A membership type is the kind of membership your account sells, such as Professional, Student, or Corporate. Individuals and organizations can hold membership types, and every membership package belongs to one type. Membership types are separate from an organization's Type field in CRM, even when the names look similar. Use this page to create, edit, reorder, retire, and delete membership types.
What This Controls
- The name, audience, and status for each kind of membership you sell.
- Whether an organization's membership automatically extends to linked contacts, child organizations, or both.
- How many sections a member of this type must join, overall and by section type.
- The page layouts, 360° screen, ID card template, and certificate settings this type uses instead of your account defaults.
- Whether members see the type in the Portal, and what name they see there.
Where to Find It
Go to Setup › Membership › Types. The Membership Types list shows every type in your account, including its audience (Individual or Organization), the date it last changed, and its status. Select Create Membership Type to add a type, or select a row's edit icon to change one.
Create or Edit a Membership Type
- Go to Setup › Membership › Types and select Create Membership Type, or open an existing type's edit icon.
- Enter a Name:; the ID: fills in from the name, and you cannot change it after you save the type.
- Choose Customer Type: — Individual or Organization.
- Set Status: to Active or Inactive.
- If members of this type must join a certain number of sections, turn on Section Restrictions and enter the minimums and maximums overall, by section type, or both.
- For an organization type, you can turn on Membership Flow Down and choose which contact roles receive membership through the organization. If cascading is available for your account, you can also choose which organization types receive membership through it.
- Turn on Override Certificate Settings if this type needs its own certificate mode and template instead of your account default.
- Turn on Custom Order Generation Logic and choose a function if your account rewrites orders built for this type's applications.
- Choose a Membership Page Layout (Console):, Membership Page Layout (Portal):, Membership 360° Screen:, and ID Card Template: if this type should use different records than your account defaults.
- If your account uses the universal shopping cart, upload an Image: for this type to show instead of your store's default image.
- Check Hide this membership type from the portal, or leave it visible and enter Display in Portal As: and a Portal Description:.
- Select Save Changes.
Result
The type is saved and appears on the Membership Types list, ready to use on a membership package.
Warning
If your account uses the Higher Logic integration, a new membership type does not appear there until a contact actually holds that type. Create a test membership with the new type to confirm the integration picks it up.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Type: | Individual, Organization | Your last choice in this browser, otherwise Individual | Sets whether a person or an organization holds the type. You can change it at any time, even when packages and memberships already use the type |
| Status: | Active, Inactive | Active | An inactive type is not available for new packages, but existing packages and memberships keep it |
| Deletion Protection: | Locked, Unlocked | Unlocked | Only Rhythm staff can see this setting. You cannot edit or delete a locked type from the list |
| Section Restrictions (switch), then minimums and maximums | On, off; then numbers overall and per section type | Off | Requires members of this type to join a minimum and maximum number of sections. Rhythm saves a minimum that is greater than its maximum without warning |
| Membership Flow Down (switch) | On, off | Off | Organization types only. Automatically creates memberships for the organization's linked contacts and, when cascading is available, its child organizations |
| Which contact roles should receive organizational member benefits? | Multiple choice, or blank | Blank (all contacts) | Limits flowdown to contacts with the selected roles |
| Enable cascading flowdown (flowdown through organizations) | On, off | Off (shown only when the feature is available) | Extends flowdown to child organizations as well as contacts |
| Which types of organizations should receive flowdown memberships? | Multiple choice, or blank | Blank (all child organizations) | Limits cascading flowdown to the selected organization types |
| Override Certificate Settings | On, off | Off (Use Default) | Uses this type's own certificate mode and template instead of your account default; see Membership Forms, ID Cards, and Certificates |
| Custom Order Generation Logic | On, off; then a function | Off | Runs your own function to rewrite orders built for this type's applications |
| Membership Page Layout (Console): / (Portal): / Membership 360° Screen: / ID Card Template: | Any active record built for memberships | Your account default | Overrides your account default for this type's memberships. To keep custom fields for organization memberships separate from custom fields for individual memberships, build a distinct layout for each and assign it here instead of using one shared layout |
| Image: | An uploaded image | Your account's default image | Shows this type's own image in your online store's universal shopping cart, if your account uses one, instead of your store's default image |
| Hide this membership type from the portal | On, off | Off | Hides the type from the Portal. Members who request it directly through the API still receive it. Even when a type is visible, an application process with its own Show in Portal setting turned off keeps that type out of the Portal too |
| Display in Portal As: / Portal Description: | Text / rich text | Empty | Shows this name and description to members when the type is not hidden |
Reorder, Deactivate, and Delete
- Reorder types by dragging rows on the Membership Types list. The new order controls where each type appears in Console lists and, if your account sells online, in your online store's type listing. Membership types and packages on a membership application form always list alphabetically; reordering types or packages does not change that fixed order.
- Deactivate a type by setting its Status: to Inactive on the edit form. This removes it from the picker for new packages and from online storefronts, but existing packages and memberships keep it.
- Delete a type from the list's delete icon. Rhythm refuses the delete while any package, membership, application, or another type's flowdown setting still names this type. If you cannot delete it, deactivate it instead. You can still delete a type that an add-on type allows, because add-on eligibility is not treated as a blocking reference.
Warning
There is no undo when you delete a membership type through the product. You can recover a previous version only through your account's audit history.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A page layout, 360° screen, or ID card template you choose here must exist and, for layouts and 360° screens, be built for memberships; Rhythm refuses records that do not meet those requirements. If no Membership 360° screen has been designed for your account yet, this picker has nothing to offer. Ask whoever manages your account's page layouts and 360 screens to design one before you select it here.
- A membership's type and its package can each imply a different classification at once. If a member's type suggests one classification, such as Alumni, while their package suggests another, both apply together. Neither setting overrides the other.
- Mass updates to a membership's Type field need the type's ID, not its name. Copy the ID from the Membership Types list or the type's edit form into your update file. If you enter the visible name instead, the update fails.
- Bulk-importing membership records works the same way. Provide IDs, not names, for setup values such as Type and Package.
- Some accounts have reported that after choosing a new page layout for a type, the change did not immediately appear on Edit Membership in the console, in the Portal update flow, or in test mode.
- Flowdown and cascading flowdown settings only apply to memberships granted after you save them. Members already covered by an organization's membership keep their existing flowdown until a maintenance task reprocesses it; see Run Membership Maintenance Tasks.
- Deleting a contact role or organization type named in a flowdown setting does not clear it from the type, and does not stop the role or organization type from being deleted.
Permissions
Membership Administrators can create, edit, reorder, deactivate, and delete membership types from Setup › Membership › Types.
Validation and Errors
| Message or symptom | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The type cannot be saved; the identifier is refused | The identifier contains a space or another character besides letters, digits, underscores, hyphens, or the pipe character | Let the form generate the identifier from the name |
| The save refuses a page layout, 360° screen, or ID card template | The chosen record does not exist, is not built for memberships (layouts and 360° screens), or was deleted after you chose it | Choose an existing record built for the membership record type |
| The delete fails | A package, membership, application, or another type's flowdown setting still names this type | Deactivate the type instead, or remove the dependent references first |
| A red warning beside ID: reading "A record already exists with this name" | The generated identifier matches an existing type | This warning is advisory only. Change the identifier if you want a different one, or continue if this is intentional |
| A membership type or package does not appear where members choose it, even though its eligibility test passes in setup | Its purchasing eligibility uses Advanced Rules & Logic | Simplify or remove the Advanced Rules & Logic condition, then confirm the type or package appears |
| A membership type's uploaded image appears blank in configuration, and its download link does not open it | The image did not finish uploading correctly | Remove the file and upload it again |
Related
- Membership Settings: How Saving and Setup Work
- Membership Forms, ID Cards, and Certificates
- Create or Edit a Membership Package
- How an Organization's Membership Reaches Its People
- Configure Page Layouts