Membership Fees

The Fees module is where you track and collect money from members — annual dues, monthly subscriptions, or one-time payments. It handles online payments via Stripe, manual payment recording for cash/bank transfers, and gives you a dashboard showing who’s paid and who hasn’t.

Fee payments list showing 43 member payments with statuses, amounts, and local centers

Setting up fees

Fees module settings showing toggles for membership fees, event ticket sales, and local center payments

Three things need to be in place before you can collect:

Connect Stripe

Settings → Fees → Stripe Integration. Follow the setup wizard to link your Stripe account. See Stripe Integration.

Create a fee product

Settings → Fees → Products → create a product of type “Fee”. Add price tiers for different membership levels. See Products.

Enable the Fees module

Settings → Fees → Module Settings. Turn on the module and optionally make fees mandatory for membership.

The fees dashboard

Sidebar → Fees

Products list showing annual membership fee, donation fund, and local center membership products

The dashboard gives you a complete picture:

Section	What it shows
Overview	Total collected, collection rate, breakdown by method
Payments	All payments — filterable by status, product, member, date, amount, Local Center
Pending	Payments awaiting admin action (manual payments to approve)
Subscriptions	Active recurring subscriptions with next billing dates
Unpaid	Members who haven’t paid for the current period

Payment statuses

Status	What it means
Success	Paid — Stripe processed the charge or admin confirmed manual payment
Open	Payment initiated but not completed (abandoned checkout, pending bank transfer)
Pending Accept	Manual payment (cash, bank transfer) recorded — needs admin approval
Refunded	Payment returned to the payer
Canceled	Payment was canceled before completion

Member fee status

Each member has a fee status for the current period:

Status	What it means	What to do
Paid	Current period fee is paid in full	Nothing — they’re good
Partial	Some amount paid, but not the full fee	Contact member for remaining balance
Unpaid	No payment for the current period	Send a reminder
Exempt	Member is exempt from fees (e.g., honorary members)	Nothing — manually set by admin
Expired	Fee period has passed without payment	Decide: send late reminder, or take action

View a member’s payment history: Members → select member → Fee tab to see their current fee level and history, or Payments tab for the full transaction log.

Collecting payments

Online payments (Stripe)

Members pay directly through Orgo — either from the product payment page or from their profile. Stripe handles cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other local methods.

Manual payment recording (“Mark as paid”)

For cash, bank transfers, or checks received outside Stripe:

Fees → Record Manual Payment (or from the member’s profile → Payments tab)
Select the member
Choose the fee product and tier
Select payment method: Card, Check, or Bank transfer (IBAN)
Enter the amount received
Add a note (e.g., “Cash received at AGM”, “Bank transfer ref #1234”)
Save — payment appears as Pending Accept

An admin or HR user then reviews and accepts the payment, moving it to Success. The system records who marked the payment and who accepted it for audit purposes. For bank transfers, you can also display your organization’s IBAN on the member payment page so members can initiate transfers themselves — these arrive as pending payments for admin approval.

Bulk recording

If you received many payments at once (e.g., bank transfer batch):

Fees → Bulk Actions
Upload a CSV with member IDs and amounts
Review and confirm
All payments recorded at once

Billing cycles and proration

Fees aren’t just flat charges — they support full cycle-based billing with automatic proration for mid-cycle joins.

Cycle settings

Configure these on each fee product:

Setting	What it does	Example
Billing period	How many months per cycle	12 (annual), 3 (quarterly), 1 (monthly)
Cycle day	Day of month the cycle starts	1 (first of month)
Cycle month	Month the annual cycle starts	1 (January) or 9 (September for fiscal year)
Recurrences	Number of cycles before subscription ends	Empty = indefinite, 3 = three cycles then stops

Proration

When a member joins mid-cycle, proration calculates a fair partial amount for the remaining period. Example: Annual fee is $120, cycle runs January–December. A member joins in April.

Remaining months: 9 (April–December)
Prorated amount: $120 × (9/12) = **$ 90**

Enable proration per product with the Prorate mid-cycle joins toggle. You can also set a minimum months threshold — if the member joins late enough in the cycle, they pay full price for the next cycle instead.

Most membership organizations use a yearly cycle starting January 1 with proration enabled. Members who join mid-year pay a fair partial amount, then full price from the following January.

Advance payment

Enable Allow payment for next year so members can pay ahead before their current period expires. This is useful during renewal season — members can pay for next year without waiting for their current membership to expire.

Making fees mandatory

Fees can be mandatory at two levels — organization-wide and per local center.

Organization-level mandatory fees

Settings → Fees → Module Settings → enable Mandatory Fees When enabled:

Members must pay their fee to access full platform features
Unpaid members see restricted functionality until they pay
Fee status becomes a key part of member management
Enable Continuity mandatory to require uninterrupted payment history

Local center-level fees

Local center fee settings showing Northeast Council membership product and $30 annual default price

Each local center can have its own fee product with independent pricing and its own Stripe Connect account. This supports federated organizations where chapters collect their own dues.

Setting	Where to configure	What it does
Local center fee product	Local center settings	Separate fee product with local pricing
Local Stripe account	Local center settings	Payments go directly to the chapter’s bank account
Local fee is mandatory	Tenant fee settings	Members must pay both org-level AND local-level fees

This means a member in the “Northeast Council” might pay:

$100/year to the national organization (org Stripe account)
$50/year to the Northeast Council (local Stripe account)

Both payments are tracked independently with separate statuses.

Making fees mandatory is a significant decision. It means members with unpaid fees have a degraded experience. Most organizations use this for annual membership renewal — you’re essentially saying “pay your dues to maintain full membership.”

Sending reminders

For members with unpaid fees:

Fees → Unpaid
Filter by period, Local Center, or member type
Select members (or select all)
Click Send Reminder

The reminder email includes the fee amount, payment link, and your customized message. Customize the email template in Settings → Emails → Templates.

Managing subscriptions

Active recurring subscriptions are managed in Fees → Subscriptions:

Info shown	Detail
Member name	Who’s subscribed
Product	Which fee product
Amount	Recurring charge amount
Frequency	Monthly, quarterly, yearly
Next billing	When Stripe will charge next
Payment method	Card type/last 4 digits

Members can manage their own subscription from their profile:

Update payment method (expired card, new bank account)
View billing history
Cancel subscription (if allowed)

Refunds

Find the payment in Fees → Payments
Click to open payment details
Click Refund
Enter full or partial refund amount
Confirm

Refunds are processed through Stripe — the money returns to the payer’s original payment method. Ensure your Stripe account has sufficient balance. Stripe’s processing fee is not refunded.

Fee reports and export

Export payments

Fees → Payments → apply filters → Export → CSV or Excel Use exports for:

Accounting and bookkeeping
Bank reconciliation
Tax filing
Board financial reports

Collection statistics

Finance statistics chart showing $18,020 in payments over the last 90 days with trend line

The dashboard overview shows:

Total collected for any period
Collection rate (paid ÷ total members)
Breakdown by payment method (online vs. manual)
Breakdown by Local Center

Local groups fees table showing 8 councils with active member counts and fee collection bars

Common scenarios

A member says they paid but it's not showing

Check if the payment was linked to the correct member. Search by payment date, amount, or check the Stripe dashboard directly. For bank transfers, the admin who records it may have missed the entry.

Member status shows 'Unpaid' but they have a subscription

Check the fee period dates on the payment. Status is calculated from current date vs. payment period. If the subscription payment was recorded for a different period, it won’t clear the current period’s status.

A subscription isn't renewing

Check the Stripe dashboard for the subscription. Common causes: expired card, insufficient funds, or the member’s bank declined the charge. The member may need to update their payment method.

I want different fees for different Local Centers

Each Local Center can have its own fee products with local pricing. See Local Center Fees. Or create one national product with price tiers labeled by center.

Some members should be exempt from fees (honorary members, board)

Set their fee status to Exempt on their member profile. Exempt members won’t appear in unpaid lists or receive reminders.

Products — Creating fee products and price tiers
Stripe Integration — Payment processing setup
Donations — Fundraising campaigns
Local Center Fees — Branch-level fee collection

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Setting up fees

The fees dashboard

Payment statuses

Member fee status