| Estimated Release Date |
7th February 2024 |
| Estimated Release Time |
11 pm |
| Expected Downtime |
No expected downtime |
Summary
This development cycle brings several reporting updates, an improvement to Join Online for restricted membership types and a new notification email for expired memberships. There are also a couple of smaller updates for wording changes to staff security roles and a change to the default set-up for month in hand against memberships/membership groups. In addition, some key defects have been worked on during this cycle, some of which have already been released but details have also been included in these release notes for reference.
Staff Security Roles - Wording Updates
For the staff security roles, the team have updated the wording for 2 areas to clarify the intention when enabling/disabling those areas in the security roles.
Previously, the wording for the ‘Manually adding credit/Membership credit’ checkboxes would also give the member of staff the ability to remove the credit as well. The wording has now been updated to reflect this:
You can find these checkboxes under the Customers module via Home → System Configuration → Security → Any roles that include the Customers module/any new roles created with the Customers module
Previously the wording for ‘Approve eligibility documents via FOH’ checkbox would also give the member of staff the ability to resolve eligibility suspensions via FOH (customers module). The wording has now been updated to reflect this:
You can find this checkbox under the Memberships module via Home → System Configuration → Security → Any roles that include the Memberships module/any new roles created with the Memberships module
Month in Hand for Memberships - Default as No
From this release the month in hand option for Memberships will now default to No. When a membership group and/or membership type is created this will be set to No unless manually changed to Yes. However please note, that if a new membership type is created and allocated to a Membership Group that is set to Yes for month in hand, Flow will still pull through Yes for the month in hand setting against the membership as the settings from the Membership Group pull over.
You can find the month in hand setting from the General Tab in a Membership Group (Home →Membership module → Membership Group → Edit existing Membership Group/Create a new Membership Group). The month in hand setting can also be found from the Advanced Tab in a Membership Type (Home → Membership module → Membership Types → Edit existing Membership Type/Create a new Membership Type).
Example below:
Visibility of Memberships with Restrictions
Flow allows for the configuration to restrict membership purchases based on a number of factors (for example age). Prior to this release, these restricted membership types would not necessarily appear on Join Online as visible to customers, as Flow would require the customer to be logged into their account in order to validate that they meet the criteria of the membership restriction. If the customer's account did meet the restrictions then the memberships would show as membership options for purchase.
This release will now show membership types with restrictions to appear in order to promote these membership types to customers online who are browsing the membership options. These restricted memberships will appear as available to select into their basket however we recommend including details of the restriction in the membership name where appropriate and/or in the membership description which will appear in the view details section. Alternatively, you could consider creating an additional Membership Category and adding this to any restricted membership. Example below, the Centennial membership has its own Membership Category of Age Restricted Memberships.
When a customer then proceeds with the membership sale process and creates their account the validation will then take place. If the customer's details do not qualify them for the restricted membership, the membership will be removed from their basket and a notification will appear on the right-hand side of the screen.
Please also note, that for customers logged into an existing account, any restricted memberships they do not qualify for, will appear as greyed out in the list of membership types for purchase. There will also be a tick box available to hide ineligible memberships. Please see example screenshot below & a video:
The key benefit of this feature is to increase the opportunity for customers to purchase restricted memberships online that they may not realise are available. This should also help support site operations by reducing membership administration for the scenario that a customer joins online, are not aware that they could have purchased a restricted membership they were entitled to, which then results in staff liaising with members who raise this query and performing membership changes.
We do still recommend clients utilising Eligibility on these restricted membership types where appropriate to provide evidence that a customer does meet the requirements however we anticipate this new feature will support this process by acting as an initial validation.
Please note: to enable this functionality, clients will need to update the following setting Display ineligible membership types. This setting can be found by going to Home -> System Configuration -> Settings -> Manage Settings -> Searching for Display ineligible membership types -> select edit -> Change to Yes -> Save
Reporting on Membership Termination Reason - Already Released
When cancelling a membership in Flow, staff can select a reason for termination. We have now released the ability to report on those termination reasons via the Membership datasource which will allow clients to perform a detailed analysis of why members are choosing to terminate their memberships. The membership termination reasons are visible via the column titled Termination Reason on a report using the Membership datasource.
There is also a new data field that has been included to support this work to enhance how the data is filtered and reviewed. The data field is titled Termination Cause and gives a standard reasoning as to the cause of termination in the system, for example if a membership has been cancelled due to an upgrade/downgrade to another membership type the termination cause would membership_changed. Please note you will need to tick this data field against any existing reports using the Membership datasource. This can be done by selecting Edit on the report -> on the right-hand side locating the new Termination Cause field -> ticking the box -> Selecting Save Fields.
Reporting on Cancelled Bookings
The 1.50 release includes a new datasource for Cancelled Bookings. This datasource includes the key data fields from the current Bookings datasource but will also include the date the booking was cancelled and the source of cancelled bookings.
Please see list of available data fields as part of this datasource below:
Reporting on Activity Utilisation
This release brings a new datasource surrounding the concept of Activity Utilisation. The data provided in reports using this datasource will allow clients to understand for each facility/resource(s) the original capacity, number of booked spaces, number of attendees for each activity and the number on the waitlist. The aim of releasing this datasource is to allow clients to perform analysis on their activities to understand which activities are performing well and which are underperforming, this analysis could then be related to client's internal knowledge of the cost of running those activities to identify growth in revenue opportunities.
Please see list of available data fields as part of this datasource below:
Expired Memberships Email
We are introducing in this release an additional email notification for fixed-term memberships that expire. Currently, Flow will send an email to members in advance of their fixed-term membership expiring to make them aware their membership is coming to an end and also provide them with the opportunity to renew in advance (if membership renewal has been enabled on their membership type). This new email notification will now be sent once the membership has expired (in addition to current notification), providing members with a final reminder that their membership has come to an end and will also provide them another opportunity to renew (if enabled).
You can amend the content of this notification as normal if you choose to by creating a template: Home -> System Configuration -> Notifications -> Email Templates -> Create New Template -> Select the Sent to the customer when their fixed membership has expired
However please note we recommend leaving the below content (within yellow) as is, as this will pull through automatically the relevant wording if the membership that has expired allows membership renewal online, offline or both or does not allow renewals. Content outside of the section in yellow can be amended as normal if you choose to.
Please also find a list below of the available variables that you can include in this email notification:
| Variable | Contains |
|---|---|
| {{membership.name}} | The name of the membership that has expired. |
| {{membership.venue}} | The home venue of the membership that has expired. |
| {{membership.membershipsUrl}} | The URL for the customer to view/renew the membership online. |
| {{membership.canRenewOnline}} | Whether the membership can be renewed online (via My Account). |
| {{membership.canRenewOffline}} | Whether the membership can be renewed offline (via FOH). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.raw}} | A raw simplified The date the membership expired date (e.g. 2024-02-05). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.raw_pretty}} | A nicer formatted simplified The date the membership expired date (e.g. 05/02/2024). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.day_pretty}} | A nicely formatted day of the The date the membership expired date (e.g. Mon). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.date_pretty}} | A written format of the The date the membership expired date (e.g. 5 Feb). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.full_date}} | The full The date the membership expired date (e.g. 5 February 2024). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.full_date_pretty}} | The full The date the membership expired formatted nicely date (e.g. Mon 5 February 2024). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.time_24}} | The The date the membership expired time in 24-hour format (e.g. 12:10). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.time_12}} | The The date the membership expired time in 12-hour format (e.g. 12:10pm). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.full_time}} | The The date the membership expired time in 24-hour format including seconds (e.g. 12:10:15). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.raw_date_time}} | The The date the membership expired date and time in raw format (e.g. 2024-02-05 12:10:15). |
| {{membership.expiryDate.tz}} | The timezone for the date. |
| {{client.uuid}} | Your own Client Unique ID. |
| {{client.name}} | Your own Client Name. |
| {{client.image}} | Your own Client Image. |
| {{client.email}} | Your own Client Email. |
| {{clientUrls.bookingUrl}} | The URL of your booking application. |
| {{clientUrls.myAccountUrl}} | The URL of your account application. |
| {{user.uuid}} | The Unique ID of the User the notification is being sent too. |
| {{user.email}} | The Email of the User the notification is being sent too. |
| {{user.username}} | The Username of the User the notification is being sent too. |
| {{user.first_name}} | The First Name of the User the notification is being sent too. |
| {{user.last_name}} | The Last Name of the User the notification is being sent too. |
| {{user.reference}} | The Reference of the User the notification is being sent too. |
| {{user.source}} | The source of the customer's registration. Possible values: bookings, course_pro_import, csv_import, customers, front-of-house, itineris_import, moves, my-account, online-joining |
| {{user.created_by_staff}} | True or false flag indicating whether the user was created by a staff member (with a randomly generated password). |
| {{user.homeVenueUrl}} | The URL of the customer's home venue. |
| {{passwordResetUrl()}} | A generated password reset URL for the customer. |
| {{subject}} | The Subject of the notification. |
| {{venue.id}} | The id of the facility. |
| {{venue.name}} | The name of the facility. |
| {{venue.url}} | The full URL of the facility. |
Key Defects
- Correction to available cancellation dates for membership with month in hand. First available cancellation date will now show as 2 months ahead to reflect the month of membership paid at the time of joining.
- For clients who have the setting enabled to automatically close till shifts overnight, reported cases where this was not happening. This release will see improvements to this area for till shifts to close automatically overnight.
- Correction to the Facility Calendar where activities for the previous day & previous year where not displaying in the calendar
Other System Enhancements & Key Defects - Already Released
The following system enhancements and key defects have been released already:
- Membership datasource now has an additional column (Membership Registration Date) for the date the membership was purchased. Previously the Join Date column was used to understand membership sales, however the Join Date column was pulling through the date the account was created. To correct this the Membership Registration Date column was included and will need to be ticked in any reports using the Membership datasource if you would like to report on this.
- Membership datasource now includes the Termination Reason selected when cancelled and an additional column for the Termination Cause. Further details on this are mentioned above.
- Correction to an Error message that would display when reviewing reports using a Time Comparison format. Please note reports using a List format where not affected by this.
- Multiple reports that an Error 500 would appear on some customer accounts when selecting the Membership tab. This issue has now been resolved and no further reports have been raised.