Build a Membership Plan

Sell a client membership covers putting a membership on a ticket. This page is the other half: designing the plan people buy.

Business Settings → Memberships → Membership Packages: "Here you can create and manage membership packages." Create Membership Package opens the editor: "Define a reusable membership plan with pricing, billing, and benefits."

The editor is grouped: Basic Settings, Plan Options, Restrictions, Advanced Settings. There is a search box on the plan settings too ("Search plan settings…") for when you know the field's name but not its tab.

Basic settingsCopy a link to this section

Name, description, price and billing interval. The name is client-facing; it appears on their receipts, in their renewal messages, and in the online booking flow, so "Gold Monthly" beats "plan-2-v3".

Price and interval are what actually recur. A membership is a subscription: it charges the client's card on its own schedule and generates its own invoices. When one succeeds the client gets "Your payment of $X for {product} was successful"; when it fails, "Please update your payment method to continue enjoying your membership benefits."

Each membership charge, the first one and every renewal, is a card payment like any other. What reaches your payout is the price minus the card processing fee, the recurring billing fee Stripe charges on subscription invoices, and the platform fee every online card payment carries. Those fees show under Processing Fees in the Period Summary. If you refund a membership charge, the client gets the full amount back but the fees are not returned, so the refunded share of them is taken from your Stripe balance (or from your later payouts when the balance cannot cover it), the same as for a refunded ticket. See Money you owe Perceny.

Charging every member on the same dayCopy a link to this section

Billing Cycle decides which day the charges land on. On Sale Date bills each member on the day they joined. Monthly, quarterly and yearly plans can instead bill on First of Month, 15th of Month or a Custom Day.

Weekly and bi-weekly plans can bill on a Day of the Week: pick it under Billing Day of Week ("Members can start any day, and every charge lands on the billing day. The first charge setting decides what the days before it cost."). A Tuesday plan sold on a Wednesday:

1. Starts that Wednesday, so the client can use it straight away.
2. Charges for the days before the first Tuesday, as First Charge says (below).
3. Charges the full price every Tuesday after that (every other Tuesday on a bi-weekly plan).

First Charge decides what those first days cost:

• Prorate Whole Days: the sale charges the whole days from the start day up to the billing day, so a Tuesday plan sold on a Wednesday charges six of its seven days. Days are counted whole, whatever time of day you sell it: a $180 weekly plan billed on Saturdays and sold on a Thursday charges 2 days, $51.43.
• Free Until Billing Day: nothing is charged at the sale. The first charge is the full price on the billing day.
• Business Default: the package follows the business setting, which you set under Business Settings → Features Configuration → Membership Settings, in Membership Billing → First Charge. A new business prorates whole days.

Sold on a Tuesday, it simply charges the full price that day. When you sell one, the start date shows the billing day and what the first charge covers. A membership with a future start date is charged its first amount on the start date instead (or nothing until the billing day when the package is free until then), and moving the start date of a membership that has not started yet works the same way: it starts on the new date and keeps billing on the plan's day.

TaxesCopy a link to this section

Taxes on the package are charged on top of its price, like the taxes on a service or a product: a $180 package with an 8% tax charges $194.40, and the ticket shows $180 plus $14.40 tax. A prorated first charge carries its share of the tax. Changing a package's taxes re-prices its memberships from their next renewal, so what Stripe charges and what the ticket shows always agree.

Plan discountsCopy a link to this section

Plan Discounts: "Set discount amounts that apply to all services in this membership plan." This is the blanket benefit: 20% off everything.

Service-Specific Discounts: "Configure different discount amounts for specific services." This is the precise version: a free blowout each month, 50% off colour, nothing off retail.

Use them together. A blanket 15% with a service-specific 40% on the one service you want to fill mid-week is a much better plan than a flat number, and it costs you less.

Decide what the plan does not cover before you launch. Retail, add-ons and gift cards are the usual exclusions, and a member who assumed otherwise is an awkward conversation at the desk.

Where it appliesCopy a link to this section

In a location group the editor shows Where it applies: This Location Only or All Locations in the Group. A plan shared with the group is sold and honoured at every location, and still edited at the location that created it. The group's Sharing settings decide what a new plan starts as.

Sharing does not make you rebuild the plan. A service-specific discount on a service that only this location offers stays on the plan and counts only here; a service the group catalog pushes to every location counts everywhere; the blanket discount counts everywhere. Change the scope on a plan you already sell and every current member keeps it, now usable at every location.

Plans you built before the second location opened can all be shared at once from Group → Settings → Sharing → Share what already exists. See Run more than one location.

RestrictionsCopy a link to this section

{Stylist} Restrictions: "Limit which {stylists} memberships sold from this plan can be used with." And the consequence, from the field's own help:

"Every membership sold from this plan inherits this restriction. When it names exactly one {stylist}, the sale is credited to them."

That is the single most important sentence on the page. A plan restricted to one person is that person's plan: they get the commission, and the client can only use it with them.

There is a per-membership version of the same thing (Restrict Membership to Specific {stylists}) for adjusting an individual membership after it is sold, without changing the plan.

Letting the client chooseCopy a link to this section

Let the Client Choose Their {Stylist}: "When this plan does not name exactly one {stylist}, ask the client to pick one while buying online. The sale is credited to their choice, and the membership can then only be used with them."

The client sees "Choose your {stylist}" with the warning "Pick the {stylist} this membership will be with. You will only be able to use it with them."

This is how a shop sells one plan and still attributes each sale to a person. Two things follow from turning it on:

1. The choice is binding; the membership is locked to that stylist afterwards.
2. If nobody is available, the client is told: "No {stylists} are available for this membership right now."

Leave it off and an online sale belongs to the business, with no stylist commission.

Commission on the saleCopy a link to this section

Membership plan commission: "Set commission earned by the {stylist} who sells this membership. Applies on top of any tier commission unless 'override regular commission' is enabled."

Read the second half. By default this commission is in addition to whatever the tier ladder pays; the override flag makes it the whole story instead. Getting this backwards is a common cause of "my commission looks wrong" in a month with lots of membership sales. See Commission tiers and the matrix.

Selling can be restricted too; attempts outside the rules are refused rather than mis-attributed: "This membership plan cannot be sold by the selected {stylist}", and "This membership plan does not let the client choose their {stylist}".

Requiring a membership to bookCopy a link to this section

Once a plan exists you can gate booking on it. Memberships Required to Book (Appointment Settings): "Clients must hold an active membership in one of the selected plans to book online. Leave empty to let anyone book. A service or {stylist} can narrow this with its own list."

It nests three deep, most specific winning:

• Business: the default requirement.
• {Stylist}: "Leave empty to inherit the business's requirement."
• Service: "Leave empty to inherit the {stylist}'s or business's requirement."

So you can run a members-only stylist inside an open shop, or a members-only service inside an open menu. See Appointment settings, switch by switch.

Managing what you have soldCopy a link to this section

Manage Memberships: "Here you can manage the memberships of your clients." Per membership: view details, Update Subscription, and three lifecycle actions, each confirming what the client keeps:

• Cancel: "The client will retain access until the end of the current billing period." They also get the Membership Canceled message: "Your benefits will continue until {endDate}."
• Pause: "The client will retain access until the end of the current billing period, but no further charges will be made."
• Resume: "The client will be charged according to the billing cycle and will regain full access."

Nobody loses a period they have already paid for. That is worth knowing before you cancel someone mid-month expecting a refund.

Before you launch a planCopy a link to this section

1. Price it against what a member actually consumes, not against your list prices.
2. Write down what it excludes.
3. Decide who gets the commission: plan restriction, client choice, or business.
4. Sell one to yourself, use the benefit on a real ticket, and let it renew once.

That last step catches more problems than any amount of reading the form.