Freeze Type - Overview

Introduction

This article will describe all of the features of the freeze type module. 

Mind this is not an instruction on how to create Contract Freeze! If you are searching for the practical instruction on how to create Contract Freeze, read the Hints part of this article and select the right article depending on a different Payment Plan and Freeze characteristics. 

Before you start 

Before configuration, make sure you know how Freezes work. Go to this article for more detailed information.

To access the Freeze type module, this can be set in the PGM->Clubs->Employee Permissions

The permissions to grant for the employee role is as follows

• System Administration
  • Freeze types
    • View
    • Edit
    • Add
    • Delete

Freeze type

To view, add or modify freeze types, go to the PGM->Sale->Memberships->Freeze types.

This will open the freeze type screen.

Only active and current - Toggle this on to show only freeze types that are currently active. Toggle it off to also see inactive freeze types.

The list shows a column for each of the following: Name, Active, Scope, Fee, Settings and Clubs. Use the filter row under the column headers to search or filter the list.

Edit - To edit an existing freeze type, press the pencil icon to the left of the freeze type.

Any edits done to a freeze type will affect all existing freezes and may cause contract transactions in the past to be edited.

Active - This will determine if the freeze type can be used or not. This is determined by the is active flag in a freeze type, or date range.

• Ticked - A contract can be frozen/suspended.
• Unticked - The freeze cannot be used at this time.

Name - Name of the freeze type, this will be visible in PGM, POSWeb, Client Portal and reporting.

Note: Marketing text can override what is displayed on client portal.

Duplicate icon - Creates a copy of this freeze type, so you can quickly set up a similar one without re-entering all settings.

Bin icon - This will delete the freeze type and it cannot be used again.

This will not affect previous contracts using this freeze type.

View details icon (magnifying glass) - Opens a details panel on the right with a read-only summary of the freeze type: Scope, Fee, Limits and rules (scope length), Validity periods, Availability (Clubs, Payment Plans) and Combined Freeze Types.

Add freeze type - Press Add freeze type to create a new freeze type, this will change the screen with more information, see below for more details on this screen.

Refresh - Refresh current screen.

Edit freeze type

Name - The display name for the freeze type (e.g., "Medical," "Vacation"). This field is required and must be unique.

Note: Marketing text can override what is displayed on client portal, see below for more information.

Active - (Toggle) Controls if the freeze type can be selected. Inactive types are hidden from users adding new freezes.

Scope - Determines the freeze interval the member can go on

• Day - The freeze interval is set on single days.
• Week - The freeze interval is set to weekly, no part weeks allowed.
• Month - The freeze interval is set to monthly only, no part months allowed.

Scope is also used with the interval payment, minimal length and maximum length fields within freeze type to determine charges/restrictions.

Fees

All taxes will be taken from the payment plan settings.

Fee Mode - (Required) Choose how the freeze is charged:

• Prepaid product - (Dropdown) The specific product that a member must purchase to be eligible for this freeze type. To set up a product use the following guide here.

  A product with the club service type "PrepaidFreeze" is required to be set up prior to creating freeze type. Only the individual/single product needs to be configured on the freeze type.

• Fee from payment plan - This will use the price set in PGM->Sale->Payment Plans. The fee used here will be charged per payment interval.

  Interval Payment - This is the fee you will be charging the customer.

• Fixed fee - The fee that will be charged on the customer.

  Freeze interval - If the freeze interval is empty, the fixed fee is on the freeze regardless of the duration. In case the freeze interval was provided, the fixed fee is for a given number of intervals.

• Percentage of interval fee - This will charge a percentage of the membership fee.
• Free of charge - This will not charge the member for the freeze.

Use freeze creation date as fee due date - (Checkbox) The freeze fee will be due on the date the freeze was created, rather than the default billing date.

Admin Fee - This is a once off fee for members to pay regardless of how long the freeze goes for. This can be combined with the interval payments.

Limits

Minimal length (day(s)) - Set the minimum amount the club member can go on freeze based on the unit of measure set in Scope. If left blank, then there is no minimum limit.

Maximum length (day(s)) - Set the maximum amount the club member can go on freeze based on the unit of measure set in Scope. If left blank, then there is no maximum limit.

For example if the minimal length is set as 14, and the maximum length is set as 20 and the scope is days, then the club member can go on freeze between 14-20 days. This is the total for this freeze period only and totals will not combine.

Per calendar year - This will limit the amount of times this freeze type can be used per calendar year on a single contract.

If using usage limits, only one usage limit can be used, and this will only apply on this freeze type only.

Last 12 months - This will limit the amount of times this freeze type can be used within a 12 month period on a single contract.

Per contract - This will limit the amount of times this freeze type can be used on a single contract, regardless on how long the contract goes for.

First freeze application - Is the amount of time after a member has started their membership and can go on their first freeze. The drop down box selects the scope for either month or interval, and the second box is where you enter in the number for when they can start going on freeze.

Eg. If set as Interval - Then the interval number 4 will be the first 4 full weeks of the membership on a weekly contract, 8 weeks if on a fortnightly (bi-weekly) contract.

Latest freeze application - This will determine when the club member can apply a freeze based on their payment interval.

Availability

Payment Plans - You can select the different payment plans this freeze type is available to.

• All current and future payment plans - Will allow this freeze to be used by everyone (not recommended as Direct debit contracts and paid in full contracts require different settings).
• Drop down box - Select the individual plans which can be used with this freeze type (only displays if all current and future payment plans is unticked).
• Show inactive payment plans - This will display all inactive payment plans on the drop down list.

Clubs - Restrict the freeze to individual clubs or all clubs.

• All current and future clubs - This will allow the freeze type to be used on all clubs and any new clubs which get created.
• Drop down box - This will only restrict the freeze types to the clubs selected. If a new club gets created you will need to manually add that club in if you wish to use the freeze type in the new club.

Always available - The freeze can be used at any time.

Valid for periods - You can restrict when the freeze can be created. This option will only show if Always available is unticked.

Visibility

Combined freeze types - This will allow different freeze types be used on the same contract. If a contract has already used

For example Free of charge freezes with paid freezes.

To add a new freeze type, select from the drop down list.

Only for chosen roles - Tick this checkbox if you want to grant the access to the Freeze type visibility to a specific role, i.e. Club Manager. In this case, roles other than this specific one will not be able to see this Freeze type configuration options.

Only for chosen sources - Select the modules where the Freeze type should be available to be used. If unticked this will have the freeze type shown on all sites, to control this select from one or more of the following below.

• Pgm - Web - PerfectGym.
• Client Portal 2 - External client portal.
• Reception Tablet - Internal client portal.
• Kiosk - Kiosk mode of client portal.
• POSWeb - Point of sale.
• API - external API calls.
• PgGo - Mobile App

Settings

Settings - This will configure the freeze type on when it can be applied, how contract transactions work with the freeze type and how payments operate. Some settings cannot be used with each other.

• Move end & commitment date of contract by the length of freeze duration – This will extend the minimum contract time and end date of the contract to a new date, based on the amount of days on freeze.
  • If the minimum commitment period has not been reached, this will extend the minimum commitment period by the number of days the contract is on freeze.
  • If the minimum commitment period has been reached, this will not change the value.
  • If the contract has an end date, this will extend the end date of the contract by the number of days the contract is on freeze.
  • If the contract has no end date, this will not change anything on the contract.
• Keep the contract charge and extend this contract by the length of the freeze duration – This will leave the recurring membership fee on the contract, and extend the contract for free by changing the end dates of the contract. This setting cannot be used if there is no end date on the contract.
• Move recurring payment date – This setting will change the recurring billing date of the contract to a new date when the club member goes on freeze.
• Do not prorate membership fee – This will prevent the membership fee from being pro-rated when freeze is applied midway through a payment interval.
• Allow freeze start only on recurring payment date – This will prevent the freeze from starting on any other day apart from the payment interval date.
• Allow freeze during prorata period – This will allow the freeze to be active during the pro-rata period of a contract

Cancel, Save as new and Save - Discard changes, save the current settings as a new freeze type, or save your changes to this freeze type.

Client-Facing Descriptions

Create freeze description - If you are using Client Portal for club members to manage your own freeze, you can create some marketing text on the freeze and provide more information on the client portal.

To create a new description press Create freeze description.

Do not create a marketing text during the creation of the freeze, please save the freeze type first. Then edit the freeze type to add in the marketing text.

In the Freeze Type Description, only Displayed Name and Description is used. When you press Update, this will put the information on Client Portal.

To edit an existing description press Edit. If you wish to add in translations for other languages press translate.

Configuration Instructions

Create a New Freeze Type

1. From the Contract Freeze Types list, click Add New Record.

2. The "New freeze type" form will appear.

3. Enter a Name.

4. Check the Active box.

5. Configure the freeze logic:

   • For a Standard Freeze: Leave Is prepaid unchecked. Configure the Interval payment (e.g., select Fixed fee ) and enter an Admin Fee, if any.

   • For a Prepaid Freeze: Check Is prepaid and select the required Prepaid product from the dropdown.

6. Go through the Limits & Duration, Availability, Visibility, and Settings sections to set all rules for this freeze. Refer to the Settings section above for details on each field.

7. Click Save to save the new freeze type, Save as new to save it as a separate freeze type, or Cancel to discard.

Edit an Existing Freeze Type

1. From the Freeze Types list, click the pencil (Edit) icon for the type you wish to modify.

2. The form will load with all the existing data.

3. Make any required changes to the settings.

4. If you need to add or change the client-facing description, use the Name and Description for Clients section at the bottom.

   • Click Edit to modify the default description.

   • Click Translate to add a description for a new language.

5. Click Save to save your changes.

Configure Availability (Clubs, Payment Plans, and Dates)

To control where and when this freeze type can be used, follow these steps during creation or editing:

• To restrict by Payment Plan:

  1. Uncheck All current and future payment plans.

  2. The list of plans will appear. Check the boxes for all plans that should be allowed to use this freeze.

  3. If you don't see a plan, check Show inactive payment plans.

• To restrict by Club:

  1. Uncheck All current and future clubs.

  2. The list of clubs will appear. Check the boxes for all clubs where this freeze should be available.

• To restrict by Date:

  1. Uncheck Available all the time.

  2. The Valid for periods grid will appear.

  3. Click the "Add new record" button in the grid's toolbar.

  4. Select a From date and an Until date and save the row.

  5. Repeat to add multiple valid periods (e.g., for seasonal freezes).

Hints

• Name Duplication Error: The Name must be unique. The system will display a "Freeze type with this name already exists" error if you try to save a duplicate.

• Duration Validation: The Minimum period must be less than or equal to the Maximum period. A validator will show a "Minimum period must be lower or equal to maximum period" error if this rule is broken.

  Validity Period Overlap: When adding date ranges to the Valid for periods grid, they cannot overlap. The system will prevent you from saving an overlapping range.

• Prepaid Option: The Is prepaid option will only be visible if you have at least one "Prepaid Freeze" product configured in the system.

• Settings Dependencies: The checkboxes in the Advanced Contract & Billing Settings section are co-dependent. Checking one (like Keep charging for contract... ) may automatically disable others (like Move contract recurring payment date and Allow freeze during prorata period ).

• Client Descriptions: The Name and Description for Clients section is only visible after a freeze type has been created (i.e., in edit mode), not when you are first inserting a new one.

• Contract extras:

  • Freezes for contracts extras generating products such as personal training products will now prevent the products from generating when a club member is on freeze when the freeze is on their payment schedule date.

  • This will not remove the product if backdating freezes. You will need to manually delete the product or expire the products already generated

Troubleshooting

1. If a freeze type is not displaying on a club member profile when trying to freeze them, this is due to one of the following situations:
   • Member payment plan cannot be frozen - Check PGM->Sale->Payment plans and see if freeze is available can ticked.
   • Member has used a previous freeze, and a different freeze type cannot be used.
   • Freeze type does not have the payment plan listed in the drop down list.
   • Freeze type is not active, or outside of date range.
   • Member has reached limits on how many freeze types can be used within a period.
2. Freeze type minimum / maximum period is only for that freeze period and cannot be combined as a total for all freezes.
3. If using Scope - Week or Monthly, and per scope pricing, you must tick 'Allow freeze start only on payment date' as the pricing calculation is calculated from the payment plan recurring billing dates. 

• These situations are when the freeze creation date and start date, and direct debit billing date are extremely close to each other.
  1. If a freeze was created before debit day, and they are not in arrears, on the day of debit they will have nothing to owe if the full payment interval is on freeze.
  2. If a freeze was created before debit day, and they are not in arrears, on the day of debit they will only pay the pro-rata if partial payment interval is on freeze. For example on a 2 weeks interval, 9 days on freeze and 5 days at gym.
  3. If a freeze was created before debit day, and they are in arrears, on the day of debit they will be charged the amount owing previously, and either point 1 or 2 if they are on freeze for full length of payment interval or partial.
  4. If a freeze was created after direct debit was generated/sent. the request for payment already sent to payment provider, the transaction for the membership fee will be deleted on the club member contract, when the payment returns, this will either apply to a future transaction on the members contract, or go in credit (depending on system configuration or contract itself).

Use Case Examples

Example 1: Standard Paid Vacation (Direct Debit)

• Membership Type: Direct Debit

• Goal: A standard freeze for DD members going on vacation. It has a small one-time fee and a minimum duration.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Vacation Freeze (DD)"

  • Interval payment: Free of charge.

  • Administration fee: 10.00.

  • Scope: Day.

  • Minimum period: 14.

  • Maximum period: 90.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

Example 2: Standard Paid Vacation (Upfront/Paid in Full)

• Membership Type: Upfront / Paid in Full

• Goal: A standard freeze for Upfront members going on vacation. It has a one-time fee and extends their expiry date.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Vacation Freeze (Upfront)"

  • Interval payment: Free of charge.

  • Administration fee: 10.00.

  • Scope: Day.

  • Minimum period: 14.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract recurring payment date: Checked.

Example 3: Free Medical Freeze (Direct Debit)

• Membership Type: Direct Debit

• Goal: A free, flexible freeze for medical reasons that extends the contract.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Medical Freeze (DD)"

  • Interval payment: Free of charge.

  • Administration fee: 0.00.

  • Scope: Day.

  • Minimum period: 1.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

Example 4: Free Medical Freeze (Upfront/Paid in Full)

• Membership Type: Upfront / Paid in Full

• Goal: A free, flexible freeze for medical reasons that extends the member's paid-in-full expiry date.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Medical Freeze (Upfront)"

  • Interval payment: Free of charge.

  • Administration fee: 0.00.

  • Scope: Day.

  • Minimum period: 1.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract recurring payment date: Checked.

Example 5: Swim School Holiday Break (Course Membership)

• Membership Type: Course Membership

• Goal: A free, automated freeze for all swim school members during the term break. This freeze must not extend the contract or change billing, as it's part of the course structure.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Term 2 Holiday Break"

  • Interval payment: Free of charge.

  • All payment plans: Unchecked.

  • Scope: Week.

  • Payment plans: Select "Swim School Term 2".

  • Available all the time: Unchecked.

  • Valid for periods: Add one row for the exact holiday dates (e.g., From: 08-Jul-20XX, Until: 19-Jul-20XX).

  • Advanced Settings: ALL checkboxes (e.g., Move contract end... , Move contract recurring... ) must be Unchecked.

Example 6: Prepaid Freeze Pass

• Membership Type: N/A (Applies to any type, as it's product-based)

• Goal: A freeze type that can only be used by members who purchase a "30-Day Freeze Pass" product.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Prepaid 30-Day Freeze"

  • Is prepaid: Checked.

  • Prepaid product: Select "30-Day Freeze Pass" from the dropdown.

  • Scope: Day.

  • Minimum period: 30.

  • Maximum period: 30.

  • (All payment and advanced billing settings will be hidden or disabled).

Example 7: Staff-Only Billing Correction (Direct Debit)

• Membership Type: Direct Debit

• Goal: An administrative freeze, hidden from members, for staff to correct billing errors.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Admin Correction Freeze (Staff Only)"

  • Interval payment: Free of charge.

  • Only for chosen employee roles: Checked.

  • Visible To Roles: Check "System Manager" and "Support Agent Level 2".

  • Only for chosen sources: Checked.

  • Display Source: Check "PGM" (Internal System), ensure "Client Portal" is unchecked.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

Example 8: "Keep Paying & Extend" Loyalty Freeze (Direct Debit)

• Membership Type: Direct Debit

• Goal: Allow members to keep paying their normal fees (to maintain their "Founder" rate) but still extend their contract for the time they were away.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Keep Paying & Extend (DD)"

  • Interval payment: Fee from payment plan (This will be overridden by the setting below).

  • Scope: Day.

  • Advanced Setting: Keep charging for contract and extend it for free: Checked.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

Example 9: "Must Start on Billing Date" Freeze (Direct Debit)

• Membership Type: Direct Debit

• Goal: A freeze that simplifies billing by only allowing it to start on the member's regular payment date.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Billing Cycle Freeze (DD)"

  • Interval payment: Interval fee percentage: 50%.

  • Scope: Month.

  • Minimum period: 1.

  • Advanced Setting: Allow freeze start only on payment date: Checked.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

Example 10: "No Prorata" Freeze (Direct Debit)

• Membership Type: Direct Debit

• Goal: A standard freeze that cannot be used during the initial pro-rata period of a new contract (e.g., to prevent signup abuse).

• Settings:

  • Name: "Standard Freeze (No Prorata)"

  • Scope: Day.

  • First freeze application: "Days", "14" (Cannot be used in the first 14 days).

  • Advanced Setting: Allow freeze during prorata period: Unchecked.

  • Advanced Setting: Move contract end and commitment date: Checked.

Example 11: "Swim School Term Break" (Course Membership)

• Membership Type: Course Membership

• Goal: A simple 1-week break between 8-week yoga terms. It must not alter billing or contract dates.

• Settings:

  • Name: "Swim School Term Break"

  • Interval payment: Free of charge.

  • Scope: Week.

  • All payment plans: Unchecked.

  • Payment plans: Select "Swim School Course".

  • Available all the time: Unchecked.

  • Valid for periods: Add rows for the 1-week gaps between each 8-week term.

  • Advanced Settings: ALL checkboxes must be Unchecked.