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Automatic Late Fees

6 min read Updated 1 day ago

Automatic Late Fees let GymMaster add a fee to a member’s account when a membership charge has been left unpaid for longer than you allow. The check runs every night, so you don’t need to go through overdue accounts and add fees by hand.

Clubs use late fees to encourage members to keep their accounts up to date, and to recover some of the cost of chasing overdue payments.

This article covers how to;

Turn On Late Fees

Late fees are turned on by GymMaster support. To start using them, contact GymMaster support and ask for Enable Late Fees to be turned on. Tell them the amount, interval and billing option you want (see below), or ask them to show you the settings once they’re on.

When the feature is on, the settings are in Settings > Advanced Configuration, in the Billing section:

Enable Late Fees - the main on/off switch. When it’s off, no late fees are made, whatever the other settings say.
Late Fee Amount, Late Fee Interval and Late Fee Billing sit underneath it.

Configure Late Fees

Late Fee Amount

The amount charged for each late fee, for example $10.00.

The member is charged exactly this amount.
The fee is recorded as Miscellaneous Revenue, so it uses the tax rate set on the Miscellaneous Revenue account in Settings > Financial Configuration > Tax Rates. See Tax Rates.
If you set it to 0, a $0 late fee is still added to the member’s account each time. To stop late fees, untick Enable Late Fees. Don’t use an amount of 0.

Late Fee Interval

How long a membership charge must be outstanding before a late fee is added, for example 5 days.

The interval is counted from the date of the charge. If the charge comes after a membership hold, it is counted from the date the hold ends instead, so members aren’t charged a late fee for the time they were on hold.
An interval of 0 does not stop late fees. With 0, any membership charge still outstanding from before today counts as late. To stop late fees, untick Enable Late Fees.
Check this value when late fees are first turned on, and set it to the grace period you want.
Use days (or weeks) for the interval. The fee’s description only shows the days part of the interval, so an interval set in months shows as “Late Fee after 0 days”.

Late Fee Billing

Sets when the late fee is billed. Choose one:

Charge Fee on Member’s Next Billing Cycle - the fee is dated on the member’s next billing day and is billed with their next regular payment. If GymMaster can’t work out a next billing day for the member, the fee is dated today. This is the default.
Charge Fee As Soon as it Occurs - the fee is dated today and goes into the next automatic billing batch.
Charge Fee As Soon as it Occurs, along other outstanding charges - the fee is dated today and goes into the next automatic billing batch. GymMaster also moves the member’s other outstanding charges that were waiting for their billing day, and any failed payments waiting to be retried, into the same batch. The member is billed for everything they owe in one go.

Which Members Get a Late Fee

Every night, GymMaster checks for members who meet all of these conditions:

Their account balance is owing (more than $0).
They have a membership charge (a membership payment or a regular membership instalment) that is still outstanding, and has been for longer than the Late Fee Interval.
That charge is dated within the last 3 months. Older unpaid charges aren’t counted.
They have a current membership.
Their membership isn’t paid for by another member.
They haven’t had a late fee in the past month.

Some things to know:

It doesn’t have to be a failed payment. Any outstanding membership charge counts, including charges for members who pay in person and simply haven’t paid yet. A failed direct debit leaves the charge outstanding, so failed billing is the most common reason a member gets a late fee.
Only membership charges count. Unpaid bookings, product sales, dishonour fees or earlier late fees don’t trigger a late fee by themselves.
It’s one fee per member, not one per charge. A member with three overdue membership charges still gets one late fee.
Fees repeat monthly, not every interval. A member gets at most one late fee per month. If they still have an overdue membership charge a month after their last late fee, another one is added.
With Charge Fee on Member’s Next Billing Cycle, the late fee is dated on the member’s next billing day, and the month until the next fee counts from that date.

What the Late Fee Looks Like

What Staff See

The fee shows on the member’s Accounts and Billing tab under Account History, with the transaction type Late Fee and a description like Late Fee after 5 days (the number is the days in your Late Fee Interval).

For members billed by direct debit, the late fee is billed automatically, on the timing you chose in Late Fee Billing.
For members who pay manually, it simply adds to the balance they owe.

What Members See

The late fee is a normal charge on the member’s account. It adds to their balance owing, and they’re billed for it like any other charge.

Waiving a Late Fee

To waive a late fee, apply a Credit Note against it. See Credit Notes - How to Clear a Charge.

Use a credit note, not a void. A credit note keeps the late fee on record, so GymMaster still knows the member had a late fee this month. If you void the late fee and the member still has an overdue membership charge, a new late fee will be added the next night.

Things to Watch Out For

To stop late fees, untick Enable Late Fees. Setting the amount or the interval to 0 does not stop them.
Late fees are added overnight. If you change a setting, the change applies at the next nightly run. Fees that were already added aren’t changed.
Paying the overdue charge stops further fees. When a member pays off their overdue membership charges, they no longer qualify. Fees that were already added stay on the account until they’re paid or credited.
Late fees and dishonour fees are separate. A dishonour fee is charged when a payment fails. A late fee is charged when a membership charge stays unpaid past the interval. A member with a failed payment can get both.
Holds push the date back. If a charge comes after a hold, the interval counts from the date the hold ends.

Related articles:

Further Questions? See our list of Frequently Asked Questions about Billing

Common Questions this Covers