions of a type that have a Renew-As type set differently to the current subscription type:
        1. The existing subscription is set to Do Not Renew (and so will expire at its end date)
        2. A new subscription is created of the Renew-As type and it is:
          1. marked as status Due (unless the new type has a nil price)
          2. set to start the day after the existing subscription expires
          3. set to end one year after the existing subscription expires
          4. Important note: this new subscription has not yet started so is not set as active - care must be taken to ensure it is included in any data sets used to communicate with subscribers.
      6. All other Subscriptions are set to expire one year after their current expiry date (expecting them to be aligned to the organisation's subscription year), and their status is set to Due if the subscription price is non-zero (or the subscription type is Per Capita (CA), which is used for some Croquet England Affiliate Clubs); otherwise, the subscription status is not changed (usually it would be Not Managed or Paid)

Care must be taken when changing a member's subscription type during a renewal period - refer to the note Changing Subscription Type.

Informing Members of their Renewed Subscription

The Administrator can download a mail merge CSV file (spreadsheet) with user details and payment type to raise subscription renewal communications. This must have all Due subscriptions, including those yet to start (to cover those renewing as a different type). The process is:

Croquet England subscriptions marked as Due, other than Direct Debit ones, are available for subscribers to pay online, if enabled.

Unpaid Direct Debit payment records are available to download to drive a Direct Debit demand process. The uploaded Direct Debit run report sets paid subscriptions to Paid and raises a payment record with MoP of Direct Debit.

Management reports show the status of subscription renewals, and can be configured flexibly by payment status and MoP.

Admins can list all subscriptions that have expired (and therefore no payment received) to drive a mail merge reminder, and eventually to expire them.

Admins can view subscription payment details, and can download them in a CSV file for importing into an external accounting system.

New Joiners

New subscribers may join (and, for Croquet England subscriptions) pay online, or can be created by an administrator using the main menu New Person option. On saving administrator-created new person records, the system redirects to record any related payment.

Club membership secretaries can be saved considerable work by asking new members to join online by filling in their personal details and selecting the club, which will send an email to the club's main contact to click and confirm the new subscription, whose payments can then easily be managed online.

Paying Online for a Due Subscription

(Croquet England subscriptions only) Viewing a subscription that is status Due, with a non-zero price, and not marked as Pay by Direct Debit includes a button to Pay Online, which, after confirmation, raises a payment record (marked not paid, and with the reference "Pay online attempt @<time>") and transfers to the secure third-party payment system. Please refer to the organisation configuration notes.

Return from a successful online payment marks the payment as paid and the subscription as paid and active, and makes the subscriber active if they were not.

Viewing a due subscription when the person pays by Direct Debit, shows a message "Your subscription payment is due and will be collected by Direct Debit".

Failure to complete payment, but returning to the Croquet England site (usually clicking cancel in the third-party online payment system), deletes the payment (which is already marked as not paid). Failing to return to the Croquet England site leaves the unpaid payment, which is deleted by an automatic daily process when sufficiently aged.

Important note: Payment for a subscription may not be from the subscriber (anyone can pay for anyone else's subscription renewal):

At renewal time, people not paying by Direct Debit should be emailed a link to their subscription and invited to "pay online".

At login, if their subscription is due and they are not Direct Debit payers, they are invited with a link to "pay online".

Sponsors and Who Pays

Each person who is a member of the organisation has a field called Sponsor (Person who pays) to allow family members to point to one person who pays all their subscriptions (usually by Direct Debit). If a person pays for themselves, then their sponsor is set to themselves (never blank).

Note that sponsors are maintained automatically to ensure they remain logically consistent despite changes to the database that could corrupt the relationship. Periodically:

  1. If the sponsor is not set then it is set to the individual (i.e. no one pays -> pay for self) (no change log is raised)
  2. If the sponsor is Pay by Direct Debit then all sponsored records are set to Pay by Direct Debit (no change log is raised)
  3. If the sponsor is not in the database or is not a Croquet England Subscriber then the subscriber is set to self-pay and a change log is created; Pay by Direct Debit is unchanged. Other processes must pick up that they have no bank details recorded
  4. Sponsors cannot be cascaded - if a sponsor has a separate sponsor then that top-level sponsor is cascaded down to all the people in the tree so they then all share the same (top-level) sponsor
  5. If there is a loop (A sponsors B and B sponsors A), then one is selected randomly as the sponsor for both
  6. If a person is set to Pay by Direct Debit but their sponsor is not then they are set to not Pay by Direct Debit and a change log is created

Payment Status

Available payment statuses are:

Note that Unpaid subscribers are not included in the listing when asking for Only if Due.

Croquet England Standard Subscribers

Standard subscribers (and U25 Standard subscribers) have a direct relationship with Croquet England (which is of a Heritable type). Please see the eligibility conditions.

The subscription is managed by Croquet England administrators exactly as any other subscription type (e.g. Premium), and is supported by a high degree of automation as described here. The subscription type flag Is Heritable enables the automation, meaning that Croquet England affiliated organisations can assign Croquet England subscriptions of that type to individuals, but they cannot thereafter control them.

If a person is not already an active Croquet England subscriber in any category, and has not been marked as blocked from heritable subscriptions, they become a Standard subscriber when an Affiliate Club registers them as a playing member of their club and as wanting a Croquet England Standard subscription.

An eligible individual can join online as a Standard subscriber by clicking the Add Membership button in their Memberships tab.

A person can be marked (or cleared) as blocked from heritable subscriptions by a Croquet England administrator editing their record.

Club admins can register a new Standard subscription for their club members by clicking on the Add Membership button in the subject's Membership tab.

They may also register by including the subject in an uploaded CSV membership file with a 1 in the Is Primary Club column (note: if not present this column is assumed 1), or by selecting a Standard subscription type when creating or editing a club membership direct.

Registering a Standard subscription in any of these ways also marks the individual's relevant club membership as Primary Club, even if the Standard subscription is not created because they are already a Croquet England subscriber.

Club admins may declare any club membership as Primary Club by viewing the subscription and clicking the Make Primary Club button. It is not possible to revoke the Primary Club designation other than by cancelling the club membership or making another club their Primary Club.

Subsequent uploads of a CSV file can update the individual's club membership Primary Club.

The Can Register Heritable Subscriptions flag in the Croquet England club subscription types controls which Clubs may make their members Standard subscribers to Croquet England.

Croquet England Standard subscriptions do not have an expiry date, and hence do not need to be renewed. Instead, the following process should be run by a Croquet England administrator shortly after year-end, to expire those no longer eligible for it:

  1. Run the Subscribers (Members) report selecting the Person Subscription Types Standard and U25 Standard, with Paid Status - All, Pay By Direct Debit - All, Active Subscriptions - Include, Expired Subscriptions - Exclude, Subscriptions Not Started - Exclude, Standard Associate Eligible - No, and Format CSV.
  2. The CSV file will contain a list of Standard subscribers whose subscriptions are about to be expired. This should be used to:
    1. Inform the members that their subscription as a Standard subscriber is about to expire
    2. Invite them to continue their Croquet England subscription by joining as a Supporter or Premium subscriber
    3. Explain that if they are a member of a club, they should check their Memberships tab and make sure their club memberships are recorded and one set as their Primary Club, which may allow their Standard subscriber subscription to continue if their club has declared its membership totals as part of its subscription renewal process
  3. A week later, run the report again, with the same settings except this time select Format Web. At the bottom of the list, there are buttons to Select All and then Expire Subscriptions

A Standard Subscription is not ended by

The subject of any subscription has a button to End this Membership that gives a choice of Immediately or At Term. When a direct Croquet England Subscriber so resigns, they should be reminded by the office staff that their club can make them a Croquet England Standard subscriber and that they may elect to block clubs from doing so.

Selecting the block marks the individual as blocked from heritable subscriptions and so prevents all clubs from creating a Croquet England Standard subscription for them.

The block can only be removed (or otherwise set) by a Croquet England administrator editing the individual's record.

U25 members are moved into regular categories by admin intervention, as with all direct membership types.

In summary, Croquet England Standard subscriptions are:

Croquet England Standard Subscription Eligibly

An individual is eligible for a Croquet England Standard subscription if all the following are true:

  1. They are a member of a Croquet England Affiliated Club that is marked as their Primary Club
  2. The club has confirmed its membership numbers and validated its membership list, or joined, since 1st September in the previous year [1]

A Croquet England Standard subscription can be created online for anyone eligible and not already a Croquet England subscriber by:

  1. An administrator of a club of which the individual is a member (which thereby becomes their Primary Club), or
  2. the prospective member direct, or
  3. the CSV upload of a club membership list, which is intended to initially populate the database with a club's membership list
    • A club CSV upload should be run only for eligible clubs since it de facto counts as the club confirming its membership list for the purpose of Standard subscription eligibility (i.e. it updates the club's membership confirmed date)

[1] Clubs must report their "as at 30 September" membership numbers by 31 December, and so could do it on 30 September, which would remain valid until December 31 in the following year (15 months). There is no need to check the club's paid status since it would have been expelled if remaining unpaid and so not be a Croquet England Affiliated club. Clubs become Due when membership renewal is run and remain so until Paid. 1st September is used as the cut-off date in case clubs jump the gun by a few days.

Direct Debit Processing

Subscribers' bank details are not held by Croquet England but by a specialist organisation. The online Croquet England Directory generates a CSV file report that lists who is to pay and how much, which the office staff use to trigger the BACS system into making payments through an external provider.

The report generated following the bank interaction is uploaded to the online Croquet England Directory using the Upload BACS Results CSV option and is processed as follows:

 

HelpUsing this website

Security and Privacy

Contact Us