A billing run needs an email to send and a schedule to follow. Billing notices hold the email content, billing templates save reusable actions and date ranges, and recurring runs use a template to build and pre-process runs automatically. This article explains how to create and maintain all three.
For what happens when a run executes, or how to start a run manually from a template, see "How a Billing Run Sends Notices and Drops Members" and "Start or Edit a Billing Run" in Related below.
A billing run is different from a batch. The run performs billing actions, such as sending notices, creating renewal orders, charging cards, or dropping members. A batch is the financial record where those orders and payments land for reconciliation.
Where to Find It
In the Membership & Committees Console, go to Setup › Billing, then choose:
- Notices to create or edit the emails a billing run sends.
- Templates to create or edit a reusable set of billing-run actions.
- Recurring Runs to schedule a template to build runs automatically.
Billing Notices
A billing notice is the email sent by a billing-run action. It controls the message content, but not who receives the email or when it goes out.
This section covers membership billing notices in the Membership & Committees Console. Finance has its own billing notices under Finance › Setup › Billing › Notice, with separate settings. Guidance here about merge fields, such as Public Payment Link, applies only to membership billing notices.
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: / ID: | Text / generated | — | Required. Use the name to find the notice when you configure a template or run. |
| Status: | Active / Inactive | Active | Inactive notices do not appear in the notice pickers on templates and runs. |
| Deletion Protection: | On or off | Off | Rhythm staff only. |
| What contact roles should receive this notice? | Multi-select of your account's contact roles | Empty (send to all) | For memberships held by organizations only. Leave this empty to send the notice to every contact on the organization. Choose roles, such as Billing Contact or Administrative Contact, to send it only to contacts with one of those roles. This setting does not affect memberships held by people. You cannot also copy a separate role-based group, such as a whole committee; that is a requested improvement, not a current setting. |
| From:, Reply To:, Cc:, Bcc:, Subject: | Text | Your account's default sender, else blank | These are the email headers. Subject: is required. Cc: and Bcc: are blank by default, and Rhythm never adds anyone to them automatically. To copy a billing contact or officer on a notice, type their address into one of these fields. |
| Email body | Rich text with a merge-field picker | — | Required. This is the email content. The editor toolbar also includes a standard link control, so you can add a plain hyperlink when a merge field is not the right fit. |
Merge Fields
The editor groups merge fields by object: Contact, Organization, Membership, Membership Type, Membership Package, Billing Run, Billing Run Action, and Order. It also includes two single fields, Invoice Download Link and Public Payment Link. Use the picker to insert a field instead of typing it by hand. If you mistype a field, the email prints it as text instead of replacing it with data.
Tip
Always send yourself a preview before you use a new notice in a live run. Preview on the notice form sends a real email to any address you enter, using a real member's data. The preview has no action, assigned seats, or recipient, so it renders slightly differently from the email an organization's contacts receive. A recipient-dependent field, such as a personal greeting, can come back empty in preview even though it resolves correctly during a billing run. When a field gets its value only during a specific billing-run action, preview alone is not conclusive; send a real test billing run against a test member to confirm it.
Warning
The preview tool sends an actual email with a real member's personal and billing details to the address you enter. It does not check the address first, so use it carefully.
Every billing notice uses the same merge-field catalog across all billing-run actions. That means the picker offers fields, including Billing Run Action fields and the order and invoice fields below, that apply only to some actions and stay empty for others. A field in the picker does not guarantee that it will add useful information to your notice. Check the notice with Preview or a real test run before you rely on it.
Invoice Download Link and Public Payment Link fill in only when the member already has an order and invoice on record. They are most reliable right after a Generate Renewal Orders action creates one for the member. In notices used for Send Renewal Reminders, auto-renewal reminder actions, or auto-renewal success and failure notices, there is often no order tied to that specific email. These two fields can render empty even though they appear in the picker.
Auto-renewal success and failure notices have no built-in way to attach a receipt or invoice. If members need to view or pay an invoice from one of these notices, link to the member portal's Financial Overview page instead. Members can find and pay any open invoice there without needing a direct link to one specific document.
Because these two fields depend on an existing order, previewing a notice against a member with no order shows a placeholder link instead of a real one. Sometimes that placeholder points to a documentation article rather than a usable invoice or payment URL. That is expected because the preview member has nothing for the field to point to. Preview against a member with a real, recent order to see the actual link.
Both fields pull from the member's most recent order, which is not always the order the current email is about. If a member has more than one recent order, check which invoice populated the link before assuming it is wrong. A renewal notice carries a working link only when you insert the merge field into that notice's body; appearing in the picker does not add it to the template you are using.
Sending Public Payment Link also depends on a Finance & Billing setting that allows public invoice payments. If members report a broken or missing payment link even though the field is in the notice, confirm that public invoice payments are turned on in your account's Finance & Billing settings.
If a message needs both membership context and money details, such as a renewal reminder that should also let the member pay, build it as a billing notice using the invoice and payment merge fields described here. Do not try to combine a separate finance notice with a membership notice.
Membership merge fields also include fields for a membership's assigned seats, such as an identifier for each member holding a seat under an organization or group package. These fields do not reliably return member names in billing notices, and often only an identifier field comes through. Do not rely on them to build a readable roster for a group administrator; handle that list manually instead.
The sent-notice copy in a contact's or organization's email history does not always preserve working hyperlinks for merge-field output, such as payment or invoice links. The link can show as plain text there even though the email the member received was clickable. Do not use email history to judge whether a link worked; check a live send or ask the member instead.
Billing Templates
A billing template saves the actions a billing run performs, including each action's date range, notice, and member filters. Use templates when you do not want to rebuild the same run from scratch every cycle.
Tip
If you plan to run several kinds of billing action, consider building a separate template for each purpose. For example, use one template for renewal reminders and another for auto-renewal processing instead of turning on many actions in one template. Every switched-on action runs together whenever the template is used, so separate templates make it harder to trigger reminders, invoices, and auto-renewal charges at the same time by accident.
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: / ID: | Text / generated | — | Required. |
| Status: / Deletion Protection: | As above | Active / Off | As above. |
| Seven action switches (below) | On/off, one per action | Off | Only actions you switch on run when the template is used. Actions you leave off are removed from the template when you save. |
| Action | Sends its notice to | Also asks for |
|---|---|---|
| Generate Renewal Notices | Members approaching expiration | A billing notice, or blank to suppress |
| Generate Renewal Orders | Members whose renewal order and invoice were just created | A billing notice; whether to keep the order pro forma, which means revenue is not recognized until paid — on by default |
| Send Renewal Reminders | Members already billed or noticed who have not paid | One or more reminders, each with its own date range and notice |
| Send Reminders to Auto-Renewal Members | Auto-renew members before their card is charged | Reminders, as above |
| Send Expiring Credit Card Reminders | Auto-renew members whose card expires before renewal | Reminders, as above |
| Process Credit Cards for Auto-Renewal Members | Auto-renew members, after the charge succeeds or fails | A success notice and a failure notice, each optional |
| Drop/Terminate Expired Members | Members being dropped | An optional drop notice; whether to expire committee memberships and deactivate certifications on drop |
Each action's date range is relative to the run date, such as "30 days before the billing run date," instead of a fixed calendar date. That keeps the same template reusable from one cycle to the next. Each action also includes the same member filters, so you can limit it to certain membership types, packages, or sub-status reasons.
Leaving a membership type or package filter off does not limit the action to active types or packages. An off filter applies no restriction, so the action reaches every type or package inside its date range. To send renewal notices for a relative window such as "between 3 and 2 months before renewal," anchor both the start and end of the range to Billing run date instead of the beginning or end of a calendar month.
Tip
If a recurring run fires only weekly or monthly but its action uses a narrow relative range, such as exactly one day after the run date, it can miss members whose expiration dates fall between runs. Widen the range to cover the full interval between firings, or the full spread of dates where expirations cluster, so members are not skipped.
Generate Renewal Notices, Generate Renewal Orders, and Send Renewal Reminders are easy to confuse because they can reach the same members at different points in a cycle. Generate Renewal Notices only sends an email; it never creates an order or invoice. Generate Renewal Orders creates the renewal order and invoice, and it is the action that can include a working invoice or payment link and a pro forma option. Send Renewal Reminders does not create anything by itself; it only follows up with members who were already billed or noticed by an earlier action.
The billing notice you choose for each action is independent. Choosing a notice on Generate Renewal Orders is not redundant with choosing one on Send Renewal Reminders, because the actions serve different members at different stages. If one template runs more than one of these three actions, check that two actions are not picking up the same members in the same cycle and creating duplicate orders or notices. Segment them by date range or membership type so they do not overlap.
Use Send Renewal Reminders for a sequence of pre-invoice reminder emails, such as first, second, and third reminders, sent to members who have not renewed but whom you still plan to invoice later. It fits pre-invoice outreach better than an action that would advance them into a billed state.
That relative window decides who is included, not just when something happens. A range built to target members expiring "60 to 90 days from now" catches only members whose expiration date falls in that window on the day the run is created or triggered. It does not include a broader span you may have had in mind when you built the template. Selection is based on each membership's expiration date at that moment.
Correcting or advancing a membership's expiration date later does not change who an already-created run selected. If you expected a wider group, check the range against the run's actual creation date before assuming something else is wrong.
Keeping Generate Renewal Orders pro forma has two operational effects worth knowing. While an order stays pro forma, its invoices are not synced to QuickBooks Online, and Rhythm does not send the automated invoice email for it. Both start happening after the order is no longer pro forma.
For Send Renewal Reminders, Send Reminders to Auto-Renewal Members, and Send Expiring Credit Card Reminders, each reminder is its own entry. Click Add Reminder, choose that reminder's billing notice, and set the date range that decides which members it reaches. Repeat those steps for every reminder you want to send. If two reminders in the same action have overlapping date ranges, a member who falls into both receives only one of them, not both. Give each reminder a distinct range when you want every reminder delivered.
When a recurring run uses a template, its relative ranges count from the day the run is built and pre-processed, which is the lead time before the scheduled date. They do not count from the scheduled date itself. If you want a notice to reach members a set number of days before expiration on the scheduled date, and your recurring run pre-processes a few days early, offset the range by the same lead time. That keeps the selected group aligned with your intent.
Changing the day offset on Generate Renewal Notices affects only that initial notice. The reminder date ranges under Send Renewal Reminders run on their own schedule and are not affected by it.
Getting renewal invoicing fully working depends on more than the template. Check that a billing notice is assigned anywhere you want an email sent, and confirm that any invoice template you rely on for renewal invoices is active in your Finance & Billing settings. A deactivated invoice template, or a run action with no billing notice configured, can let members renew without ever receiving an email.
You can also use Send Renewal Reminders for a broader purpose: reminding a group of members in bulk about any open dues invoice by building a billing run around that action.
Reminders let you send a first, second, and third notice to members whose memberships are expired or expiring. For each reminder you want, select Add Reminder, choose the billing notice it should use, and choose the dates that decide which members belong on that reminder's list. Repeat for as many reminders as your renewal cycle needs.
Warning
A relative range is measured from the day the run is created, not from any broader date span you have in mind. If a renewal template is meant to catch members who lapsed within roughly the last month, but the run is actually created several weeks after you intended, members who expired earlier than the relative window still fall outside it, even though they are within the date span you pictured. Check the run's planned members against your intended date span before relying on the template's range alone.
Tip
Here is one way to lay out a renewal cycle's relative date ranges, measured from the billing run date. Adjust the numbers to match your own renewal window:
| Action | Example relative range |
|---|---|
| First renewal notice | 60 days before the billing run date |
| Second renewal notice / reminder | 30 days before the billing run date |
| Lapsed reminder | 1 to 30 days after the billing run date |
| Drop | 31 to 60 days after the billing run date |
Because pre-processing happens before the run's scheduled date, build in a day or two of slack around each boundary rather than lining ranges up edge-to-edge.
A membership is matched against an action's date range using the expiration date on the membership when the run is built. If you later correct that expiration date, the change does not reach back and explain why an earlier run already included or skipped that member. It only affects runs built after the correction. A member who was left out of a run because their old expiration date fell outside its range is picked up by a later run only once their expiration date falls inside that later run's own range.
Recurring Billing Runs
A recurring run schedules a template to build and pre-process a run automatically, so nobody has to start the planning by hand.
Warning
A recurring run does not execute by itself. After pre-processing finishes, Rhythm emails the template's notification address that the plan is ready. The run then waits, ready for execution, until someone reviews it and clicks Run Now. "Recurring" automates the planning and notification, not the billing itself. See "Schedule, Run, and Monitor a Billing Run" in Related for that step.
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: / ID: | Text / generated | — | Required. This also becomes part of each run's name. |
| Billing Template: | An active billing template | — | The template used to build each automatic run. |
| Pre-Processing Lead Time (days): | Number | 1 | How many days before the scheduled date the run is built and pre-processed, so staff can review it before it fires. Each action's relative date range is measured from the actual pre-processing moment, so a longer lead time effectively starts the window that many days earlier. If you need a range to begin on a specific calendar day, account for the lead time when you set the schedule. |
| Billing Run Schedule | Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or an advanced expression | 11 p.m. on the 1st of every month | When the recurring run's schedule triggers. |
| Status: | Active / Inactive | Active | Rhythm turns this off automatically if the schedule fails to run, including during a service disruption outside Rhythm's control. Save it back on to reactivate it once the run can fire again. |
| Pre-Processing Lead Time (days): | Number | 1 | How many days before the scheduled date the run is built and pre-processed, so staff can review and run it before the scheduled date arrives. | | Billing Run Schedule | Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or an advanced expression | 11 p.m. on the 1st of every month | When the recurring run builds and pre-processes its next run. | | Status: | Active / Inactive | Active | Rhythm turns this off automatically if the schedule fails to run. Save it back on to reactivate it. |
Dependencies and Precedence
- A template's notice pickers and a run's notice pickers list every active notice in your account, no matter what kind of notice it is. You could choose a drop notice as a reminder notice by mistake, so check the notice before you save.
- A renewal billing template must reference the current active package for the renewal period. If the template includes a membership type, it also needs to include the packages associated with that type. Replace an inactive prior-year package with the active package for the current cycle before the next renewal billing run uses the template.
- A recurring run needs an active template before it can build anything. It keeps working if that template is later deactivated.
- Retiring a template or notice by making it inactive only hides it from Setup pickers going forward. Runs and recurring runs that already name an inactive template or notice keep using it, because Rhythm does not check the active flag after the run or recurring run already references it.
- A membership's own Bill to Parent Organization setting controls how that one membership is invoiced. It is separate from any account-wide payment setting, and it does not change how a principal membership billing run selects or bills members.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Deleting a notice is blocked while a run or template names it in most of its roles. Two roles are not currently checked: a reminder notice and an expiring-card warning. A notice used only in one of those two roles can be deleted while it is still referenced. If you want to keep a notice from being chosen again, deactivate it instead of deleting it.
- Deleting a billing template is refused while a recurring run still uses it. If you are not sure the template is still needed, deactivate it instead.
- Editing a template used by a recurring run affects every future run that recurring run builds. A red banner on the template form tells you how many recurring runs use it.
- Rhythm keeps no record of who deleted a billing notice or template, so Support cannot look this up for you. If notices or templates you built are missing, check with your team first. Anyone with access to Setup › Billing could have removed or deactivated them before you rebuild them.
Permissions
Creating, editing, and deleting billing notices, templates, and recurring runs are Membership administrator actions in the Console. If you cannot open Setup › Billing, ask the person who manages your Rhythm account's security roles for access.
Validation and Errors
| What you see | Meaning and what to do |
|---|---|
| "A record already exists with this name." beside ID: | This is a warning only and does not block saving. Change the name if you want a different ID. |
| The recurring run's schedule is refused when saving | The next three occurrences would be less than 24 hours apart, or the expression does not parse. Choose a schedule that fires no more than once a day. |
| "Unable to delete Billing Template" / "Unable to delete Billing Notice" | The record is still referenced, as described in Change Impact above, or the delete failed for another reason shown in the message. |
| A reminder or notice picker offers nothing | No active billing notice exists yet. Create one under Setup › Billing › Notices first. |