How to pre-approve Membership Applications

Christine

November 08, 2020 18:35

With Pre-Approval, you can review Membership Applications and issue invoices only to those Contacts who you approve.

In other words, payment is not due from members until after their application has been accepted. Continue reading to learn about the workflow, and how to configure pre-approval!

Configuring Pre-Approval

To pre-approve Membership Applications, the workflow must be configured in the settings for your Membership Category.

NOTE:

Pre-Approval cannot be configured if you do not have Membership Approval enabled.

If you are creating a new Membership Category, consult this Knowledge Base article and be sure to toggle ON the option for ‘Requires Approval’.

If you are editing an existing Membership Category, consult this Knowledge Base article to ensure that approval is required.

1. In the settings for your Membership Category, click the ‘Workflow’ tab.

Image indicating the 'Workflow' tab when editing a Membership Category.

The Workflow tab will not be visible if you do not follow the steps in the alert above.

2. Choose to collect payment ‘After Approval’.

Image indicating the option to collect payment 'After Approval'.

You can also choose whether the Contact will receive their Welcome Email before or after payment is received.

Image showing the option whether to grant Member Portal Access before payment is received, or after payment is received.

The choice will not change the rest of the workflow, so pick the option that works best for you.

3. Click the ‘Communication‘ tab.

4. Under the ‘Application Emails’ sub-tab, click ‘Application Pre-Approved’.

Image indicating the Application Pre-approved email template under the Application Emails sub-tab of the Communication tab.

5. Toggle the email ON. This is the template that will send to your Contacts after their application has been pre-approved, and it will contain a link for them to pay the invoice.

Image showing the Application Pre-approved email, indicating that the 'Enable Email?' toggle is ON.

6. Click ‘Save’ to confirm any changes you made to the Pre-approval template, then click ‘Publish’ at the bottom of the page to take your Membership Category live.

Image showing the 'Publish' button at the bottom of the page when editing a Membership Category.

Pre-Approving an Application

Applications that come into your system will show up on the Administrator Dashboard.

1. Check the ‘Alerts’ section, and click ‘Applications pending review’.

Image indicating the 'Applications pending review' link from the Administrator Dashboard.

Alternatively, click through the ‘Reports’ -> ‘Membership’ -> ‘Applications Pending Review’ series of drop-down menus to access the same page.

2. Locate the Membership Application you wish to pre-approve from the list. Click its corresponding ‘Review’ button.

Image showing the 'Applications Pending Review' page, indicating the 'Review' button next to someone's name.

3. You will be taken to a page where you can review the Membership Application. It is possible to request more information as necessary and to delete or deny the application if you wish.

Image showing a sample Membership Application review, with buttons to Approve, Deny, Delete, or to Request Info. We are indicating the button labeled 'Pre-Approve'.

To pre-approve the application and generate the corresponding invoice, click ‘Pre-Approve’.

4. The template you enabled in Step 5 above will appear. Review its contents, make adjustments as necessary, then click ‘Pre-Approve’ to deliver the email and corresponding invoice to your newly pre-approved member!

Image showing the email confirmation screen, to send to the member before you pre-approve them. The 'Pre-Approve' button at the bottom is indicated.

When this Contact pays the invoice you just sent to them, their Membership Application will be approved automatically!

Congratulations, you now know how to set up a Membership Category that facilitates pre-approval, and you know how to pre-approve Membership Applications!