Issues with incorrect dates when renewing membership for fixed periods

Membership renewal is a key element in maintaining effective member management within an association. However, configuration or usage errors can lead to inconsistencies in membership dates, resulting in administrative complications and confusion among members. This article focuses on fixed-period memberships, exploring common causes of date errors and offering solutions to avoid these situations.

What is a fixed period?

A fixed-period membership means that the validity duration is the same for all members, regardless of their registration or renewal date. Fixed periods generally include:

• Calendar year: from January 1 to December 31.

• School year: from September 1 to August 31.

• Custom period: dates defined according to the specific needs of the association (e.g., from April 1 to March 31).

In Yapla, the default configuration provides that memberships expire on the last day of the fixed period, and renewals automatically begin on the first day of the following month.

Definition of terms:

End date

The end date corresponds to the last day the membership is valid. It can be found under the Current Membership tab in the member's account.

However, when accessing the membership details, the renewal date is shown. It cannot be modified directly through these pages.

Renewal Date

The renewal date (Capture A) refers to the day after the end date. For example, if a membership ends at 12/31/2025, the renewal date will be 01/01/2026. This date is shown in the membership details, but when attempting to change it, the term expiration date (Capture B) is displayed. Note: this actually refers to the renewal date.

Capture A ↑

Capture B ↑

Membership expiration

The term membership expiration (Capture C) as displayed in the member list or the expiration date field (Capture B) on the membership edit screen is the same as the renewal date.

Capture C ↑

Common causes of date errors

1. Incorrect configuration of the expiration date (during manual actions like admin entry or import)

A membership period (start date) begins on day J (e.g., January 1) and ends (end date) 12 months later (e.g., December 31). The renewal date is automatically set to day J of the following month. This default setup applies to both automatic and manual memberships.

During import or manual membership setup, the expiration date may be entered or imported incorrectly. For instance, instead of setting a renewal date to 01/01/2025 for a calendar year membership, 12/31/2024 might be recorded due to inconsistent field usage across the platform. This could result in a renewal within the same period rather than next year.

Best practices:
The renewal or expiration date should always be the day after the end date of the membership.

2. Poorly configured membership type settings:

Under Membership Types, misconfigurations can lead to incorrect renewals:

1. In the Members’ settings, under Membership Types, you can set an early opening date for renewals. For example, for a calendar year membership, renewals may open two months prior to January 1.

However, any renewal submitted before the start date will apply to the current period, which may cause errors and confusion.

Why?

• The renewal notice is scheduled more than 60 days in advance.
• With the standard member space display on the website, the "Renew" button appears even if renewals aren't yet open.

• When no dedicated page is created and the member proceeds through a monopage, there’s no warning message, and the renewal applies to the current instead of the next period.
• If the box "At renewal, immediately activate the new membership, without waiting expiry date of the current membership" is checked, overlaps between current and new memberships may occur. Uncheck this option to avoid renewals overlapping existing periods.

How to fix errors?

If you receive renewals with incorrect dates, here’s what to do if a member requests an invoice with the correct information:

If the member agrees to accept the incorrect invoice:

1. You can keep the membership and update the dates based on the correct details.

Otherwise:

1. Cancel the incorrect membership

   • You can cancel it in Yapla admin, but this won’t cancel the associated invoice automatically.
   • See this article for more details: Cancel a membership.

2. Add a new membership

   • After canceling, create a new membership with the correct dates.
   • Make sure the period and rate are properly set before completing the process.
   • More info here: Add a membership to a member.