An important aspect of setting up Member Management for your Higher Logic Thrive Community (Thrive Community) is configuring the payment provider. Having a payment provider simplifies the membership-payment process for you and your users.
IMPORTANT: Currently, the only available payment provider is Stripe. To configure Stripe as your payment provider, you must have a Stripe account.
This article steps through how to set up a payment provider that will process your users' Individual Membership and Group Membership purchases.
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Access the Membership Payment page
- In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.
- Navigate to Membership > Membership Payment.
The Payment Services Setup page has several sections in which you set up and test the payment system for your community site.
Configure the payment provider
NOTE: Currently, the only available payment provider is Stripe; others might be added in the future.
- Accept the default currency option, USD (U.S. dollars), or...
click Edit to set a different currency as the default for payments.
- Note that all currency selections have a minimum-charge amount and any charges less than that minimum amount automatically update to being free/no charge.
- You can change the default currency (e.g., GBD to EUR) in future; the change affects only transactions that occur after the change is made - existing payments are not affected.
NOTE: Stripe will automatically detect a user's currency based on their location and/or card information.
- Click Edit to open a dialog in which you select and configure the payment provider that will process your community site's membership payments. Currently, Stripe is the only option.
After you select a provider, the dialog expands and displays information about the payment process and an input field for the provider's API Secret.
- Review the information, input the API Secret, and click Save.
- Submit a test payment from a credit card of your choosing to the Stripe account to verify that the setup is properly configured.
- Click Randomize Amount to generate a random amount to charge. The test payment will be between $1.00 and $2.00 for the default, USD, and for similar amounts for other currencies.
- Click Test to open the provider's checkout page in a new tab with the indicated payment amount. Specify the credit card details and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the test transaction.
NOTE: The test will charge the test amount to the credit card.
Automatic tax collection in Stripe
IMPORTANT: The Automatic Tax Collection feature and the information in this section are unique to customers in the United States.
This is an optional feature that you enable and set up in your linked Stripe account so that, when a user buys or renews a membership, your Stripe account automatically:
- calculates the appropriate amount of sales tax, per user, based on the user's location and
- includes that tax amount during the checkout process.
Set up tax collection in Stripe
In order to use this feature, you have to set it up and enable it in your Stripe account.
- To set up and enable this feature, see Set up Stripe Tax.
After you have worked in Stripe, return here to learn how the changes will impact your members' Thrive Community experience regarding invoices and membership auto-renewal.
Membership Plans, History, and Auto-Renewal
When this feature is enabled, these aspects of your Thrive Community will reflect the changes.
- Membership Plans
- My Membership History
- Auto-Renewal
These pages display the cost of the membership and will now include additional text, such as + applicable tax. This indicates that tax is distinct from, and will be added to, the membership price.
NOTE: The text is intentionally generic and the amount of tax is not displayed here because it is calculated in Stripe, and is based on where the member lives.
Membership Invoices
When this feature is enabled, the amount of tax paid will be included as a separate line item on paid invoices.
Additionally:
- The invoice title can be customized (e.g., Tax Invoice)
- You can include your Tax ID number in the customizable Pay To field or either of the Notes sections in the invoice set up
- To learn more, see Member Management - Customize your Invoice.
Related articles
- See Member Management - Membership Types to learn how to create and manage Membership Types in your community.
- Member Management - Discount Codes describes how your organization can offer membership discounts.
- To learn about the various aspects of membership renewal (reminder banners, email messages, and the Auto-Renewal feature), see Member Management - Membership Renewals.