Membership packages
Creating Membership Packages
Membership packages can be created from the admin area at Admin > Membership > Add Package. The table below outlines all the options and a description about what they mean.
General
Name A meaningful name for the package. This will be the name shown in lists.
Maximum Members This is number of members that can be attached to this package, allowing you to create joint or family packages. Set to 1 for an individual membership.
Enabled When a package is disabled it cannot be purchased. This only affects new purchases. Disabling a package does not affect the membership status of members that have already purchased the package.
Visible This setting controls if the package appears on the Membership page on the website. If it is visible it will be shown in the list of available packages. This setting allows you hide certain membership packages e.g. packages that are by invitation only.
Hiding a package does not place any restrictions on who can purchase the package, only if it's visible.
Description Provide an overview of what the package is, or any benefits, restrictions or other relevant information. This will be shown on the Membership page when browsing the site.
Eligibility Rules Use eligibility rules to control who can purchase the package by age, gender, or custom profile field values. See Eligibility rules for setup steps and examples.
Duration
Fixed Dates / Fixed Duration Membership packages can be set to be valid between either fixed dates e.g. 1st January until 31st December, or for a fixed duration from the purchase date e.g. 12 months after purchase.
Start Date (Fixed Dates Only) The start date of the membership period e.g. 1st January.
End Date (Fixed Dates Only) The end of the membership period e.g. 31st December.
Months Valid (Fixed Duration Only) The number of months the membership is valid for from the date of purchase. For example, if set to 12 months and the member joins on April 5th, the membership will expire on April 5th of the following year.
Payment Details
Allow Renewal Sets if a member can their membership. When enabled they can also opt to automatically renew their membership when it expires.
Membership Cost The cost of the membership package.
Renewal Cost When Allow Renewal is enabled, you can offer a discounted rate for renewals. When manually or automatically renewing their membership they will be charged this value.
Pro Rata? (Fixed Dates Only) When enabled members will be charged a pro rated fee depending on how many days are left in the membership period.
This option is only available for Fixed Dates packages.
Pro Rated From Date (Fixed Dates Only) The date after which a pro rated fee will apply. For example, for a package that runs from 1st January to 31st December, you may want to charge the full fee until July 1st and then start to pro rata payments. Before this date the full fee will be charged.
Minimum Cost (Prorated Only) The minimum charge to apply for this package. The minimum cost is £1.
Protected Amount (Prorated Only) When calculating the pro rata amount, you can opt to exclude a portion of the amount from the calculation. For example, if the membership payment includes an affiliation fee, you might want to excluded this from the calculation. If you want to include the entire amount in the calculation, set this value to 0.
Available Products If you have created any products, you can select which products are available for purchase during the checkout process. For example, you might offer a t-shirt to new members, or allow them to pay for affiliation to a governing body.
Terms and conditions
Membership packages support a structured list of Terms and Conditions items. Each item has a name and either links to an external document or displays rich text in a modal. It cannot do both. Members must tick a separate acceptance checkbox for each item before completing the purchase.
Adding a term Click Add Term in the Terms and Conditions card header to open the term editor. Fill in the fields described below and click Save.
Editing a term Click the edit icon on any row to reopen the term editor with the existing values.
Reordering terms Drag the handle on any row to change the display order. The order is saved when you save the package.
Deleting a term Click the delete icon on a row to remove it from the list.
Term fields
Name The label shown to the member next to the acceptance checkbox (e.g. "Code of Conduct" or "Privacy Policy").
Type Choose how the term content is provided:
- URL: links to an external document that opens in a new tab when the member clicks the term name. Enter a fully qualified URL in the URL field.
- Rich Text: displays the term body in a modal when the member clicks the term name. Write or paste the content into the Body editor.
Inheritance
A package's Terms and Conditions can be in one of three states:
| State | What the member sees |
|---|---|
| No terms configured (default for new packages) | The club's default Terms and Conditions from Admin > Settings > Membership |
| Explicit empty list (all items deleted) | No terms: the member is not asked to accept anything |
| One or more items | Only the package's own terms; club defaults are ignored |
New packages start with no terms configured, so they automatically inherit the club defaults. Once you add at least one term to a package, the club defaults are no longer shown for that package.
Welcome Email
Welcome Email Message The message included in the confirmation email sent to a member after they purchase or are assigned this package. You can customise this message per package, for example to include package-specific information such as access details or next steps.
Attachments One or more files to attach to the welcome email. This can be useful for sending documents such as a membership card, rules booklet, or governing body licence alongside the confirmation.
Approval workflow
Enable the approval workflow when you want to review new purchases before they become active. When enabled, a member who buys the package is placed in a Pending Approval state rather than becoming active immediately.
Requires approval Toggle this on to enable the approval workflow for the package. New purchases will be held as Pending Approval until an administrator approves or denies them.
Notification email addresses An optional list of additional email addresses (semicolon-separated) that should receive the approval notification when a new purchase is waiting for review. These addresses are merged with any members who have subscribed to the "A package requires approval" notification in their preferences. Duplicate addresses are removed automatically.
To receive approval notifications through your ClubPal account, go to Profile > Notifications and enable "A package requires approval". This is independent of the shared mailbox addresses above, so you can receive notifications via your personal account, via a shared inbox, or both.
Pending approval email message The message sent to the member immediately after their purchase is placed into pending approval. Use this to acknowledge their application and explain what happens next, including any additional information you may need from them to process the request. This message appears in the email body beneath the standard header.
Member experience
When a member purchases an approval-required package, the confirmation page shows a "Membership Pending Approval" message instead of the usual activation confirmation. The member receives an email with your customised pending approval message. Their membership remains in the Pending Approval state until an administrator reviews it.
Admin review
A badge showing the number of pending purchases appears on each package in the Admin > Membership > Packages list. To filter the list to packages that require approval, use the Requires Approval filter at the top of the page.
To review a pending membership:
- Navigate to Admin > Membership > Members and filter by status Pending Approval, or click the badge on the relevant package.
- Click the pending membership row to open the review page.
- Choose one of the following actions:
Approve Activates the membership immediately. The member receives a confirmation email notifying them that their membership is now active.
Deny Opens a denial modal where you must provide a message to the member explaining why the application was not approved. You can also add internal notes for your own records. If the member paid for the package, a refund toggle is shown and enabled by default; disable it if you do not want a refund to be issued.
The member receives an email containing your denial message. Their membership is set to Rejected and cannot be used.
When you assign a package to a member manually using the Assign to Member action, the membership is activated immediately and the approval workflow is bypassed.
Manually Assigning
In addition to members purchasing membership themselves, you can also assign a membership package to a member. To manually assign a membership package:
-
There are two ways to launch the Assign to Member dialog:
- Navigate to Admin > Membership > Packages and then from the Actions menu for the package you want to assign select Assign to Member.
- When viewing the Membership Package summary page, click the button Assign to Member in the page banner.
-
Search for the member to assign the package to.
The user must already exist on the site. If you want to assign the membership to someone not on the site, first add the member via Admin > Membership > Add Member.
- Click Submit and the membership will be activated. The member will receive an email confirmation of their new package.
When manually assigning a membership package no charge will be made. If any payment is required this should be arranged with the member directly. The Manual Payments feature can be used to make payments.