Members are more likely to renew quickly and successfully if memberships are automatically renewed and billed before the end of the current membership term. If membership auto-renewal is enabled, the renewal process is automatically initiated before current memberships expire to maintain uninterrupted member access and a continuous membership history. Email notices containing links to pay membership bills can be scheduled to go out automatically to make membership renewal as convenient and streamlined as possible for the organization and its members.

Auto-renewal is set on a per-membership-type basis and is highly configurable. It can be set to renew memberships as they expire or a specified amount of time prior to expiration. Memberships can be auto-renewed with the current membership type, or can be configured to be renewed with a different membership type if your organization offers introductory memberships or is phasing out one membership type in favor of another. If auto-renewal is enabled, the Organization Admin can disable auto-renewal for members as needed. An additional opt-out can be enabled to allow membership applicants to opt-out of auto-renewal.

Auto-renewal merely initiates the renewal process. Otherwise the membership follows the normal membership type workflow, including any billing and moderation steps. If the membership is billed, a bill is issued but the member's credit card is NOT automatically charged. If the membership is moderated, it is sent to the moderation queue. If there are no billing or moderation steps, auto-renewed memberships are approved immediately. If the member would prefer to renew at a different level, the new membership can be deleted or replaced by an administrator.

Rules that govern the membership renewal workflow are primarily configured in the membership type, including those that specifically apply to auto-renewals. If the membership type is billed, there are options in the Configure Global Membership Applications tool that are used to set high-level rules that apply to all billed memberships. Depending on how a certain option is set, the membership may become current regardless of whether the bill is paid or not. There is also the option to specify the order of the billing and moderation steps, which applies only if your membership types are both billed and moderated.

The Organization Admin can always disable auto-renewal for a member by setting an option in Edit a Company Membership or Edit an Individual Membership. The Auto-Renewal Opt-Out option is available in the same area as the Renewal Intentions and Renewal Comments options. If the member expresses an intention not to renew, the administrator can set both the Renewal Intention and Opt-Out options so that the membership isn't auto-renewed. The administrator can add a note to the Renewal Comments box if further explanation is needed.

If member opt-out is enabled, membership applicants can set this option on the membership application form, but if an administrator later sets the opt-out option to a different value, the option set by the administrator overrides the option set by the member.