Prorated Membership Plans

Prorated membership plans let someone join partway through a membership period and pay only for the time that is left in it. From the next period on, they pay the plan's full rate. This is a good fit for calendar-year or fiscal-year memberships, where every member renews on the same date no matter when they first joined.

How proration works

A prorated plan runs on fixed periods that you define with the plan's Start Subscription date. For example, a yearly plan that starts on January 1 has periods from January 1 through December 31. A monthly plan that starts on the 1st has calendar-month periods.

When someone signs up partway through the current period:

• Their membership starts right away, on the day they sign up.
• They pay a prorated amount at checkout that covers the rest of the current period.
• If the plan renews, billing continues at the full rate on the first day of the next period.

Without proration, a plan with a custom Start Subscription date makes new members wait until the next start date before their membership begins. Proration removes that wait.

Before you start

A plan can prorate only when all of these are true:

• It is a recurring plan. One-time plans have no period to prorate.
• It uses a custom subscription period with a Start Subscription day and month. Plans set to Follows billing cycle (default) already start every member on a fresh, full period on the day they join, so there is nothing to prorate.
• It has a fixed recurring amount. Proration cannot be used when the member sets the amount at checkout.
• The sign-up page uses BetterUnite card-on-file billing. Sign-up pages that use Stripe Standard subscriptions always charge the full amount, because Stripe bills the same amount every period.

Turn on proration for a plan

1. Go to Memberships and open the Plans tab.
2. Create a new plan, or open the plan you want to change.
3. Set a fixed recurring amount and billing frequency (for example, $120 every year).
4. Under Subscription Period, select Custom period.
5. Under Start Subscription, choose the day and month each period begins. Leave the year set to Every Year for a membership that repeats on the same date each year, or choose a year if the first period starts on a specific date.
6. Turn on Prorate the first payment.
7. Save the plan.

When proration is on, Start Payments under Billing Start Options is set to Upon sign up and cannot be changed, because the prorated payment is collected at checkout.

If the plan is missing a Start Subscription day and month, or uses a member-set amount, you will see a message explaining what to change when you save.

How the prorated amount is calculated

The first payment is the plan's full price multiplied by the number of days left in the current period, divided by the number of days in the full period:

Prorated amount = full price × days remaining ÷ days in period

• The day the member signs up counts as a day remaining.
• The result is rounded to the nearest cent.
• Days are counted in your organization's time zone.
• Any plan discount is applied first, and the prorated amount is based on the discounted price.
• A One Time Fee is not prorated. It is charged in full on top of the prorated amount.

Examples

If you choose a start day that some months do not have, such as the 31st, periods in shorter months begin on the last day of the month instead.

What members see at checkout

On the membership sign-up page, the plan shows its regular price along with a note about the prorated first payment. For the first example above, the note reads:

Join today for $60.16, prorated through 12/31/2026. The full rate applies from 01/01/2027.

The dates use your organization's date format. The second sentence is left out when the plan does not continue past the current period, for example when it bills only once or its end date closes the period. The checkout total charges the prorated amount, plus any one-time fee.

What happens after sign-up

• The subscription starts on the sign-up date.
• The first invoice is the prorated amount, billed on the sign-up date and paid at checkout.
• Later invoices are billed at the full rate, starting on the first day of the next period and then every period after that.
• Renewals are charged automatically at the full rate to the card on file.
• Covered fees carry over. If the member chose to cover processing fees at sign-up, their renewals also cover the fees on the full amount.
• The prorated period counts as the first billing cycle. If the plan's renewal is set to Fixed number of billing cycles, for example 3, the member pays the prorated amount once and then the full rate twice.

When the full amount is charged instead

Even with proration turned on, a member pays the plan's normal amount in these cases:

• They join on the first day of a period. A whole period is left, so the full price is already correct.
• The first period has not started yet. If the Start Subscription date includes a year that is still in the future, the subscription begins on that date as usual.
• They join between seasons. A plan with an Every Year start and end date describes a season, such as January 1 through June 30. Someone who joins after the season ends and before the next one begins is not prorated, and their subscription waits for the next season, the same as before.
• The sign-up page uses Stripe Standard subscriptions.

Plans with an end date

If the plan has an End Subscription date that falls inside the current period, the prorated payment covers only the days up to that end date. For example, on a $120 yearly plan that starts January 1 and ends June 30, a member who joins on March 1 pays for March 1 through June 30: 122 of 365 days, or $40.11.

Existing plans and members

Proration is off for every plan until you turn it on, so existing plans, subscriptions and sign-up pages work exactly as they did before. Turning proration on for a plan affects new sign-ups only. Members who are already subscribed keep their current billing schedule.

Frequently asked questions

Can I prorate a plan that follows the billing cycle?

No. A plan that follows the billing cycle starts each member's period on the day they sign up, so every member already gets a full period for the full price. To prorate, switch the plan to a custom period and set a Start Subscription day and month.

Does proration work with a member-set amount?

No. Proration needs a fixed price to divide. Turn off the member-set amount option, or leave proration off for that plan.

Can I still delay billing until the period starts?

Not on a prorated plan. The prorated payment is collected at checkout, so Start Payments is always Upon sign up. If you would rather have new members wait and pay the full price when the next period begins, turn proration off and set Start Payments to Based on subscription period.

Which time zone decides the sign-up date?

Your organization's time zone. A member signing up late in the evening on December 31 in your time zone pays for one remaining day, even if it is already January 1 elsewhere.

For more on setting up plans, sign-up pages and subscriptions, see Membership Management.