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How to create a free trial payment plan

Updated

Introduction

This guide will explain the settings used to create a trial payment plan for new club members wishing to join.

Before you start 

For detailed information about the settings for payment plans, please refer to the following guide here.

Feature description

To access payment plans, go to PGM->Sale->Payment plans.

Adding - To add a new payment plan, press Add new payment plan at the top right hand corner of the screen.

Pressing the pencil button next to the payment plan will allow you to edit the existing payment plan, please note this may cause issues to existing contracts connected to this payment plan if editing payment plans.

Payment Plan details

When clicking Add new payment plan this will bring up the following screen with all of the payment plan settings. 

Header

Name - Name of the payment plan.

Payment plans must have a unique name.

Start date / End date - Leave these blank unless you wish to control when the payment plan can be sold within these dates.

Minimum age / Max age - Leave these blank unless you wish to control the age limits on who can purchase this payment plan.

Active - Set the payment plan to be active.  If the payment plan is inactive then it cannot be sold. 

If a member is connected to an inactive payment plan, they will still get debited, this only refers to selling this payment plan.

Plan type - This must be set as 'Trial' (or equivalent).

Payment plan type settings: this setting controls financial data processing through electronic payments, contract related reports, trials, and other types of contracts.
If Trial is not available on the drop down list, please contact support using the Get Support module.

Additional payment plan - For all trial payment plans, it is recommended that this is unticked.

Fees

  • Membership fee - Fee charged to the club member for their membership, this is charged per payment interval (set in periods). If the trial membership is free, set the value here to 0.00.
  • Joining fee & Administration fee are set per club member on the first contract.  It is recommended to have these set as 0.00 for all trial payment plans.
  • Freeze is set per contract. It is recommended to have this unticked.
  • Allowable debit is the maximum limit of debt the club member can be in when making product purchases via Client Portal.

Payment methods

Select the payment methods allowed with this payment plan. This determines how the club member can pay for their contract. 

Paid at the reception - This will allow the club member to pay in the club, or online using a payment gate. This is recommended for upfront and trial contracts.

If the payment plan has some kind of fee attached, it is recommended to still use the payment method Paid at the reception.  As credit card and direct debit is designed for recurring payments.

For all recurring contracts, Credit card or Direct debit are the two common payment methods used.

Periods

Set the period of the payment interval and commitment period of the contract, for trial payment plans both the payment interval and commitment period need to be set to the same value. 

Settings such as Automatically end contract after commitment period reached will end the contract automatically.

To add additional values to the Payment interval and commitment period, please follow the guide here.

Settings

The settings area will control how the payment plan works. Listed are the only options recommended to use, leave all others as blank.

  • First payment on sign up date - This will force the first full membership fee to be included with the initial fees (administration fee, joining fee and pro-rata fees).  Recommended to have this ticked if there is some kind of fee on the payment plan.
  • Automatically end contract after commitment period reached (payment interval name) - This will automatically add an end date to the contract when the club member signs up to a contract. This setting is designed for upfront payment contracts.
  • Limit number of visits in a period - Limit the amount of times a club member can enter the facilities. The intervals is set as Day, Week, Month or All Time (all time refers to the length of the contract.  If unticked, its unlimited entry.
  • Limit the ability to choose a contract for the Club Member - This will limit the amount of members who can sign up to this payment plan. The intervals is set as Day, Week, Month or All Time.  If unticked, there is no limits on how many club members can sign up to this contract.
  • The period after which you can renew contract - The time when a club member can create a new contract with this payment plan.
  • Payment interval occurs on contract start day (no pro rata) - The payment interval for the contract will start from the contract start date. 
    • For upfront/trial style contracts, this setting must be used. It will set the payment interval to start on the contract start date. and finish at the contract end date.  This will prevent any additional charges if the setting is incorrect.
  • Stop charging after min period - Once the commitment period has been reached, this will prevent further charges from applying to the contract.  This is only used in upfront contracts where there is one fixed payment.
  • Agreement template - The agreement template is the membership agreement (contract) which is sent. 
  • Template of rules - The template of rules is an additional noneditable pdf document which is sent with the agreement template (above).
  • Category - In selected reports, you can filter using payment plan category. This is set up in dictionaries, more information can be found here.

Initial payment for online registration requirement

Initial payment is required during online registration - Payment is required at the time of contract generation for Client portal registrations only. Recommend to tick this for upfront/trial payment plans

Selected payment providers may work differently here, please contact support if you do not know what your payment provider does with this setting.

  • Paid at reception - Will open a payment gate screen from your payment provider to request payment.

Payment in advance summary (client portal) -  This will provide a listing of all charges on the contract to be paid at sign up date. For upfront/trial payment plans, this must be ticked

Contract payments due date settings

Payment in advance for contract - This will set all payments due dates within the commitment period to the sign up date. Used for upfront contracts. 

Use advance due date schema policy for contract fees - Leave unticked.

Assigned clubs

In the list, select which clubs have access to sell this payment plan.

Clicking Add to new clubs will automatically add this to any new club you set up.

Access rules and Contract extras [Membership add-ons]

Access rules - Select the default access rule that this payment plan has. Access rules are set up in PGM->Sale->Access rules. A contract can only have one access rule attached to it. More information can be found here.

Employees can manually change access rules on a contract on the club member profile.

Contract extras [Membership add-ons] - Contract extras [membership add-ons] can provide additional benefits to the member such as access to group fitness classes or bringing a friend into the facilities. They are set up in PGM->Sale->Memberships->Contract extras. A contract can have multiple Contract extras [membership add-ons]. More information can be found here.

Employees cannot modify Contract extras [Membership add-ons] on individual contracts.

Available for

This is where the payment plan is available to be sold from. Selected modules here may not be part of your package, please contact support for more information. The most common applications used is listed below.

  • Web - This is the PGM site.
    • Europe - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.pl/Pgm/
    • Australia/New Zealand - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.com.au/Pgm/
  • Client Portal 2 - This is the client portal site, for external use.
    • Europe - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.pl/clientportal2/
    • Australia/New Zealand - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.com.au/clientportal2/
  • Reception Tablet - This is the client portal site, for internal use.
    • Europe - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.pl/clientportal2/?mode=tablet
    • Australia/New Zealand - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.com.au/clientportal2/?mode=tablet
  • Kiosk - This is the client portal site, for the Kiosk only (only available if you have a kiosk on site).
    • Europe - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.pl/clientportal2/?mode=kiosk
    • Australia/New Zealand - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.com.au/clientportal2/?mode=kiosk
  • POSWeb - This is the Point of Sale (note: requires additional software, windows based only).
    • Europe - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.pl/posweb 
    • Australia/New Zealand - https://YOUR-SITE-NAME.perfectgym.com.au/posweb (Note -  AUS&NZ - Only used for upfront Contracts only)
  • API - If you are using an API for online joining, ensure this is ticked.

Press Save to continue.

 

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