Renewals & late fees

Returning members rejoin each season by accepting a renewal invitation and paying — they’re never rolled over or charged automatically. A season can also carry a dues deadline with a late fee, so members who sit on an unpaid invite too long see a fee added to their balance.

Invite returning members to renew

The renewal batch is built when you clone last season with Build a held renewal batch for current members checked. It sits as a held draft — nothing sends until you release it.

1. On the season page, click Open renewals to advance the season to the renewals phase. This keeps waitlist promotion paused so renewing members get first claim on capacity.
2. Under Invitation batches, open the renewal batch.
3. Review the recipient list. Each member is carried over on the tier they held last season — change any recipient’s Target tier here, because members can’t pick their own tier when renewing.
4. Click Release now (or Schedule a send time) and confirm.

Each released recipient gets a membership awaiting payment and an email with a link to rejoin and pay, and Memberley confirms how many invites were sent and how many were skipped. It then emails a daily reminder to anyone whose invite is still open. Unpaid invites expire after the batch’s expiry window (your organization’s awaiting-payment timeout by default), freeing the spot for the waitlist or public registration.

The full batch workflow — recipients, capacity warnings, scheduling — is covered in Registration codes & invitations.

Note

Automatic renewal (autopay) only applies to tiers that aren’t attached to a season — those renew on their own schedule, as described in What runs automatically. Seasonal memberships always renew through invitation batches, so nobody is charged without acting on their invite.

Set a dues deadline and late fee

1. On the season page, find Dues deadline & late fee and click Edit.
2. Check Charge a late fee for unpaid dues.
3. Enter the Late fee amount and pick the Dues deadline. Both are required when the fee is on.
4. Click Save changes.

The season page then summarizes the policy — for example, “A $50.00 late fee applies to dues unpaid after Apr 15, 2026.”

When the fee is applied

Each morning, Memberley checks every season whose deadline has passed and assesses the fee to members who still owe dues — that is, members whose membership is still awaiting payment on a paid tier in that season. For each one it:

• Adds a pending late-fee charge (e.g. “Late fee — Summer 2026”) to the member’s balance. The fee is assess-only: it is never auto-charged to a card.
• Emails the member that the fee was applied.

A few boundaries to know:

• Each membership is assessed at most one late fee per season — even if you waive the first one, it won’t be re-assessed.
• Members paying on an installment plan are skipped; installments have their own grace and suspension rules.
• Archived seasons are never assessed.
• Setting a deadline that has already passed assesses everyone still unpaid on the next morning run.

Like other unpaid balances, an outstanding late fee counts toward the member’s standing and can gate front-desk check-in, depending on your delinquency settings.

Waive a late fee

Assessed someone who deserves grace? Waive the pending charge from their profile — see Refunds, waivers & reminders.

Related

• Registration codes & invitations
• Refunds, waivers & reminders
• What runs automatically