Sell a membership
Putting a client on a plan at the desk — the card, the agreement, and the statuses that tell you it hasn't quite started yet.
2 min readUpdated August 14, 2026Front desk · Managers
Someone at the desk says yes to the monthly plan. It takes about a minute, and most of that minute is the card.
Go to Memberships and press Start membership.
- 1
Pick the client. They need a record first — a membership is a recurring charge, so there's nobody to charge without one.
- 2
Pick the plan. Suggest a plan reads what this client actually books and proposes the one that fits, which is quicker than reasoning about it in front of them.
- 3
Choose how it's paid. Automatic billing charges the card on file each cycle. Manual payment means they pay you each time.
- 4
Press Start membership.
What the status is telling you
The membership appears in the list straight away, but appearing isn't the same as running. The status is the honest answer to "has this actually started?"
- Active — billing, and the credits are usable today.
- Scheduled — starts on a future date. Nothing is charged until then.
- Waiting on signature — the plan has an agreement and the client hasn't signed. Nothing is charged until they do.
- Credit card needed — no usable card on file. Nothing is charged until there is one.
- Manual payment due — this cycle is owed and hasn't been paid.
The last three are the ones worth glancing at before a member sits down and expects their included gloss. They mean the membership isn't live yet, and they're each fixed by doing one obvious thing.
The card
Automatic billing needs a card on file, and that card belongs to the client's record rather than to the membership. One card, however many things it pays for.
If the client wants a different card for the membership than the one they use at the till, change the card on the record — there isn't a second, membership-only one to fill in. That's a deliberate simplification: two cards on one client is how the wrong one gets charged.
Selling from your website
Memberships can also be bought from your online store, but they're off until you switch them on in Settings → Online sales.
Leaving them off is a reasonable default. A recurring charge someone signs up for at midnight without a conversation is the one most likely to be disputed, and the conversation at the desk is where the expiry rules get explained.
Common questions
What's the difference between automatic billing and manual payment?
Automatic billing charges the card on file each cycle without anyone touching it. Manual payment means the member pays you each cycle and the membership waits at Manual payment due until they do.
Why does the new membership say Waiting on signature?
The plan has an agreement attached and the client hasn't signed it yet. Billing doesn't start until they do, and the unsigned membership expires on its own after a set number of hours rather than sitting there forever.
It says Credit card needed — what do I do?
The membership exists but has no usable card on file. Take the card details from the client's record and the status clears itself.
Can a membership start next month instead of today?
Yes — it sits at Scheduled until its start date, then begins billing on its own.
Can clients buy a membership themselves?
Only if you've switched memberships on for your online store in Settings → Online sales. They're off by default, because a recurring charge is a bigger commitment than a haircut.
Related articles
- Build a membership planMemberships · Price, billing cycle, what's included and whether it rolls over — the handful of decisions that decide whether a plan makes money.
- Using a membership at checkoutMemberships · What a member's included services do to a bill, how to apply them, and what happens when they've used everything up.
- Dues, failed payments and dunningMemberships · The monthly charge, what happens when a card declines, and how a membership moves from past due to unpaid without anyone forgetting about it.
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