We have started analysis for this issue, and it seems that key problem is how Wild Apricot handles level changes close to renewal date. The system is currently designed to collect the full new level amount and set renewal date according to new level renewal policy. All prepaid amounts for old levels are disposed. Moreover, since no prorating occurs, the new level might be effective only for a few days.
As a first step, we suggest to redesign how level change is working and add prorating there:
- Level would be changed immediately, as now
- Remaining portion of old membership level payment will be applied to new level
- For new levels with specific renewal date (e.g. annual levels with renewals Jan 1st) apply the pro-rating settings for new applications:
- Allow member to pay only a pro-rated amount of the new level fee (e.g. six months before renewal date)
- Allow member to renew for one extra period (e.g. when level changed in December)
See attached diagram for details
Do these changes seem reasonable to you? If not – what would you change and why?
If you have some spare time, we would appreciate a short interview with you about your level setup and change level policy – just reply to post or email onesterkin [at] personifycorp.com
We have started analysis for this issue, and it seems that key problem is how Wild Apricot handles level changes close to renewal date. The system is currently designed to collect the full new level amount and set renewal date according to new level renewal policy. All prepaid amounts for old levels are disposed. Moreover, since no prorating occurs, the new level might be effective only for a few days.
As a first step, we suggest to redesign how level change is working and add prorating there:
- Level would be changed immediately, as now
- Remaining portion of old membership level payment will be applied to new level
- For new levels with specific renewal date (e.g. annual levels with renewals Jan 1st) apply the pro-rating settings for new applications:
- Allow member to pay only a pro-rated amount of the new level fee (e.g. six months before renewal…
This is a very serious issue. I am dumbfounded that you have been aware of it for so long and have not fixed it. In fact you recognized it as such in your response to me in April 2016 (Inquiry 13088) and stated you were working on it.
There are two issues here. One is renewing at a different level ($20 student, $50 regular, $100 contributing, etc) and the second is the term of membership (1 year, 2 years, etc.) which is treated as a membership level. The two should be disconnected. A person should join or renew at the desired level and separately choose the term of membership. That would solve a lot.
The statements in these comments that the program does not change the renewal date for a level change are not exactly correct. What the program does is set the renewal date to the end of the current membership year. In other words, if a member renewed a calendar year membership on 12/27/17 at a different level, the next renewal date would be set to 1/1/2018 -- no change. But a member who renews at a different level on 1/2/18 will have the next renewal date set to 1/1/2019. Only the members who renew before the expiration of their current membership are mishandled. In our organization we get about a quarter of our renewals before the end of the old year and the remainder in the new year. So some members are correct and others need to be manually corrected.
Frankly, I cannot imagine a situation where a member would want to change levels in the middle of a year and not at the time of renewing. We have been using Wild Apricot since 2011 and have about 700 members and no one has ever asked to change a level midyear. If it ever did come up it would probably be necessary to create a manual invoice as the price would most likely have to be pro-rated. Asking a program such as Wild Apricot to handle these calculations would be unreasonable. Therefore, level changes should simply be incorporated in the renewal process. In fact, all that is really needed is to change the manner in which the next renewal date is set to make it advance one period in all cases. (A period could be one or more years.)
This is a major glitch and needs to be addressed promptly.
David Goodrich
This is a very serious issue. I am dumbfounded that you have been aware of it for so long and have not fixed it. In fact you recognized it as such in your response to me in April 2016 (Inquiry 13088) and stated you were working on it.
There are two issues here. One is renewing at a different level ($20 student, $50 regular, $100 contributing, etc) and the second is the term of membership (1 year, 2 years, etc.) which is treated as a membership level. The two should be disconnected. A person should join or renew at the desired level and separately choose the term of membership. That would solve a lot.
The statements in these comments that the program does not change the renewal date for a level change are not exactly correct. What the program does is set the renewal date to the end of the current membership year. In other words, if a member renewed a calendar year membership on 12/27/17 at a different level, the next renewal date would be set to 1/1/2018 -- no change. But a member who renews at a different level on 1/2/18 will have the next renewal date set to 1/1/2019. Only the members who renew before the expiration of their current membership are mishandled. In our organization we get about a quarter of our renewals before the end of the old year and the remainder in the new year. So some members are correct and others need to be manually corrected.
Frankly, I cannot imagine a situation where a member would want to change levels in the middle of a year and not at the time of renewing. We have been using Wild Apricot since 2011 and have about 700 members and no one has ever asked to change a level midyear. If it ever did come up it would probably be necessary to create a manual invoice as the price would most likely have to be pro-rated. Asking a program such as Wild Apricot to handle these calculations would be unreasonable. Therefore, level changes should simply be incorporated in the renewal process. In fact, all that is really needed is to change the manner in which the next renewal date is set to make it advance one period in all cases. (A period could be one or more years.)
This is a major glitch and needs to be addressed promptly.