How To Track Membership Dues

Here's the situation: say you're running an alumni association. Each member has to pay dues yearly to cover the cost of events and materials. But as your association grows, so does your spreadsheet-- because if you're like most organizations, you're doing it the manual way right now. And that can work! But there is a better way. Let's look at the options below. 

The Honor System 

When you first start your association, you can begin by relying on your members to track whether or not they've paid. Collect your yearly payment upfront on acceptance to the association, and every first of the year, require payment for that year from each member. Maybe someone forgets their wallet, and you write it down on a sticky note or set a reminder on your phone to check in with them at the next meeting. Maybe that member pays, maybe they don't. Either way, you don't have a solid system to be sure. 

The Spreadsheet System 

Some time passes, and your organization is growing; congratulations! You have more members than ever. But that means the honor system is no longer working, so you pull out a spreadsheet and get tracking. The nice thing about this option is that it's free, it's customizable, and the chances are that you won't run out of room in a Google Sheet. You can share the document with your board members so they can update it as necessary. 

Here's a free Google Sheets template to get you started if you're at this stage now! 

But maybe it starts to get long and unwieldy. Hundreds of rows, multiple columns, and perhaps some formatting that doesn't work, there could be broken formulas, and naturally, nothing updates without input from a board member. You have some data, but it's outdated at best and entirely incorrect at worst. 

The Automated System 

Finally, after some deliberation, you decide to try out a membership management system. You get into the system and start learning the ins and outs of your dashboard. You realize you can send automatic renewal reminders. You can sort and segment your members to gather more information about who's in your association. You can have multi-user access for all your board members, and you wonder how you ever lived without failed payment notifications and the ability to accept multiple currencies. You rejoice in the option to offer various membership tiers, giving your members more options to join. You marvel at the email and Eventbrite integration. 

Can you imagine? A membership management system is the key to all your problems! Membership skyrockets! Events go off without a hitch! Your skin clears, your back stops hurting, your pants fit better-- well, okay, maybe not all that, but it does make it easier to automate your administrative work. You can get some time back in your day and enjoy your association rather than spend all your time managing the small details. 

Ready to get started with a system that's easy to start and easy to use? Get started with a free 14-day trial of Join It and see how we can make your life a little easier.