Re: [Coworking] Membership Dues Payment Methods

[Jacob Sayles]

Good timing as we are in the middle of changing things up here at Office Nomads.  We have our own merchant services account and on top of that we use Authorize.net for reoccurring billing.  We are currently looking into switching to USA ePay because it's cheaper and because it has better online tools and integration APIs.  I'm working on getting the system hooked into Nadine, the system we use to track activity.  It's not going to be fully automated as we like members to talk with us when changing their memberships.  But in the new system they can update their billing profile online, or on the iPad at the front desk, and we'll take it from there.  

As for billing date, the day you sign up for a membership is the day we bill each month.  This has the advantage of not having to prorate anything.  It also spreads the billing load throughout the month so we don't have one crazy billing day or week where everything needs to get done.  We do get a good number of questions from members about when their billing day is, and how many days they have left this month and these can be answered online by logging into Nadine.  We also show this information on the iPad at the front desk we use for checkin.  

Jacob

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Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation
http://www.officenomads.com -  (206) 323-6500

On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 6:47 AM, Julia Ferguson <ju...@coworkfrederick.com> wrote:

I'm told most coworking spaces use PayPal as a means of collecting payments from members. We've had enough problems with payments not going through properly that we've begun looking at other options, including Stripe, gettng a merchant account, and others. Glen (my husband and partner in this coworking adventure we've embarked on) has spent possibly over 100 hours analyzing the situation. I keep thinking that this can't be that hard, so I'm wondering:

 

1) What do you use for recurring payments for membership dues? 

2) Do you have it integrated into an online signup on your website so that payments are set up automatically upon sign up?

3) Have you standardized so that payments from all members are due the same day of the month?

4) Do you prorate for partial months when someone signs up mid-month and if so, do you handle that manually or does your payment software/plug-in handle it?

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[John Wilker]

We're in the paypal camp so not much help there, but like Jacob said, when someone signs up, that's when billing starts. The only exception is our corporate members. We like to send the invoices just once, so no matter when they sign up billing starts the first of the following month. Obvious exceptions would be if someone signed up on the 2nd or 3rd LOL. But that's never happened, so new corporate members usually get 1-2 weeks "free"

John Wilker
Founder, 360|Conferences | Partner, Uncubed
(720) 381-2370
twitter: jwilker
johnwilker.com | 360|MacDev | 360|Stack | 360|iDev

[Jerome Chang]

I agree that billing dates should be any day of the month.  In my opinion, having the 1st of the month is merely to "keep things simple" [because this custom predates technology to be able to easily bill and track renewal dates].  By using any day of the month, you also manage your cash flow so you don't have to "wait" until just the 1st of the month for revenue.  And yes, of course like Jacob says, this spreads out your billing work in smaller chunks.

Jerome
______________
BLANKSPACES
"work FOR yourself, not BY yourself"

www.blankspaces.com
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.330.9505 (office)

[Alex Hillman]

+1 on Jerome about the cash-flow issues, and that's the biggest pro I've come up with for doing a floating-start-date.

I'd follow that up with not needing to do pro-rating, which can get confusing quickly.

To answer your questions specifically:

1) What do you use for recurring payments for membership dues? 

We use Zoho Invoice for this currently. 

The biggest plus to this is that it integrates with multiple payment providers and does automated recurring invoices + reminders.

The advantage to our coworkers is that it gives them flexibility for when they pay, as they manage their own cash-flow. 

The biggest downside to this is that it doesn't store a CC on file, and invoices can be left out to dry and we end up having to chase people once in a while. It's a vast minority of our total invoices that end up outstanding (a fraction of a % total revenue), but that's an artifact of our members more than the system.

Most people don't pay on time because they forget, not because they meant to stiff us.

2) Do you have it integrated into an online signup on your website so that payments are set up automatically upon sign up?

We do not do this because we want to temper the transaction of joining our community with a human interaction. The signup process is in person, and goes through a our team to make sure that human contact is made a priority during the signup process. 

This increases our retention rates FAR more than it decreases our signup rates.  

3) Have you standardized so that payments from all members are due the same day of the month?

We do a mid-month billing cycle now, but are looking to do away with it very soon. 

4) Do you prorate for partial months when someone signs up mid-month and if so, do you handle that manually or does your payment software/plug-in handle it?

We do this, and we do it manually, and it sucks :)

-Alex

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On Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 8:13 AM, Julia Ferguson wrote:

Interesting ... We want invoicing and payments to be 100% automated so there is no crazy day of invoicing for us, only the system we set up. Billing and pulling payments on the 1st of the month seemed better for the member because it would be easier for him/her to remember when we'll be pulling money from them and also easier for us to take inventory to make sure all payments we were supposed to receive were actually receieved (something we find we have to do on a regular basis). It concentrates the task so that we don't have to remember to check at various points throughout the month. Admittedly, I'm coming from years of having rental property where I prorate rent for the first partial month and then require rent payments by the 3rd of each month (for the same reasons stated above and because that is a clear standard). That's also consistent with how so many other bills are handled in our lives (electric company, phone company, and others).

 

I hope to see more replies on how others are doing things so we can further assess this. 

[Tom Lewis]

We're just starting up and we're looking at a startup here in the UK called https://gocardless.com/ who offer to get round the issue we have here whereby it's quite hard to get a bank to let you have a direct debit facility- in effect they act as a master direct debit holder, and you can sign up with gocardless and offer direct debit payments to members (they also have insanely low rates for doing this)

Our solution looks like it will work with the following process when we open

1. Members complete a direct debit mandate when they join

2. We set up our invoicing system (http://fre.ag/41f67zer - disclosure that's a referral link, if you sign up we both get 10% discount) to recur with the basic membership amount,which is then collected by gocardless every month

3. Any extras members use will be added to Freeagent during the month, and then when the direct debit is collected, it will be for the full amount

4. If members upgrade during the month then we'll work out the difference and make sure it's reflected before the next direct debit is taken

5. Day passes and corporate/outside hire will be handled via invoicing or a card swipe machine at reception

Members will have swipe cards and the building has Mifare sensors on meeting rooms etc, so when we get time/expertise/cash we are planning to evolve into a system where members book resources, and when they use them the cost is automatically added to freeagent via the API.  We'll also have a membership software too, so with the 3 elements, membership/access/billing we want to get to a point where it's all automated as much as possible.

Very British way of dealing with money- sort it all out once and then don't talk about it again!

Be interesting to hear of any other ways people have done it