Finance » Membership Plans - Sign Ups & Upgrades

Link: https://support.brilliantdirectories.com/support/solutions/articles/12000048891-finance-membership-plans-sign-ups-upgrades

This article covers all the settings available in the "Pricing"/ Sign Ups & UpgradesTab:



NOTE: For more information about the other tabs please reference the links at the bottom of this article. 



This article is divided into 3 sections:  

  1. Set Pricing Options for This Plan
  2. Sign Up Settings
  3. Upgrade Settings



1. Set Pricing Options for This Plan


Membership Plans can be "Free" or "Paid", but if the site has the  Claimable Business Listings enabled, a third option named "Claim" will show.


Keep in mind some settings will vary depending on the account type. For example, selecting the "Free" option will hide settings that only apply to paid membership plans. Below, a more detailed explanation:





1. Account Type: Select if this membership will be free, paid, or claim.

The claim option will only appear if the
 claim listing add-on is purchased or if the Vip Add-ons are active on the website.


For more information about this add-on, please read this article: Claim Listings In-Depth - Add-on



NOTE: When the account type is saved as "Claim", the system will disable the "Sign-Up Page" URL.




To set up a Free Membership Plan, we recommend reading the following documentation:  Setting up Free Membership Plan. 


2. Preferred Payment Term: Select the preferred payment. Yearly, monthly, etc. The chosen option will be  pre-selected on the checkout page. 





3. Monthly Price: Entering a value greater than 0 will enable this payment option. 


For example, by typing "10", the system will display this amount on the checkout page and it will charge them automatically each month. Keep in mind that some payment gateways as PayPal Standard and PayFast, handle the recurring subscriptions in a different way. They create the unpaid invoice but the payment won't be attempted until the members' log in to their account and pay from there. 


The on-site payment gateways will charge their account automatically.   


4. Quarterly Price: Entering a value greater than 0 will enable this payment option.

The system will create an option to signup and pay each 4 months. This subscription is recurring as well.  


5. Semi-Yearly Price: Members will be billed every 6 months if they select this option.

Entering a value greater than 0 will enable this payment option. This subscription is recurring as well.  


6. Yearly Price: Members will be billed every 12 months if they select this option. 

Entering a value greater than 0 will enable this payment option. This subscription is recurring as well.  


To set up recurring subscriptions, we recommend reading the following documentation: Setting up Recurring Payments


If the website currency format, the currency suffix/prefix need to be changed, please read this article: Settings » General Settings » Localization


7. One-time Setup Fee: This option will work for 2 purposes: 

  • Charge a setup amount + the membership price: To do this please type the "Setup Amount"  and also select at least one of the options 5, 6, 7, and 8.
  • Charge only a one-time payment: Leave blank options 5, 6, 7, and 8 and only add the one-time payment amount. For more information about how to set this up please read this article: Setting up One Time Payments


8. Price to Purchase Leads: For membership plans that will purchase leads, type in the amount they would need to pay in order to purchase the lead.    


If the membership level is free, we recommend charging for leads, if it is paid we recommend setting up a cheaper amount or allowing them to receive leads for free. 


9. Successful Sign Up / Upgrade Conversion Tracking Code Widget: There are many 3rd party tools that require placing a tracking code on "success pages" in order to track sales, sign-ups, conversions, and more.


It is possible to place a tracking code for the "success pages" into each membership plan or in a specific widget that will apply to all membership plans.


Here is an article about it: Adding Affiliate Tracking & Conversion Codes


The custom widget can be selected from the dropdown: 


For settings (10-12), refer to the main article about the add-on: Free Trial Period Add-On


10. Enable Free Trial Period

11. Number of Free Trial Days

12. Free Trial Additional Options



2. Sign Up Settings




1. Disable Signups For This Membership Plan: If  set to "yes", no public signup page will exist  for this membership plan. This option is useful for an Admin Membership plan that visitors should not sign up to. 


If the account type is set as "Claim" the option will show greyed-out and will be disabled by default.



2. Sign Up Email Sent: This is the email the members will receive right after they signed up. This is email is sent automatically by the system.

By default, the system will only show 3 Master System Templates and all custom email templates.  


  • If the membership plan is Free please select the email Template: Welcome-basic- [Action-required] Please verify your email. 

  • If the membership plan is Paid please select the email Template: Welcome-paid- Welcome to our family

  • If the admin wants to manually verify the members please select the email Template: Welcome-Manual-Review - Welcome to our family


Send Copy of Email to Default Website Email Address: If this setting is checked (Default), the system will send a copy of this email to the owner of the site (Default Website Email Address).


Important Note: If the Send Copy of Email to Default Website Email Address checkbox setting is checked and if the member clicks on the Resent Verification Email via their member dashboard, the copy of the email will be sent out to the default website email address (each time the button is clicked).




If this setting is unchecked, only the member will receive this verification email each time the button is clicked.


3.  After Sign Up, Set Account Status As: This option will determine the status of the members as soon as they sign up.  In the past, this was an Advanced Setting that worked for all membership plans at once, but now, the status can be selected on each membership plan. 


Find below the 3 options that can be selected:  

  • Active Account. This will make the member active as soon as she or he creates the account, the account will be visible on the site right away.

  • Inactive Account. Requires Email Verification.  This will make sure the account is not active unless they verify the email that they receive, once they click on the verify email link the account will be visible.

  • On Hold, Requires Admin Approval. When members sign up they are going to be on hold and not visible.
    If the member needs to be approved, it can be found under Members >> Search Members, then click on Actions >> Quick Edit. Change the Account Status to Active Account.

    The system will ask if the member needs to be notified:  



NOTE: The email template sent above is called: user-approved-by-admin. 

It can be found under Emails >> Email Templates.


An article about this setting can be found here: Manually Approve New Member Signups.


4. Sign Up Page Sidebar: This is the sidebar that will appear on the checkout page, right next to the new member contact information and credit card fields.


Note: Please do NOT select any of the default ones: Homepage with Map, Lead Page Sidebar, Member Profile Page, Member Search Result, Post Search Result, and Post Single Page. 

We do NOT recommend using these sidebars because they contain links and the members can be redirected to other pages and leave the checkout page. It is better to create a new sidebar for checkout pages.  Please make sure that it does not have any links. 


An article about this setting can be found here: How to Add Confidence Boosters to Checkout Sign Up Pages

5. Sign Up Page Sidebar Position: Choose the position of the signup page sidebar (right or left). 


6. Pre-Select Top Category: Select if a member will have a "Top Category" selected when they signup. 


Keep in mind that they can change this selection. However, it will be pre-selected when they see the Contact Details form for the first time.

Please reference the image below to see where the pre-selection will be located.


7. Pre-select Listing Type: Select if a member will have a "Listing Type" selected when they signup. 

Keep in mind that they can change this selection. However, it will be pre-selected when they see the Contact Details form for the first time. 


8. Redirect Page After Sign Up: This is the web page members are redirected to after they Sign Up. 

Default: /account/home


9.  Redirect Page After Login: The default option is: /account/home. We do not recommend changing the default link, it could cause issues when members try to log in. 


10. Show Order Summary on Signup Form: Choose whether the order summary will display or not. Also, select on which side of the order summary the promo input will display (only with the Easy Coupon Codes Add-on). The order summary will display the tax information only if the VAT and Tax Manager Add-on  is enabled. 


11.  Member Signup Page URL:  By default, the signup URL uses the membership plan ID, which is a number. With this setting change the default URL for a custom URL.


Important Note: The wording "upgrade" is a reserved word and can't be used as a signup page URL.


3. Change Plan - Upgrade/Downgrade Settings





For details about the upgrade/downgrade settings, please review this article: How To Setup Upgrade/Downgrade Options Inside Membership Plans