Paid membership billing and cancellation

Once a paid membership is live, a few settings decide how it behaves over its lifetime: what members keep when they cancel, how long benefits last after a missed renewal, how membership orders are fulfilled, and when renewals are billed. This article walks through each one.

All of these settings live on the membership's page. Open Loyalty, scroll to the VIP Tiers section, and click the membership you want to edit.

Choose a cancellation policy

The Cancellation Policy decides what happens to a member's benefits when they cancel. Pick one of two options:

One important detail: changing the policy is not retroactive. Each member keeps the policy that was active when they cancelled. If someone cancelled under Cancel benefits end of billing cycle, they keep access until their cycle ends — even if you switch to Cancel benefits immediately afterward. The reverse is also true.

Where members manage their membership

Members manage their paid membership in their wallet, on the Paid Membership screen that opens from the Manage Membership button. That's where they change plans, pause, update their payment method, and cancel. The button is a block you place in the wallet yourself, on the screen of your choice:

1. Open Design and click Edit on the Wallet module.
2. Open the blocks list for the screen where members should find the button, for example Profile Screen Blocks, and click Add new item.
3. Set Block Type to Manage Memberships Button Block.
4. Click Save on the block, then save and publish your design.

Customers who don't have a paid membership yet see Choose a plan when they click the button: your memberships with their purchase options, ready to add to their cart.

What members see when they cancel

In their wallet, members go through a multi-step flow when they cancel, so the decision is informed rather than accidental:

1. A "Thinking of leaving?" screen lists the perks and rewards they'll lose.
2. If you've turned on Retention Offers for the membership, the offer that matches the member appears as a last chance to stay, with Accept Offer and No, thanks buttons.
3. To confirm, the member picks a reason (and adds details if they choose Other) and sees exactly when their access ends: immediately or at the end of the billing cycle, matching your cancellation policy. Then they click Cancel Membership.

The first two screens wait a few seconds before showing the button that continues the cancellation, giving members a moment to reconsider. Pausing isn't a step in this flow: members who qualify for a pause see a separate Pause membership button next to Cancel membership on their Paid Membership screen (see Membership pause).

In the Toki membership block of the Shopify customer account, members cancel with a shorter form: your cancellation policy, a required reason, and Confirm Cancellation.

Changing plans

On the Paid Membership screen, Change plan opens Choose a plan: your active paid memberships, with the member's own marked Current plan. The member picks a purchase option on another membership, clicks Upgrade or Downgrade, and confirms. The Paid Membership Plans block shows the same list right on a wallet screen.

• Whether a switch is an upgrade or a downgrade follows your membership order: a membership that comes later in the order you set with Reorder on the Memberships page is an upgrade, and one that comes earlier is a downgrade. See Membership tiers.
• An upgrade takes effect right away, and the member pays the new membership's full price at once. With Enable Prorations turned on (on the Loyalty page, in the Paid Membership Settings section), the days left on their current plan count toward it: they pay the new price minus a discount for those days or, if the new membership costs less than they paid, nothing now, with their next payment date moved later. Prorations don't apply while the member is in a trial.
• A downgrade is scheduled. In Choose a plan, the new membership shows "This is your next plan." with the date of the switch, and Return to previous plan cancels the change.
• Switching to a Lifetime option goes through checkout: the membership goes into the member's cart, and the button changes to Go to Checkout.

In the Toki membership block of the Shopify customer account, Change plan lists the billing frequencies of the member's own membership. They pick another one, click Next, then Complete subscription to buy it at checkout. Once that order comes in, the new plan replaces the old one.

Fulfillment of membership orders

Membership payments create orders in your store like any other purchase. Turn on the Fulfillment switch to have the order's fulfillment status set to "fulfilled" automatically after each payment is processed.

With the switch on, you can also set a Fulfillment Delay:

• Leave it empty, and orders are marked fulfilled immediately after payment.
• Set a delay, and orders are marked fulfilled after that delay. Enter it as days, hours, and minutes.

When benefits expire without renewal

The Expiration Interval controls how long a member's benefits last if they don't renew. Set a number and pick an Interval Type of Days or Months. After that period passes without a renewal, the member's benefits expire.

Align billing to the first of the month

Turn on Align Billing to First of Month to bill every member on the 1st, no matter when they joined:

• Purchases on or before the 15th start billing on the 1st of the next month.
• Purchases after the 15th start billing on the 1st of the month after next.

For example, someone who joins on May 10 is next billed on June 1; someone who joins on May 20 is next billed on July 1.

If your membership uses the scheduled subscription box billing, the schedule already controls billing dates, so this switch stays off.

Delete a paid membership

Deleting a membership can't be undone, so the flow asks you to confirm:

1. Open Loyalty and click the membership in the VIP Tiers list.
2. Click Delete.
3. In the Delete [membership name]? dialog, type DELETE in the confirmation field.
4. Click Delete.

If the membership still has active subscriptions, the dialog shows how many. Cancel all of those subscriptions first — then you can delete the membership.

Related

• Paid memberships
• Membership rewards