According to Memberwise’s market research in 2017, 77% of people who have a membership with an organisation agree that the payment process affects their overall experience as a member.

From the same Memberwise research paper, the most popular preference for membership subscription payments is flexible Direct Debit plans (monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or annual). With this in mind, we have focused our efforts on customer demand and have provided a seamless Direct Debit experience for members and staff within Subscribe360.

Setting up a Direct Debit for Membership

We want to show you how members can easily subscribe and set up a Direct Debit in this blog. And how employees workload can be reduced through Subscribe360’s processes and automation – powered by Dynamics 365, giving them more time to engage with your members.

Let’s assume someone wants to become a member of your organisation and is registering through the Subscribe360 Member Portal. The member can provide all the information required to set up their membership and payment options in just a few steps, such as choosing a monthly Direct Debit.

Once the member has completed the membership stage, they are asked to select their preferred payment method. If they choose Direct Debit, they can then select the subscription period and payment frequency. After confirming Direct Debit, they will be prompted to enter the necessary details to set it up.

The final step for the member is to review all the information before submitting it to the organisation for approval. Once submitted, employees can access the application and payment preferences within Subscribe360, where all details provided through the member portal are stored in a single record for review.

Subscribe360 supports both paperless and paper-based Direct Debit processes, allowing organisations to manage collections in line with their internal requirements.

Organisations can also encourage new and existing members to choose Direct Debit by offering incentives such as discounted subscription rates. As Subscribe360 is built on Microsoft Dynamics 365, organisations can use standard features like the product catalogue to configure membership types, products, and price lists.

Creating a Direct Debit Batch

After a member has been approved, staff can automate renewal batches and payment plans. Direct Debit collections are processed through the subscription renewal batch, with all required information available within Subscribe360, including:

• Collection type
• Tax date
• Collection date range
• Direct Debit amount due
• Membership renewal generation date
• Payment plan generation date

Employees can complete the entire Direct Debit batch using the Subscribe360 process flow, typically in under 10 minutes.

Subscribe360 allows Renewal Batches, Payment Plans, Collection Batches, and Direct Debit Batches to be generated within a single process flow by progressing through each step to completion. This automation removes the need to manually gather multiple records, simplifying the creation of Direct Debit batches and payment generation.

Once the process is complete, the system confirms the collection type, collection date, collection batch, and total amount due.

The final step is to send the automatically generated AUDDIS CSV file, which is uploaded to SharePoint Online, to the Finance Bureau.

By using the Subscribe360 Finance feature, organisations can automate Direct Debit collections and reduce ongoing renewal administration through rolling subscriptions. Members also benefit from a smoother, more efficient sign-up experience when registering for their first membership subscription.