Membership Basics
Members, memberships and packages
Three records that are easy to confuse, and which one holds the money.
Last updated September 2, 2026
Almost every question that starts "why can't I change this" comes down to these three records being mistaken for one. They are separate on purpose.
| Record | What it is | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Package | The product you sell | Name, terms, inclusions, the price bands for each billing frequency |
| Member | The account | The balance, the saved cards, the automatic-payment switch |
| Membership | The subscription itself | Which package, how much, how often, start and end dates, status |
How they fit together
- You build a package once and sell it many times.
- A person becomes a member — one member record per person, per tribe.
- That member is put on one or more memberships, each pointing at a package.
- Charges and payments belong to the member, not to an individual membership — so the balance is one number across everything they hold.
WHY THE BALANCE IS SHARED
A member on three packages has one balance and one card. When collection runs it charges the whole outstanding amount in a single transaction — not three.
Where the money lives
The amount actually billed sits on the membership, not the package. The package's prices are the bands you are allowed to sell within — a minimum and a maximum per frequency. Two members on the same package can legitimately pay different amounts, and the reports read what the membership says, not what the package advertises.
One member per person per tribe
A SECOND MEMBER RECORD IS REFUSED
If somebody already has a live member record in a tribe, creating another is blocked: "This person already has a live member record in this tribe. Open that record instead, or mark it inactive first." Paused counts as live. Add another membership to the existing record rather than a second member.