[Wishlist] Custom Billing on the Fly Not planned

Post author
Memberstack Team

[This post was migrated from our old community roadmap]

  1. The problem is that in person-to-person sales, negotiation is high, and there is no way for our salespeople to create a payment plan on-the-fly that changes depending on down-payment and payment length.
  2. This is important because it provides flexibility for every company and sales team to create a custom payment plan for their clients with them on the website.
  3. Plan B is to create every membership and payment plan possible, which would be thousands of plans.
  4. A solution you could build is for the checkout modal to have a "down-payment", "months", and "discount" input line that automatically calculates what the monthly bill will be (((total price x discount %) - down-payment)/(x-months) = Monthly Rate). Once the information is inserted into the input lines, the customer pays, automatically creating a plan underneath an existing membership.
I don't know how well I did at explaining, so please let me know if you have any questions.

Comments

7 comments

  • Comment author
    Duncan from Memberstack

    Please leave follow or leave a comment if this is something you need 👍

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  • Comment author
    Duncan Hamra

    Hey Pablo Gonzalez - this is super helpful 🙏 I'll start off by saying it's not our #1 priority right now, but it easily could be with enough demand.

    1. Am I correct to assume these sorts of deals have a big price tag associated with them?

    2. Have you used any other billing/invoicing tools in the past that were able to handle the types of deals you're describing?

    3. Are you hoping to build something like this? https://www.rippling.com/select-quote we're pricing is dynamic and has different variables like # of users, # of seats, annual vs monthly, etc.

    4. Is there gated content or permissions associated with the purchase? i.e. paying for access to content, an API, a service, etc.
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  • Comment author
    Pablo Gonzalez

    Hey Duncan, thank you for getting back to me!

    I think a little background into the business would be helpful. So I am building an online platform for an english school in Mexico that has over 60 locations across the country. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the goal is to build each franchise their own platform where their students can pay their monthly/yearly dues and access gated content. Each location runs almost independently, and they do price the service slightly different as each city's rent is more or less expensive than another's.

    1. The deals can take many different forms as everything is individualized to each student, but let's say on average, each student spends around 1,500 dollars. They are inexpensive compared to universities, but probably higher than the average use case for Memberstack, so depends on your perspective
      _____

    2. No. This is the first time this business is investing into this type of platform. Everything is currently is manual. The student pays their dues at school, they call the admin office to schedule their next class (yes, for each day and time), etc.
      _____

    3. Sort of... The pricing does need to be dynamic, but the variables again would be different. The variables would be:

    l. Total Price for the Course.

    • Here the salesperson can enter the variable total dollar amount for the course that he had promised the client, with scholarships (discounts) already included.

    ll. Down-Payment.

    • Here the salesperson would enter the variable dollar amount that the student wants to pay upfront for the sign-up fee and the textbook required to take the course. The students primarily pay more to reduce their monthly payment, as if they were purchasing a car. A student can also choose to pay the course in full, and when they do that, they get lifetime access to the school and classes.

    lll. Length of Contract.

    • Here, the salesperson would enter the length of the contract in months.

    This formula, ((Total Price of Course - Down-Payment) / Length of Contract), would help to define each student's custom plan.

    After filling out this pricing table with the salesperson, the student will click "agree", and the salesperson will press continue to where the student will fill out the traditional sign-up form with their information: name, email, age, gender, address, etc., and pay
    ______

      4. Yes, so there is a ton of gated content inside the student dashboard. If you are a paying student or have paid for the course in full, you have access to a custom student dashboard where you can:

    l. Schedule your next class (using Acuity)

    ll. See your progress card

    lll. Access resources such as homework, embedded audios that compliment each lesson, worksheets, tests, etc.

    lV. Zoom access to enter the online class if you choose to not go in-person that day for whatever reason.

    V. Access to your contract and your account information.
    Once the student stops paying, they lose access to all of these features.

    As for demand, you've already got 60+, and growing, franchises interested in this service that we will be building for each :)

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  • Comment author
    Jan Popovic

    Hey all, has this feature gotten onto the roadmap?

    We'd love to implement this for our project, a SaaS product where the value proposition increases proportionally with the number of seats customers have. We therefore envision a pricing model structured as: base_price + (number_of_seats * seat_unit_price).

    Could you please confirm if this feature is currently available or planned for the near future? Knowing the timeline would be incredibly helpful for our project planning. Thank you.

     

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  • Comment author
    Duncan from Memberstack

    Hey Jan Popovic 👋

    We don't have any immediate plans to build this feature. I would not delay your project waiting for us. I will update this thread if and when anything changes.

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  • Comment author
    Jan Popovic

    Thanks Duncan from Memberstack.

    Without this feature being natively available, Bard offered some alternative approaches. Do they all make sense to you? Given your expert knowledge, which option would you recommend, please?

    1. Coupon Codes:

    • Create unique coupon codes that apply discounts based on the number of seats chosen.
    • Distribute these codes to users who require different pricing.
    • This approach offers flexibility but requires manual code management.

    2. Multiple Plans with Price Tiers:

    • Create multiple plans within Memberstack, each representing a different seat quantity and price tier.
    • Users select the plan that matches their needs, effectively achieving dynamic pricing.
    • This is a simpler approach with less manual work but might be less flexible for fine-grained pricing adjustments.

    3. Custom JavaScript Calculation:

    • Integrate custom JavaScript code to dynamically calculate the price based on user input for the number of seats.
    • Update the displayed price in real-time on the pricing page.
    • This provides precise control over pricing but requires coding expertise.

    4. External Integrations:

    • Connect Memberstack with a third-party tool that specializes in dynamic pricing.
    • These tools offer advanced pricing logic and automation.
    • Popular options include Price Intelligently, Chargebee, and Chargify.
    • However, this approach involves additional setup and potential costs.

    5. Memberstack API and Custom Development:

    • Utilize Memberstack's API to create custom pricing logic and checkout processes.
    • This provides full control but requires significant development effort.

    Factors to Consider When Choosing a Solution:

    • Complexity of pricing model: Simpler models might be achievable with coupons or multiple plans, while more intricate logic might necessitate JavaScript or external tools.
    • Technical expertise: Custom JavaScript and API integrations require development skills.
    • Budget: External tools often have subscription fees.
    • Desired level of automation: External tools often offer advanced automation features.

    Recommendations:

    • For simpler pricing models: Explore coupons or multiple plans first due to their ease of implementation.
    • For more complex pricing or automation needs: Consider external integrations or custom development.
    • For full control and flexibility: Utilize the Memberstack API, but be prepared for development efforts.
    1
  • Comment author
    Duncan from Memberstack

    Creating multiple prices would likely be the most simple way to handle billing. How you manage those seats is a whole other story 🤔 It's something we are going to look into this week actually. We won't have a native solution, but we maybe able to get closer to a custom code solution.  

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