Establishing a Membership Start Date and Turnover Date

Some memberships only begin once each year regardless of when they are purchased. The Start Date field on the Subscriptions tab of the Products form stores the month and day that a membership begins regardless of the year.

By specifying a Start Date and a Turnover Date, you create a range that determines when a particular membership period starts. Any membership created after the current Start Date but before the next Turnover Date is assigned the current year's membership. Any membership created after the Turnover Date and before the next Start Date is assigned next year's membership.

For example, if the start date is January 1st and the turnover date is March 31st, an order taken on March 15th indicates that the membership period began on the date in the start date field (January 1st). The new member may receive any benefits from the first three months of that year depending on the organization's business practice and then continue to receive any benefits for the rest of the membership period.

An order for the same membership product taken on or after April 1st begins on January 1st of the following year because the order was taken after the turnover date.

If no dates are entered in the Start Date and Turnover Date fields, a membership begins on the date the order is taken and ends one year from the Start Date, when the corresponding subscription expires (due to subscription fulfillment), or the membership is canceled.