Membership uses one settings record for your whole Rhythm account. Several Setup pages read and update different parts of that record: Other Settings, Contact Role Permissions, and Chapter Portal Settings. This article explains how saving works, what each save requires, and where the Setup checklist sends you to configure these settings. For details about the individual settings, see Membership Terms and Renewal Rules, Directory and Self-Service Settings for Members, and Membership Forms, ID Cards, and Certificates.
What This Controls
- Where you start when you set up Membership for the first time.
- Why Rhythm can refuse a save on these Setup pages, even when your change does not seem related to payments.
- What happens when two administrators save Membership settings at the same time.
- Which Setup pages update this shared settings record, and who can read or change it.
Where to Find It
Go to Setup to open the overview checklist. You can edit the Membership settings record from Setup › Other Settings, Setup › Contact Roles, and the chapter portal settings page.
The Setup Overview Checklist
Setup opens on a checklist grouped under Membership, Applications, Chapters, Sections, Add Ons, Billing, Committees, and Maintenance & Other Settings. Each line links to the Setup page for that step, in a suggested order: types first, then packages, then items that depend on them, such as applications, chapters, sections, billing, and the settings covered in this article. The checklist does not track completed work, so use it as a starting map rather than a progress tracker.
Tip
If a link on the Setup overview does not open its target page, open the destination another way. Use the Setup navigation menu on the left instead of the overview checklist link.
How Saving This Record Works
Your Rhythm account has at most one Membership settings record. Each page that edits part of it — Other Settings, Contact Role Permissions, and the chapter portal settings page — reads and saves that same record. Each page has its own Setup permission, but all three pages save the shared record.
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| One record per account | Everyone who can view these Setup pages sees the same settings. There is no list of settings records to choose from |
| A business unit and merchant account are required on every save | Rhythm refuses every save when the settings record has no business unit or merchant account chosen, even for a Portal wording change or a contact-role checkbox. The Console shows Unable to save settings and names the missing field |
| The whole record is replaced on save | Each page sends the complete record it loaded, with its own section changed. Rhythm does not merge individual fields, so a page that never shows a setting still sends back the value it loaded for that setting |
| A stale save is refused | If someone else saves the record after you load your copy, Rhythm refuses your save instead of silently overwriting theirs. The Console shows Unable to save settings, and you can reload and try again |
| Portal members can never change these settings | Rhythm refuses every attempt to create, replace, or change this record from the Portal, regardless of a member's role |
Warning
Because each save replaces the whole record, a page also sends the values it loaded for settings on other pages. If another administrator saves a different page after you loaded yours, Rhythm refuses your out-of-date save. Reload before continuing so your page uses the latest settings.
If Other Settings fails to load, or saving acts as though required configuration is missing, confirm that a merchant account is configured and try saving the page again. This has cleared the loading error and restored the ability to create memberships when the page seemed stuck. If a similar payment error appears in more than one application, such as both Fundraising and Membership, check Membership's own configuration on this page and correct it if needed. Its business unit and merchant account are not shared automatically with another application's settings.
Tip
To temporarily stop members from paying for Membership, disable the payment methods your applications accept on this settings page under Default Payment Options. Do this instead of only deactivating the finance-side processor record, because deactivating the processor first can also block you from reaching this page's settings until you reactivate it.
Warning
The electronic check option on this settings page works with your Finance settings for saving cards and ACH accounts in the Portal. Together, those settings are meant to control whether a member can save a checking account during Membership processes. That control has not always applied consistently to auto-renewal setup, so a member may still be able to save a checking account there even when both settings say they should not.
The Contact Role Permissions Page
Go to Setup › Contact Roles to choose which actions a Portal contact can take for their organization. These actions include joining, renewing, changing membership details, managing benefit recipients, and managing organization auto-renewal. The page shows one row for each active contact role, plus one row for every contact regardless of role, with a checkbox for each action.
Warning
This page stores your decision, but it does not enforce the permissions by itself. The application-processes area and Portal controls read these rows separately to decide what a contact can do. There is no confirmation before saving, so granting an action to every contact takes effect for every member organization as soon as you save.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Saving any of these pages takes effect the next time the affected page or process loads. It does not change any existing membership, application, or order. This includes membership ID card settings: after you turn on or change them, save the page before checking whether the card appears correctly to members, because an unsaved change will not show yet.
- To revert a change, select the previous value on the same page and save again. You can recover an earlier whole-record state only through your Rhythm account's audit history; see Audit History.
Permissions
| Page | Who can access it |
|---|---|
| Setup overview | Any staff member with Setup access; a Membership Administrator always has it |
| Other Settings | A Membership Administrator |
| Contact Role Permissions | A Membership Administrator |
| Chapter portal settings | A Membership Administrator |
Access to one of these pages does not limit what someone with API access to the settings record could change. The page permission protects the page, not every part of the record.
Validation and Errors
| Message or symptom | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Unable to save settings, naming business_unit_id or merchant_account_id | The settings record has no business unit or merchant account chosen, even though the page is unrelated to payments | Choose a business unit and merchant account, then save again |
| Unable to save settings, naming a missing page layout, form, template, 360° screen, or saved query | The settings record points to a record that no longer exists | Choose an existing record for that field, then save again |
| Unable to save settings with no obvious cause, right after another administrator made a change | Rhythm refused the save because your copy was out of date | Reload the page and reapply your change |
| A checkbox or field you did not touch reverted to a different value after saving | A page replaced the whole record with an older value for a setting you changed elsewhere | Reapply the change on the correct page, and save changes to different pages one at a time rather than at once |