Agreement plans and membership discounts¶

An agreement plan is a ready-made service agreement you offer again and again: a "Comfort Club" with two tune-ups a year, a monthly fee and 15% off repairs. You set the terms once, and selling it to a customer takes a few clicks instead of filling in a new agreement every time.

Where to find them¶

Open Service Contracts in the side menu and choose the Agreement Plans tab. The list shows each plan's fees, member discount, term and status. Use the filter at the top to switch between active plans, archived plans and all plans.

Owners and managers can add, edit and archive plans. Owners, managers, asset managers and dispatchers can sell them.

Adding a plan¶

1. On the Agreement Plans tab, select Add Plan.
2. Give the plan a name your customers will recognize, and a short description if you like.
3. Enter the monthly fee, the annual fee, or both. Leave a fee empty if the plan does not charge it. A plan with no fee at all is a discount-only membership.
4. Choose the coverage type and coverage rate, the same way you would on a single agreement. Coverage and covered items explains what each one does.
5. Enter the member discount as a percent, for example 15 or 12.5.
6. Enter the visits included per term, or leave it empty for no set limit.
7. Set the term in months. Twelve is the usual choice.
8. Leave Offer automatic renewal when this plan is sold (the customer must agree) ticked if members may choose to renew automatically, or untick it. New plans offer it. See Automatic renewal.
9. Select Save Plan.

How the member discount works¶

While a customer's agreement from a plan is in force, their invoices take the member discount off labor and parts automatically. It applies to job invoices and work order invoices alike, and to quotes, where it is locked in when the quote is sent.

• The larger discount wins. If your team also enters a discount on an invoice, the customer gets whichever is larger. The two are never added together.
• Coverage comes first. When the agreement also covers part of the work, the discount applies to the share the customer still pays.
• An invoice keeps the discount it was created with. If the membership later ends, an invoice that is regenerated still shows the member price it had the first time.

Selling a plan¶

1. On the Agreement Plans tab, select Sell next to the plan.
2. Choose the customer, then the service location the plan covers.
3. If the plan has both a monthly and an annual fee, choose how the customer is billed.
4. Select Sell Plan.

The sale creates a new service agreement for that location, starting today, with the plan's fee, coverage, visits and member discount. It appears on the Contracts tab with its own agreement number.

When the plan has a fee, billing starts on its own: the customer receives an invoice for each billing period, beginning with the current one, and pays it the way they pay any other invoice. See Recurring billing schedules for how those invoices are issued.

A location can hold each plan only once at a time. If you try to sell a plan the location already has, FSM Navigator® tells you and nothing is created.

Automatic card payments¶

Instead of sending an invoice each period for the customer to pay, you can have the membership fee charged to a card automatically. This needs an active Stripe account connected to your business (see Stripe payments).

1. When you sell the plan, tick Collect a card for automatic payments.
2. Select Sell Plan. FSM Navigator® creates the agreement and emails the customer a secure link where they add their card. The link is also shown on screen, so a customer who is with you can open it on the spot.
3. The membership starts as soon as the customer adds a card. Until then it covers nothing and no invoice is issued.

If the customer does not add a card within 72 hours, the sale is cancelled automatically and you are notified.

Once the card is saved, each billing period's invoice is still created as usual, and the card is charged for it the same day. The customer receives the normal payment receipt.

When a payment does not go through

• For a temporary problem, such as insufficient funds, the card is tried again after 1, 3 and 7 days. If the last try also fails, the membership is marked past due and the invoice follows your normal payment reminders.
• If the card can no longer be used, such as an expired or lost card, it is not tried again. The customer is asked to add a new card.
• If the customer's bank asks for extra confirmation, the customer is emailed a link to pay the invoice online, where they can confirm it with their bank.

In every case the customer can still pay the invoice online from their customer portal.

Keeping an eye on automatic payments

The Memberships paid by card list on the Agreement Plans tab shows each membership's status and card. From there you can:

• Send card link to email the customer a new link, for example after a card was declined or removed.
• Resume automatic payments that were paused. Payments pause when a customer disputes a charge with their bank. If you win the dispute they resume by themselves; if you lose it, they stay paused until you resume them.
• Cancel membership, described below.

Owners and managers are also notified when a membership becomes past due, a card can no longer be used, or a dispute is lost.

If you change or disconnect your Stripe account

A card payment that was still being processed when you disconnected Stripe, or connected a different Stripe account, is still checked with the Stripe account it was charged on, and the invoice is settled once the result is known. Sending a new card link for that membership waits until the payment is confirmed. If Stripe no longer lets FSM Navigator check that account, owners and managers get a notice asking them to look in Stripe. That invoice isn't charged again automatically; if the payment was collected, record it on the invoice yourself. If Stripe confirms the payment later, FSM Navigator records it on the invoice. If the invoice was already paid by then, nothing is refunded automatically: owners and managers get a notice to check for a double payment and, if the customer paid twice, refund one payment from Stripe. If only part of the invoice was paid by then, the card payment is still recorded in full. When that means the customer paid more than the invoice, owners and managers get one notice that shows the overpaid amount, so they can refund the difference from Stripe if the customer shouldn't pay it. Nothing is refunded automatically.

Customers buying a plan in the portal¶

Tick Customers can buy this plan in the customer portal on a plan to offer it in your customer portal. Your customers see it on their services page, choose the location it covers, and add their card on a secure page. The membership starts as soon as the card is saved.

Customers can also change the card they pay with, or cancel their membership, from the same page.

Automatic renewal¶

A plan that offers automatic renewal lets each customer choose it when they buy. Nobody is signed up by default: at the sale the customer sees the membership terms and an unticked box, and only ticking it (and signing) turns automatic renewal on. It is offered only with automatic card payments, because the new term is charged to the card on file. The same choice appears when a customer accepts a membership quote, buys in the portal, or buys from a technician on site.

When a membership renews automatically:

• The customer gets a renewal notice by email before the renewal date, with the price of the new term and how to stop it. The price is the plan's price at the time of the notice.
• If the plan's price has gone up by more than 10% over the price the customer agreed to, the membership does not renew on its own. Send the customer a renewal offer instead.
• A few days before the term ends, the next term is created at the price in the notice, and the card on file pays for it as usual.

The customer can stop automatic renewal at any time before the renewal date: from the link in the renewal notice, from the customer portal, or by asking you by phone, email or in person, including telling the technician at a visit. To record a stop for them, open Memberships paid by card, select Automatic renewal on the membership, choose how they asked and stop it. Stopping renewal keeps the current term; it is not the same as cancelling the membership.

For customers in New York, the renewal notice must also go by certified mail. The same Automatic renewal dialog asks for the day you mailed it; if no mailing is recorded in time, that term does not renew automatically.

Members who did not agree to automatic renewal, including memberships sold before it was available, do not renew on their own. Renew them as usual, or send a renewal offer.

Cancelling a membership¶

When a membership is cancelled, by you or by the customer in the portal, automatic payments stop straight away. The membership itself keeps covering the customer until the end of the period they have already paid for, and then ends. Nothing is refunded automatically. If you want to give the customer something back for the unused time, you can issue a credit.

If the customer has not paid for the current period, the membership ends immediately.

Editing and archiving plans¶

Select Edit to change a plan. Your changes apply to future sales only. Customers who already bought the plan keep the fee, coverage and discount they signed up for.

Select Archive when you stop offering a plan. An archived plan cannot be sold, and existing agreements carry on unchanged. Switch the filter to Archived plans and select Restore to offer it again.

When you renew an agreement that was sold from a plan, the new term keeps the member discount.