Membership Duration: Expiry & Renewal Processes Explained

This article covers what happens if you limit the duration of your membership product.

- The first section will cover membership expiry.

- The second section covers membership renewal.

Membership Expiry

If you decide to limit the duration of your membership product, the Learner's membership will expire and they will need to renew their membership in order to retain access to your platform.

How to set membership expiry

From the create/edit Membership Products journey you need to navigate to the 'Pricing & Duration' page. From there you can select 'Limit to' and then choose how long you want Learners to retain access to your platform for when they register to the membership product.

For example if you select 1 year, the learner's membership will last 12 months from the day they register for the product:

If the learner registers on the 1 January 2023, their membership will expire on 1 Jan 2024
If the learner registers on the 2 January 2023, their membership will expire 2 Jan 2024

What happens when the membership expires

If the learner does not renew before the expiry date, their membership will expire.

The Learner can still log in BUT their access will be limited and they will be prompted to renew. They will no longer be able to access the Catalogue or course materials.

Upon login, the Leaner will see an alert asking them to renew and they will land on the renewal form.
If the Learner does not renew they will have a restricted view of the site. They will not be able to view their courses or access the Catalogue. But they can still access their Certificates and Account page. From the Account page they can also renew.
The Learner will also receive a notification informing them that their membership has expired. They will have also received a renewal email 21 days and 7 days before their membership was due to expire.

How does the Admin know that a Learner's membership has expired

There are a number of ways that you will be notified that the Learner's membership has expired:

You will receive an email telling you that the learner's membership expired
On the 'Learners' page the Admin will see in the table that the 'Enabled' status is orange - this means the Learner's access has been limited due to expiry
If you navigate to the Learner's profile page, in the Membership Details section you will see that their status is set to 'Expired', and it will tell you the date of expiry.
You can also export all your Learner details to a csv. file from the Learner page which allows you to filter by all Learners with an 'Expired' status.

Membership Renewal

Membership renewal is NOT automatic. Your Learners will need to actively renew their membership if they want to retain access to your platform.

However we've built an automated renewal journey to facilitate this process for you.

How are Learners notified that they need to renew

Step 1: 21 days before the membership is due to expire, the Learner will be prompted to renew their membership by email and when logging into the Learner platform:

The Learner will receive an email notification asking them to login to their account and renew
Every time the Learner logs into the platform they will see an alert prompting them to renew their membership (until they do renew)
If the Learner navigates to their account page they will also see that their membership status is 'Pending Cancellation' and they will be able to click a button to 'Renew Now'.

Step 2: 7 days before the membership is due to expire, the learner will again be prompted by email to renew.

How does the Learner Renew

By clicking ' Renew Now' before or after their current membership expires, the Learner will be able to renew their membership.

They will be directed to the renewal form which will contain a list of membership products open for renewal.

Which Membership Products are visible on the renewal form

The memberships available to the learner will depend on the rules the Admin has established for each membership product:

Enable for Renewal - The Admin must select if the membership is available for renewal or not. If the Admin selects 'Not available for renewal' then the membership product will not be displayed on the renewal form for the learner to renew onto. If it is enabled for renewal then the learner will see the membership product in the drop down list on the renewal form.
Registration Rules - If the membership product is for 'private registration', then the membership product will only be displayed on the renewal form if the member is already registered to that membership (and it is enabled for renewal). If the Learner is not already registered to the product then it will not be visible on their renewal form. This feature is to allow you to offer more exclusive or 'hidden' membership to specific audiences.

Renewing before the existing membership has expired

The learner can renew BEFORE their current membership has expired (the renewal window opens 21 days before the membership is due to expire).

In this scenario the learner will renew onto the new membership product automatically on the day that their current membership expires. The Admin will see on the learner's profile page that the Learner has renewed and the date the renewal will take effect. The Learner will retain access to the platform throughout, and when the renewal takes effect they will simply see a revised Catalogue if renewing to a different membership product (or the same catalogue if renewing to the same product). They will not lose access to any courses they are already enrolled to OR that they have already completed.

Note: If the learner is part way through a course and they renew to a membership that does not include that course, they will still retain access as they are already enrolled to it.

If the membership the Learner is renewing onto requires a payment:

If renewing to a membership product that requires a one off payment, that payment will be taken immediately at time of renewing but the member will not renew onto the new membership until their current membership expires
If renewing to a membership that requires a monthly recurring payment OR a monthly installment, the first payment will not be taken until the current membership expires. For example if you current membership is due to expire on 31 May 2023 and you renew on 21 May 2023, the first payment will not be taken until 31 May when your current membership expires.

Renewing after the existing membership has expired

The learner can renew AFTER their current membership has expired.

The renewal will take effect immediately and any payments will be taken immediately at time of renewing.