Setting Up Paid Groups in Your Community

Introduction to Paid Groups

Your CRM's Communities feature now supports Paid Groups. This functionality allows you to monetize both Public and Private Community groups by charging users a fee to access the group's content and features. This article explains how to set up one-time payments and recurring subscriptions, manage member access, and handle related notifications and cancellations.

Setting Up a Paid Group

To begin, you must first decide if your group will be Public or Private. This setting is configured from the Settings area within your Community.

Creating a One-Time Payment Group

A one-time payment grants members unlimited access to the group after their single payment is completed.

To set up a one-time payment:

1. Navigate to your Community.
2. Go to Settings and select the Subscriptions tab.
3. Click Add new price.
4. Specify the payment Amount and set the Type to one-time.
5. Click Add, then Save to create the paid group.

After saving, the group's description will update to show the payment information to prospective members. You can enable Test Mode to trial the payment process.

Creating a Recurring Subscription Group

A recurring subscription provides members with ongoing, limited access to the group, renewed according to the billing period you set.

To set up a recurring subscription:

1. Navigate to your Community.
2. Go to Settings and select the Subscriptions tab.
3. Click Add new price.
4. Specify the payment Amount, set the Type to Recurring, and configure the Billing Period (Monthly or Annually). You can also optionally set Trial Days.
5. Click Add, then Save to create the paid group.

As with one-time payments, the group description will update, and you can use Test Mode for testing.

Applying Taxes

If you have configured tax settings in your CRM's Payments area (under Payments → Settings → Taxes), those tax rules will automatically apply to eligible Paid Group purchases during the member checkout process.

Granting Group Access After Payment

How a member gains access depends on the group type:

• For Private Groups: After a user makes a payment, you must manually approve their membership. Go to the Community's People tab, use the filter to show Requested members, and then click Accept or Deny.
• For Public Groups: Once payment is complete, the user is automatically signed up and becomes a member immediately.

Notifications

The system sends automatic email notifications for key events:

• Group admins and owners receive an email with details when a user makes a payment to join.
• The paying user receives a payment confirmation email.
• Once a member's access is approved (for Private Groups), they receive another notification confirming their membership and group access.

Cancellations and Refunds

Member Cancellations

If a member cancels their subscription, either from your CRM's payment screen or directly from Stripe, the following occurs automatically:

• The member receives a cancellation confirmation email.
• The group admins and owners receive a cancellation notification email.
• The member is automatically removed from the group.

Issuing Refunds

Refunds for Paid Group payments can be issued from two places:

• From your CRM: Go to Payments > Transactions, find the relevant transaction, click the three-dot menu icon on its line, and select Refund.
• From Stripe: Refunds can also be processed directly within your Stripe account.

Restoring Deleted Contacts

If a user's contact profile is accidentally deleted and later restored, the system is designed to reinstate the user's access to the Paid Group without requiring them to pay again.

Payment Amount Limits

The minimum and maximum chargeable amounts for different currencies are governed by the payment processor's rules. Please consult the official payment processor documentation for the most current details on currency-specific limits.