Creating Client Memberships

In this article:

• Before You Begin
• What Is a Membership in Practice Better?
• Creating a Membership Package or Program
  • Setting the Ongoing Payment Plan
• Setting Up a One-Off Membership for a Single Client
• Managing an Active Membership
  • Editing a Membership's Price or Frequency
  • Pausing a Membership Temporarily
  • Canceling a Membership Completely
• Membership FAQ

Before You Begin

• Plan tier: memberships with payment plans require the Professional, Plus, or Team subscription plan.
• Practice Better Payments: to charge clients automatically, you'll need a Practice Better Payments account.
• At least one Service, Package, or Program already created, if you're building a self-serve membership clients can book on their own. Learn more about Working with Packages → and Working With Programs →

⚠️ Important: How a client's membership gets created determines whether billing starts automatically.

Membership package billing:

• If a client books the membership themselves through your public booking page (with payment required), Practice Better creates the payment plan and starts billing automatically.
   
• If you create or confirm the package for a client yourself from their portal, the payment plan does not attach automatically. You'll need a separate step afterward: open the package and manually set up the recurring payment plan for that client.

What Is a Membership in Practice Better?

You won't find a "Membership" button anywhere in your navigation, and that's by design. A membership is simply a Service, Package, or Program billed on a recurring basis using the Ongoing pricing model, the same idea as a gym membership that renews automatically until a client cancels.

You have two ways to build one, depending on how you work:

• Package or Program with Ongoing pricing. Best for a standardized offering that many clients will purchase, like a monthly coaching membership listed on your booking page.
   
• Custom payment plan for a single client. Best for a one-off arrangement, like a month-to-month retainer you're setting up individually.

The rest of this article walks through both.

Creating a Membership Package or Program

1. Go to My Practice > My Services (or My Practice > My Programs if you're building a Program instead).
    
2. Click the Fast Action Button in the bottom-right corner and select Add Package.
   
    
3. Enter your package name, description, and details.
    
4. Click Add sessions to this package and select the services included in the membership. Repeat with Add another to include more than one service.
   
    
5. Optionally, set a session expiry date or weekly and monthly booking limits under Booking Restrictions. This is useful for memberships that include a set number of sessions per month.

💡 Tip: Programs can be added to a package too, so a membership that combines a self-paced program with live group sessions is entirely possible. Learn more about Working With Programs →

Setting the Ongoing Payment Plan

In your Package’s settings:

1. Go to the Advanced Options tab, and under the Fee & Taxes section, set the Pricing model to Ongoing payments.
   
    
2. You'll see a prompt confirming you need to add at least one ongoing payment plan before saving. Click Set up to continue. Click Add plan in the Advanced Options tab of your Package’s settings.
   
    
3. Configure your recurring payment plan:
   
   • Recurring payment: the amount charged each billing cycle.
   • Repeats and Repeat every: how often the charge repeats, for example, every 1 month.
   • Trigger payments at: the time of day charges process.
   • Payment plan description: customize what clients see at checkout, for example, "$150 every month."
      
4. Click Save.
    
5. Set your Public Bookings Page and/or Client Portal display to Require to pay at booking, so clients are prompted to enroll in the payment plan when they book.
   
    
6. Click Save Changes near the top-right to finish setting up your package.

Since a membership uses Ongoing pricing, clients only see the recurring payment plan at checkout, with your customized description (for example, "$150 every month"). Once enrolled, clients can view their membership details and payment history anytime from their Client Portal.

Setting Up a One-Off Membership for a Single Client

For a membership that isn't tied to a standard offering, like a month-to-month retainer for just one client, create a custom payment plan directly on their record instead.

1. Go to [Client Record] > Billing & Payments > Payment Plans.
    
2. Click the Fast Action Button and select Create payment plan.
   
    
3. Choose Collect Ongoing Installments for a membership with no end date. 
   
   • Or select Collect a Fixed Number of Installments for a fixed-term membership, like a six-month commitment.
     
      
4. Enter the payment amount, frequency, and start date, then choose how you'd like to process payments: automatically charging a card on file, or sending invoices for the client to pay manually.
    
5. Click Preview payments to confirm the schedule, then click Create.

For a full walkthrough of payment plans, deposits, and every installment type head to our guide for Setting Up Payment Plans in Practice Better →

Managing an Active Membership

Once a client is enrolled, you can adjust, pause, or cancel their membership at any time from the Payment Plan Details page.

You can locate all of your client payment plans in your Automations page. Go to My Practice > Automations and filter the list for Payments.

Learn more about Managing Active Payment Plans and Installments →

Editing a Membership's Price or Frequency

Open the client’s payment plan and click Edit Plan. You can update the recurring amount, frequency, or payment method; changes apply to future payments only.

📍 Note: Editing a Package or Program's Ongoing pricing on the template only affects new clients who purchase afterward. It does not update anyone already enrolled; each active membership needs its own edit.

Pausing a Membership Temporarily

From an ongoing payment plan’s details page, click Pause Payments to stop billing without ending the membership, useful for a client taking a seasonal break or a short hold. Paused plans stay disabled until you manually click Resume Payments; there's no automatic restart.

Canceling a Membership Completely

Click Cancel Pending Payments. This is permanent; if the client wants to restart later, you'll need to create a new payment plan from scratch. Any outstanding balance isn't automatically invoiced or forgiven, so that's a conversation to have directly with your client.

Membership FAQ

Q: Can I offer a free first month on a membership?

A: Coupons can't be applied to Ongoing payment plans, so a discount code won't work here. Instead, set your payment plan's first installment to start one month after purchase rather than immediately, and price the plan to account for that deferred payment. This delays the first charge rather than waiving it, so if a client cancels before that first payment processes, they'll have received a genuinely free month.

Q: Can I require a deposit before the recurring payments start?

A: Not on an Ongoing pricing plan; the deposit field is only available with Fixed Fee pricing. See "Can I collect a deposit that's different from my ongoing membership amount?" above for a workaround.

Q: Can I collect a deposit that's different from my ongoing membership amount?

A: Not within a single payment plan; Practice Better doesn't support a deposit amount that differs from the recurring charge on an Ongoing plan. Two options work around this:

• Option 1: Invoice the client for the deposit manually first, then enroll them in the membership package afterward.
   
• Option 2: Create a separate empty package priced as a Fixed Fee for the deposit amount, and require payment at booking. Once a client purchases it, use that package's Redirect URL setting to send them straight to your membership package's booking page to enroll, or enroll them yourself.

📍 Note: The redirect option only works when the client books the deposit package themselves. If you're charging a client for the deposit directly, you can send them the link to purchase the membership package or enroll them yourself once you've collected the deposit. Since these are two separate charges, the deposit and the membership will appear as separate invoices in the client's billing history.

Q: If I change my membership's price, does it update clients who already joined?

A: No. Editing a Package or Program's pricing only applies to new clients going forward. Everyone already enrolled keeps their original rate until you edit their individual payment plan from the Payment Plan Details page.

Q: Can I pause a client's membership instead of canceling it?

A: Yes. Pausing stops billing while keeping the plan in place so you can resume it later. Canceling is permanent; if a client wants to restart after canceling, you'll need to create a new payment plan.

Q: Why don't clients see a "pay in full" option for my membership?

A: Ongoing pricing is built for recurring billing, so the recurring plan is the only checkout option. If you'd rather offer a one-time fee with optional installments instead of a true membership, use Fixed Fee pricing.

Q: What happens if a client's card is declined for an installment?

A: You and the client are both notified by email. From there, you can update the card and manually process the missed payment, or skip that installment if you've made other arrangements. Learn more about Managing Active Payment Plans and Installments →

Q: What happens to a membership if I switch or disconnect my payment processor?

A: If a package's Billing Mode was set to Unmanaged and you later unlink your payment processor, upcoming installments can fail without an obvious alert. If you're switching processors, check your active memberships' payment plans afterward to confirm they're still processing correctly.