Defining prorating rules

Prorating means allocating or assigning an amount to an activity or product that is proportional to some base (determined by a formula or procedure). Prorating is only applied to organizations that bill on an annual or fixed-term basis, as opposed to an anniversary or rotating term basis.

Note: The number of months used by the prorate rule for an individual is Thru Date to Join Date. Prorate only applies if the Join Date is populated before running the billing. See Begin Date for an annual billing cycle.

The three options available to define prorating rules include the following:

  • Do Not Prorate – Same dues regardless of when customer joins.
  • Standard Prorating – Prorating for the current year (depends on the billing interval). For example, if a customer joins in month 7 and annual dues are $200, the calculated dues would be 6/12 of the total dues, or $100.
  • Special Prorating – User-defined prorating rules, depending upon the needs of the organization. If the Special Prorating option is enabled, proration rules are created on the Prorating window. Prorating rules can be used for unique situations that require more than simple monthly prorating within the first year, such as:
    • Quarterly or semi-annual prorating
    • Second-year prorating (receive x% off of next year's dues)
    • Advancing the membership term to the end of the next year
    • Multiple prorating rules

Tips

  • If a former member rejoins your organization (i.e., they already have an existing join date in the system that is earlier than the beginning of the current fixed-term) through the online join page, one of two scenarios can occur:
    • If the contact is an active member, the rejoin is processed as a renewal and prorating does not apply. The contact pays the full membership fee for the fixed-term.
    • If the contact is not an active member, the join date resets to the current system date and prorating is applied. If your organization needs to maintain a record of the original join date, you can create a user-defined field where a staff members can enter the date before processing the rejoin.

More:
Prorating window
Future credit and bump date prorating