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: 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 to process your users' Individual Membership and Group Membership purchases.

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Access the Settings page

NOTE: This page was formerly titled Payment Services Setup and was accessed via Membership > Membership Payment. The page and the navigation item have been renamed Settings.

In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

Navigate to Membership > Settings.

The Settings page has several sections in which you:

configure and test the payment system for your community site (refer to Configure the payment provider, below);
edit and preview your invoice (see Member Management - Customize your Invoice); and
enable membership-renewal banners and add membership-options text (see Member Management - Membership Renewals).

Payment section

The Payment section displays differently depending on whether a payment provider has already been set up in your Thrive Community account.

Existing provider

If a payment provider (currently, only Stripe) has been set up in your Thrive Community account, the section displays as shown below.

You can:

Manage the default currency; refer to Set a currency, below.
View and copy the API Secret and/or the Webhook Secret.
Run a payment test; refer to Payment test, below.
Enable/disable the tax-collection option; refer to Collect taxes, below.
Enable/disable "direct debit" as a membership-payment option; refer to ACH Direct Debit, below.

Set up a provider

If a payment provider (i.e., Stripe) has not been set up, the page displays:

Here, you can:

Accept the default currency option, USD (U.S. dollars) or click Configure to set a currency, other than the default, for membership payments in your account. Refer to Set a currency, below, for information on how this settings works.
Click Set up Stripe to complete the payment-provider set up as described in Configure the payment provider, below.

Configure the payment provider

This section describes how to set up a payment provider (i.e., Stripe) in your Thrive Community account.

Set a currency

You can either:

accept the default currency, or
click Configure to set a different currency to be used for your Thrive Community account transactions.

All currency selections have a minimum-charge amount; 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; previous payments are not affected.

API Secret

Click Set up Stripe.
Review the information, input the API Secret, and click Save.

Payment test

Click set up a test payment 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 the Test button to open the Stripe checkout page in a new tab with the indicated payment amount. Specify the payment method details and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the test transaction.

NOTE: The test will charge the test amount to the specified payment method.

Collect taxes

Check the Calculate tax automatically via Stripe box to have Stripe automatically:

calculate the correct amount of tax and
add it to the invoice amount.

NOTE: If this option is selected, members will be required to include their address when purchasing a membership so that the correct amount of tax can be calculated.

TIP: Refer to the Automatic tax collection section for important set-up and use information about this feature.

ACH Direct Debit

IMPORTANT: In order to use ACH Direct Debit as a payment method, it must also be enabled in the linked Stripe account. Click the link below and, after logging in to Stripe, you'll be taken directly to the Payment Methods page where you can enable it.

https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/payment_methods

Check the Offer ACH Direct Debit as a payment method via Stripe box to include "direct debit" as a payment option to your members.

If you check this box, a confirmation will display when you click Save; click Confirm.

This payment method requires a grace period for all membership types in order to ensure that pending payments are processed.

The minimum duration of the required grace period is 14 days.
Membership Types that currently have a shorter grace period will be automatically updated to this minimum.

NOTE: Members who pay via direct debit through Stripe must:
- accept terms that authorize debit payments and
- verify their ownership of the account through either instant verification or micro-deposits.

Disable Direct Debit payments

You can disable this setting by returning to this page and unchecking the box.

IMPORTANT: If you disable ACH Direct Debit as a payment method, you must also disable it in the linked Stripe account. Click the link below and, after logging in to Stripe, you'll be taken directly to the Payment Methods page where you can disable it.

https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/payment_methods

WARNING: Disabling this payment method will cancel all Auto-Renewal membership payments that are set up to be paid via direct debit through Stripe. You can choose to automatically notify the affected members of this.

When you click Save, a message displays with the following information.

The number of members who have direct debit as their auto-renewal payment method, and who will now have to set up an alternative payment method.
It can take up to 24 hours for this change to take affect across your Thrive Community site.
Payments that are currently being processed will not be affected by this change.
You can choose to automatically notify affected members via an auto-email message (click Confirm & notify members) as shown in the image below.

Automatic tax collection

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 (and itemizes it on the member's invoice).

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.

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.

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.

Member Management - Set Up Your Payment Provider