Assigning Dues to Members

A Financial Item becomes an obligation in a member's portal when it is assigned to them. How that happens depends on the kind of item, and the system is built so that you cannot bill someone twice by mistake.

Recurring dues bill themselves

If an item is Recurring (for example monthly dues), you do nothing after creating it. On the first billing date, and on every cycle after that, the system overnight charges every active member automatically. The Financial Items list marks these as "Automatically, every cycle".

Members who join later

New members are added automatically: you never have to remember them. When you create or edit a recurring item you choose what happens to someone who joins part-way through a cycle:

• Start paying from the next cycle (the default): nothing is charged for the cycle already issued.
• Bill them for the current cycle too: the night after they join, they are charged for the cycle in progress.
• Wait a number of cycles, then start paying: you choose how many. With monthly dues and a wait of 1, someone who joins in November pays from January. Members who joined before the first billing always pay from the first billing.

Whichever you choose, the member appears in the right billing run without any action from you.

Exempt a member, or set when they start or stop paying

Some members are the exception: an honorary member who never pays, someone who should start paying from a particular date, or a member who stops after a date. Open the recurring item and use Member terms (the Member terms tab in the admin panel, or the people-settings button on the item in the portal). Add the member and choose Exempt, Starts paying from, or Stops paying after.

• Everyone who is not listed pays as normal.
• A change applies from the next billing run. Nothing that has already been billed is changed.
• Members listed as exempt are never billed for that due, even if you bill them by hand; remove their terms first.
• A member who paid in advance is never held back by a start date or a waiting period.

Billing one new member right away

Dues that started before you joined ZenithAMS

If your dues began months or years ago, do not set the start date in the past: the system would bill one old cycle every night and message every member each time. Instead, open the recurring item and use Bill past cycles. Choose the date the dues started and the date to bill up to, and optionally a different amount for those years.

One-off charges, levies and manual items

Charges that do not repeat, and items marked "Manual assignment only", are assigned by you. Use Assign Members and choose everyone who does not have it yet, a role, or specific members. You then review the exact list before anyone is charged (see "Assignments are approved first" below).

Assignments are approved first

Choosing members does not charge them. It prepares a request that shows the exact members and amounts. Nobody is charged and no member is told until the request is approved. The person approving sees the same list, and approving applies exactly that list: each member is checked again at that moment, so someone who has since paid, or been charged another way, is skipped and never charged twice. Members are told only when it is approved, and only those who were actually charged.

• Find waiting requests under Finances → Assignment Requests (in the portal and in the admin panel). Open one to see every member and amount, then Approve, Reject (with a reason, which the person who asked sees) or Withdraw.
• A request nobody decides expires after 7 days. Nobody is charged; the person who asked is told and can ask again.
• If the due, its amount or its due date is changed after the request was made, the request cannot be approved: reject it and make a new one.
• A charge you add by hand to one member (Add charge on their ledger) follows the same rule.

Who can approve, and the self-approval setting

Asking needs the right to assign dues; approving needs the separate right to approve assignments, which every Administrator has. In Settings → Financial Policy → Assigning Dues you choose whether the person who asked may approve their own request.

• On (the default, which suits a small association where one administrator does everything): you can ask and then approve after checking the list. The record shows it was self-approved.
• Off: every assignment, and every charge added by hand, must be approved by a different administrator who holds the approval right. The person who asked is told it is waiting for someone else, and the other administrator is notified by email and in the portal.

A due that was imported as balances brought forward

When you bring in old records, each member's balance for a due is recorded as a balance brought forward. That due can then not be assigned again: the assign screen offers nobody and says the balance is already recorded, because assigning it would charge those members twice and bill members who had already paid in full. If someone owes something new, create a new due for it.

Cancelling a charge raised in error

In the admin panel, Financial Assignments, use Cancel assignment (or Cancel Selected) on charges that should never have been raised. A reason is required. The charge leaves the member's balance and every total, stays on record with who cancelled it and why, and the member is not told. Charges that have a payment, are paid or waived, or were brought in from old records are left as they are: reverse the payment first, or undo the import. To forgive a debt that is really owed, waive it instead.