The Junior League

To address the complexity and variety with which Junior Leagues collect and track dues, new features have been added to the Dues Management tool. These include: 

• The ability to begin and end dues collection for a specific year at any time. Members will see the year for which dues are currently being collected and can see their dues payment status for past years. This will be displayed right above the requirements/obligations section on the member home page.  This will clarify for which year members are paying dues. 
• Dues will no longer be connected to requirements/obligations. All the tools and features needed for dues management will be available in a single Dues Management tool. This streamlines the process and no longer requires Administrators who are collecting dues to learn and manage requirements. 
• A new screen shows all members with their dues payment status, and allows Leagues to quickly email those that have not yet paid.   
   

Setting up Dues

1. Disable member access to dues. This will prevent members from paying dues for the new year before you have completed your setup. See Disable Dues Collection
   
   
2. Update the year for which you are collecting dues. Take note, if you have not set up dues for a previous period span, the year will not save. If you create at least one dues definition (see Step 5), the period span label will appear.
   • See Set the Year for Dues Collection
     
     
3. Create accounting codes for your dues definitions and add-ons. These codes can help you summarize your dues collection including add-ons, and reconcile the collected funds with your accounting system. See Creating Accounting Reference Codes
   
   
4. Update the Membership Dues Requirement for the new League year.  The Membership Dues Requirement defines the amount owed by each member per member status. The Amount Due should include the base dues amount for the status plus the total of all required add-ons for the status.  This represents the total dues requirement for members with that status.  See Membership Dues Requirements
   • Take note, this tab was formerly known as Dues Requirement Schedule
   • By default, the new system will display Membership Dues Requirement and can be renamed, e.g. it can be renamed to Membership Dues Obligation. 
   • Take note, for Late Fees, they are set up as required add-ons, but they do not need to be added to the total dues requirement since they are only applied at a certain time. They will appear in the Total Commitment column, but not in the Dues Requirement column on the Dues Collection screen.  
     
     
5. Define or update Dues Definitions. If you set up dues in previous League years, you can use the same dues definitions and just update the period span.  Do not include the year in the name of the dues definition as dues definitions do not apply to a specific year.  Note, renaming a dues definition will alter the name in any historical reports. See Creating a Dues Definition. 
   
   
6. Check Dues Recurring Payments 

   Recurring payments are automatic dues payments for which members have signed up in previous years. These members will automatically be charged their dues amounts based on the dues pricing when the recurring payment was offered. If your League dues have increased from prior years, or your League is now offering dues add-ons, the existing recurring payment would not include the changes. In this case, you may wish to cancel those recurring payments, and have those members sign-up again for dues payment at the new rate.  Or, you can edit the amount of upcoming recurring payments.  

   • Cancelling Recurring Dues Payments

   • Editing Recurring Dues Payments
     
     

7. Define Dues Add-ons (if needed) and assign them to Dues Definitions.  Dues add-ons allow you to offer additional options to your members to pay in addition to their base dues.  For example, donation, pre-pay for an event, surcharge for credit card fees, purchase an item, etc.  Add-ons can also be required and will automatically be added to the base dues amount.  Required add-ons can be used to collect other fees required in addition to the base dues. See the articles: 
   • Creating Dues Add-Ons
   • Enabling Dues Add-Ons
   • How to Use Dues Add-Ons for Charging Late Fees
     
     
8. Assign member statuses to link your Dues Definitions.  Linking a dues definition to a status will make that dues definition available to all members with that status (for the coming year). See Assigning Dues Definitions to a Status
   • Take note, if you assign a future status at the start of your new League year, the dues definition linked to the status will appear when the Member pays her dues. For example, if you set the Member's status to Sustainer as of June 1st, 2024, she will pay her Sustainer dues.
   • Provisionals who will become Actives on June 1st, 2024 will pay for their Active dues.
     
     
9. Adjust Member Visibility.  Member Visibility allows you to specify for which years the member can see her dues payment status on the home page and in her member profile. For example, you can continue to show the Member her dues payment status for the current year, and at the same time show what she owes for the following year.  This will clarify for Members for which year dues are being collected. See the articles: 
   • Set Member Visibility
   • What Members See When they Pay Dues
     
     
10. Enable member access to dues. When you have finalized your dues setup and are ready to start collection, you can enable dues collection. See Enable Dues Collection
    
    

Testing Dues 

1. Make sure the Pay link is not visible on the homepage. 
2. Then, enable dues collection.
3. Turn on Member Visibility.
4. Copy the link from Dues Definition > View Stripe Dues Payment Landing Page.
5. If you impersonate or log in as a Member and paste the link you just copied onto your browser's address bar.
6. On the homepage, check the Dues Requirement Schedule and Pay link to see if it matches what you set up in Member Visibility. 
7. Click on the Pay link
8. Check to see if the dues definitions you assigned to the statuses from Dues Status Listing are appearing. i.e. Active Dues is assigned to Active statuses. Three options will appear: Single Payment, Payment Plan or Recurring.
9. Click Next to see the Dues Add-ons that you enabled for each dues definition.
   
   

Collecting Dues

1. Copy the link to the dues landing page and distribute to your members by including it in an email announcement, and/or in a portal news item / alert bar, and/or in Quick Links. See Paying Your Member Dues
   1. On the bottom of Dues Definition Listing, right click (ctrl-click on Mac) on View Stripe Dues Payment Landing Page, to copy the link address. Take note, this link will work if you impersonate Members.
      

      
      

       

Managing Dues Collection

The Dues Collection screen is used to view the dues payment status for all your members. The screen will show all current members for which a dues requirement has been defined in the Membership Dues Requirement screen (see Setting Up Dues above), along with the amount of dues owed and dues paid. The amount of dues owed is taken direct from the values defined in Membership Dues Requirement (see above). 

Members that have not yet paid can be emailed from this screen. See Managing Dues Collection.

You will also be able to see all the dues transactions linked to Stripe from the Dues Transactions screen.

• See Dues Transactions 
• See Viewing/Refunding Payments in Stripe Admin
  
  
  

Entering Off-line Payments for Dues (Check or Cash)

For members who do not pay their dues online, please provide instructions in your communication channels (e.g. email blast, etc.) on your process for submitting those payments. 

Off-line dues payments can be entered using the Order Management tool.  See the article Add New Order on a Member's Behalf (Check, Cash, or Credit).

Take note, impersonating a Member and using the Admin checkbox to mark them as paid is no longer being used. Making a dues payment on a Member's behalf can be done through Order Management. 

To void a dues payment, see Dues Adjustments. 

Helpful Reports for Dues Management

• In Dues Collection, as long as the Amount Due in Membership Dues Requirement is filled out, you will see a list of Members who owe dues. 
  • If you already set up dues for 2023-2024 in Member Essentials, please fill out the amount due in Membership Dues Requirement to see a list of Members who have paid in Dues Collection for that year. Then, you can export the list to Excel.
    
    
• Query Tool  
  • Member Dues - Collection Summary - Provides a summary of the dues collection, similar to the Dues Collection screen. Also includes dues-waived status.
  • Member Dues - Collection Summary with Postal Addresses and Placement - This report includes members' dues collection information along with email and postal address and current placement(s). If a member has more than one placement, they will be listed together. This can be used for mail merges related to dues collection.
  • Member Dues - Add-On Report - This report displays all the Dues Add-Ons purchased by the Member when they pay their dues.
    
    
• Stripe Admin > Reconcile This tool can be used to create a transaction batch report based on the transaction date or the Stripe Payout date (i.e. the date Stripe deposited the funds into your League checking account). The reconciliation screen will include transaction sums by accounting reference (coming January 2024), allowing you to track collections by the accounting references assigned to base dues, and dues add-ons.