Adding a Subscription Benefit to a Membership Product

You can also add membership subscription benefits on the Rate Code Extension screen. These subscription benefits allow you to give a journal or other publication to members at no charge. Since there is no charge to the member for this benefit, no order is required. Membership subscription benefits are set up using the MBR_Rate_Subscription table, and processed using the Order_MBR_Subscription table.

When you change a record in the MBR_Rate_Subscription table, only new membership orders created after the change and proforma membership orders activated after the change are affected. Existing active membership orders are not affected.

Members receive subscription benefits the entire time of their membership. For example, if members joined in June but their start date was back in January, then they will receive back issues for all of the issues since January that they missed. The member receives subscription benefits from the Start Date of the membership through the Grace End Date. However, if the subscription benefit was not attached to the product at the time of order creation, no benefits will be received until a renewal.

As of the 7.2.2 release, you can designate which benefits are associated with each membership product for a specific period of time. This includes reactivating an inactive subscription benefit and setting a subscription benefit to begin in the future. Previously, you could only inactivate a membership subscription benefit by deleting it on the day it must be discontinued. You could also not add a subscription benefit record to begin in the future.

When you run renewals prior to the membership expiration, the system recognizes the begin and end dates of the member benefit subscription(s) and creates renewals with the corresponding benefit subscription(s). You can continue to create new partial year memberships for the remainder of the current membership period and those records evaluate the begin and end dates to determine the corresponding benefit subscription(s) for the partial term memberships. All benefits follow the same terms as their associated membership.

You cannot enter a record with the same membership product, rate structure, rate code, subscription product, and Begin Date.

At any time during the membership subscription benefit time period, a customer may choose to not receive the subscription anymore. As of the 7.3.1 release, when the renewal process is run, the system will now check the subscription benefit dates to verify that the subscription should NOT be renewed with the membership. If the subscription qualifies as a benefit of membership but the member is not currently receiving the subscription, the subscription will NOT be renewed because the system now assumes that the customer does not want to receive the subscription anymore. However, if the customer chooses to receive the subscription in the future, the subscription benefit can be added back to the membership and will be renewed accordingly.

Subscription benefits can also be added as a component of a membership product. However, the Cycle End Date must be the same as the End Date of the membership product in order for the subscription benefit and membership product to renew together.

Unique Business Scenario

An association sells subscriptions with membership and they must begin and end in the same membership period so they can be renewed together.

Create a new membership product of type SIG that is NOT a master product, which uses the name of the publication. For example, Journal of Engineering, Education Newspaper, or Research Magazine.
Setup the subscription benefit in Rate Code Extensions with the same number of months as membership.
Setup different rate codes as needed for member and non-member pricing.
The revenue recognition method should be monthly.

To add a subscription benefit to a membership product:

1. On the Rate and Pricing screen, click Rate Code Extensions.
The Rate Code Extensions screen displays, as shown below.

2. From the Subscription Benefits section, click Add.
The Product Chooser displays. Search for the appropriate subscription to add as a benefit for members.

3. If necessary, select the Ship-Via method from the drop-down.

4. Select the Sub Rate Structure from the drop-down.

5. Select the Sub Rate Code from the drop-down.

6. If necessary, select the Begin Date and End Date for when the subscription benefit product is available.

7. Enter the amount for Portion of Membership Price Allocated to this Subscription Benefit.

8. If necessary, select the Associates checkbox.

9. Click Save.

Screen Element	Description
Membership
Length in Months	Text box. The length in months of a membership. This number defines the end date of the term. For example, if you enter “12” here, this is a 12-month membership. The end date of the term is automatically calculated. Revenue Recognition will override the time entered here. Defaults to 12 months.
Grace Months	Text box. The number of months that is typical for continuing member benefits prior to cancelling a membership for non-renewal. Defaults for the Membership Structure, but can be overridden.
Pay Frequency	Drop-down. The time frame the customer must pay. For example, Invoice indicates the customer must pay immediately and Monthly indicates the customer can pay on a monthly schedule. If Monthly is selected, the order is automatically created with a monthly payment schedule but can be overridden on the Order Entry screen. This value is validated against the Pay_Frequency fixed type code.
Renewal Control
Renew to this Product	Link. Select the membership product that this product should renew as. If left blank, the value will default to itself.
Renew as Rate Structure	Drop-down. Select the rate structure that this product’s rate structure should renew as. If left blank, the value will default to the product’s original rate structure.
Renew as Rate Code	Drop-down. Select the rate code that this product’s rate code should renew as. If left blank, the value will default to the product’s original rate code.
Subscription Benefits
Add	Button. When clicked, the Product Chooser screen displays where you can select a subscription product to add to the membership. These subscription products are free for this membership, regardless of price. They are defined by rate code.
Delete	Button. When clicked, the highlighted row from the table and the information entered in the corresponding fields are deleted. Before deleting, the system verifies that the subscription does not exist on any active memberships and that a MBR_Rate_Subscription record does not exist in the Order_Detail table where a record for the order number/order line number exists in Order_MBR_Subscription for the subscription product. If the subscription does exist on an active membership, then the record cannot be deleted, but you can, however, enter an end date for the subscription.
Current	Checkbox. When checked, the system displays only the current membership benefits for the product. Current subscriptions have not yet reached their end date. As of the 7.2.2 release, the Active_Flag field was added to the MBR_Rate_Subscription table to accommodate the new feature and only display current subscriptions.
Membership Benefits Detail
Publication	Link. This field automatically populates with the subscription selected when you clicked Add. However, you can change the value here by clicking the link and searching for a different subscription. As of the 7.2.2 release, the MBR_Rate_Subscription_ID field was added to the MBR_Rate_Subscription table to accommodate the new feature.
Ship-Via	Drop-down. Select the ship-via method that will be used for the subscription benefit. This method only applies to the subscription product as a benefit. It does not override the ship-via method for the general subscription product.
Sub Rate Structure	Drop-down. Select the rate structure that will receive the subscription benefit.
Sub Rate Code	Drop-down. Select the rate code that will receive the subscription benefit.
Begin Date	Drop-down. Select the date the subscription will be available as a membership benefit to the product. Defaults to the system date. When you order or renew a membership, the system looks at the begin and end dates entered here to compose the correct associated member benefit subscription products. The begin date of the new record must be greater than the end date of the last record and cannot overlap the time period of a previous record. As of the 7.2.2 release, the Effective_Begin_Date field was added to the MBR_Rate_Subscription table to accommodate the new feature.
End Date	Drop-down. Select the date the subscription will no longer be available as a membership benefit to the product. If the subscription exist on an active membership, then the record cannot be deleted, but you can, however, enter an end date for the subscription here. When an existing member benefit subscription is deactivated by entering an end date, any new partial term memberships created will not include the deactivated member benefit subscription. When you order or renew a membership, the system looks at the begin and end dates entered here to compose the correct associated member benefit subscription products. The end date can only be null for one record (i.e., the new record). If the end date is null of the last record, the system sets the End Date to the Begin Date of the new record minus one day. As of the 7.2.2 release, the Effective_End_Date field was added to the MBR_Rate_Subscription table to accommodate the new feature. You can edit or clear the date selected here, as long as no other records exist with the same membership product, rate structure, rate code, and subscription product.
Associates	Checkbox. When checked, associate members receive the publication. For example, individuals linked to the corporate membership.
Portion of Membership Price Allocated to this Subscription Benefit	Enter the allocated portion of the price. In the BPA audit, Member-benefit subscriptions can be categorized as Qualified-Paid if a portion of the membership dues is allocated to the subscription. BPA paragraph 5 will be updated to include member-benefit paid (MBP) orders. The average price for each member-benefit subscription will be calculated using this price.
Print Edition/ Digital Edition	Read-only. Check boxes to indicate if the publication edition is Print, Digital or both.
Related Option	Read-only. If the selected membership-benefit subscription product has a related product, the name of the related subscription product should be displayed as text with the caption “Related [calculated Print or Digital] Option:”