One walking business asked a dozen membership questions in eight weeks: a benefit that missed a service, how long a pause can run, a membership sitting on Pending after a card was declined, and bookings that never drew on the allowance. They come back to the same two facts. The plan holds the rules, and a member is a recurring Stripe subscription that follows them.

What the plan says, and what the link shows

Everything a member gets is on the plan, across Details (Plan Name, Price, Billing Cycle) and Benefits. The card below is the same component your booking page and the purchase link render, so it is the quickest check that the plan says what you meant.

1. Open Memberships, choose Plans, then select the plan.
2. On Terms, read the terms and select Acknowledge Terms.
3. Select Publish plan.
4. On Details, switch on Self-Service Purchase for pet owners to find and buy it, or leave it off to keep the plan Staff only.

Each tick is one benefit, and the words after the colon are written from its settings rather than typed by anyone. An Included sessions benefit with a limit reads as a count per allowance. A Member discount (%) reads as the percentage off. A benefit covers a service because that service is picked under Specific services on the Benefits tab, or because the benefit is left on All services.

Dog daycare: a daycare plan is usually two benefits on one plan, included days and then a member price for the days past them, so the extra Friday still sells instead of being refused. Dog walking: Included sessions with a limit is the one that counts walks. A Member discount (%) only makes each walk cheaper, which is a different promise and a different invoice.

Publishing and visibility are separate switches. Publish plan takes a draft live, and it is blocked until you acknowledge the terms on the Terms tab. Self-Service Purchase then decides whether pet owners can find it at all.

Both links sit under Self-Service Purchase Links on the plan: Showcase page (all plans) for everything you sell, and Direct purchase link for this one. Preview Purchase Page opens what they will open. That panel needs the plan out of draft, a paid plan, and a connected Stripe account.

Group the plans before the list gets long

Until a plan has a category, pet owners see your plans in one grid. Membership Categories sorts them, and it starts empty: there are no built-in categories.

1. Open Membership Categories, or on Plans open the settings menu beside Create plan and select Manage categories.
2. Select Create First Category, or New once you have one.
3. Enter the Category Name, then select Create Category.
4. Open the plan, and on Details choose it under Plan Category, then publish the plan.

A category only changes how the plans are laid out. It changes no price, no benefit and nobody's membership. Name it for what the client is choosing between, such as Grooming Plans, rather than for how you bill it.

Enrol someone at the counter

Enrol New Member sits on Memberships under Members. Enrol in plan, on Membership Plans in a customer's Wallet tab, opens the same form.

1. Open Memberships and select Enrol New Member.
2. Search for the customer and choose them.
3. Under Select a plan, choose the plan, then set Start date.
4. For a start date after today, tick Collect first payment today to charge now anyway.
5. Select the Enrol button, which reads Enrol now or names the pets you chose.

A card on file is the one hard requirement. Without one the button becomes Text them to add a card, nothing is created, and you come back once they have added it. Start date is today or up to thirty days out: today charges and starts the benefits now, a later date charges nothing until then unless you tick Collect first payment today.

A membership with a start date ahead of today sits under the Pending status filter on Members until it begins. On the morning it starts, its badge reads Starts today, because Stripe raises the first invoice at midnight and takes the money about an hour later. If that charge is declined the badge turns red and reads Payment failed, and opening it gives you Retry payment and Text card update. Included uses stay on hold until the payment succeeds.

A member who wants more than their plan gives gets an extra, not a second membership. An extra is a small priced bundle you publish once, such as a Saturday group walk once a week, and you add it on the customer's Wallet tab, under Membership Plans, with Add an extra (Add an extra to a member's plan). It becomes a second line on the same subscription: today they pay the full price if the membership bills on a set weekday with Smaller first payment off, otherwise the share for what is left of the current billing period, then the full price with every renewal. It covers the same pets, and pauses or ends with the membership. Pet owners cannot buy an extra themselves.

Pause, cancel, and the price on a booking

Pausing suspends benefits and billing together, in whole billing cycles, from now or from a billing day you pick.

1. Open Memberships and select the member.
2. Select Pause.
3. In Pause membership, set the length.
4. To start the pause on a later billing day, pick one under Starts.
5. Select the button, which reads Pause for or Schedule pause for followed by the length.

The cap and the yearly count are the plan's, set under Max days per pause and Max pauses per year on Length, Cancelling & Pausing. Going past either shows an amber line naming the limit, and you tick Override the plan limit for this pause to go ahead, so the two numbers warn you rather than stop you. The pause length never changes the count: the summary still says Counts as 1 pause. Bookings already inside the pause window stay booked. They just do not take a benefit while the membership is paused, which is what the Bookings row counts.

A plan billed on a set weekday charges a member who starts mid-week the full price today. To charge only for the days left in that first week instead, switch on Smaller first payment under the billing day on the plan. The enrol screen then shows the smaller amount before you confirm.

Cancelling asks when: Cancel now (access ends today) or Cancel at end of current period. The dialog leads with Upcoming bookings return to standard price, and which of the two actually happens is the plan's When a membership ends setting, either Return future bookings to standard pricing or Honour the member price already booked.

A plan can also end on its own. Under Length on Length, Cancelling & Pausing, Fixed term, then it ends bills the number of payments you set and then stops, with no cancel needed. The member gets a heads-up before the last payment, and the finished membership reads Completed, which reporting counts as completed rather than as a cancellation. If Pausing adds to the minimum period is on, a pause pushes the end date back by the payments it skips. Cancelling before the end follows the plan's early cancellation settings, with no fee in the final paid cycle. The steps are in A membership that ends on a date.

Dog training: a 6-week programme paid weekly, with its sessions included each week, is a fixed term of 6 weekly payments. It ends with the programme instead of renewing.

Member pricing on a booking is worked out when you save it, from the visit date, and that is the moment an included use is drawn. So a booking made while they are a member already has it. A booking made before the membership existed does not. That is what Apply Member Price on the booking's quick menu is for, and Apply member pricing on the customer's Membership Plans tab does a batch of them at once. When there is something to convert, a green Membership covers upcoming bookings banner offers it without being asked.