Think of Member Splash as your organization's digital hub. It handles memberships, payments, communications, and the data you need to run your club or HOA smoothly.
The Big Picture
Member Splash is built on WordPress, which means it's flexible and can grow with your needs. But unlike a regular website, we've customized it specifically for membership organizations like yours. Everything connects together: your member database, payment processing, forms, and communications all work as one system.
The Member Journey, Step by Step
1. Initial Account Creation & Registration
When a family visits your site and fills out the initial registration form, the system immediately creates an account and assigns them a unique Account ID. This Account ID is their permanent identifier and stays with them throughout their entire relationship with your organization.
What happens next depends on your club's capacity:
If you have a waitlist: New accounts are assigned the WAITLIST account type. They're in your system, you can communicate with them, and they can see their waitlist position, but they can't purchase a full membership yet. When a spot opens, you change their account type and they can move forward.
If you don't have a waitlist: New accounts are typically offered membership right away. They select the membership level that fits them (individual, family, senior, or whatever categories your organization offers) and proceed to payment.
2. Member Dashboard & Self-Service
Once accounts are created, members get their own dashboard where they can:
Update their contact information and complete required information
Add household members and upload the photos used at check-in
See their account type and payment status
Go to the Payments tab to see what they owe and pay
For waitlist accounts, they'll see their waitlist position. For active members, they'll see their full membership details.
This self-service dramatically reduces the "what's my balance?" and "did my payment go through?" calls you'd otherwise get.
3. How Billing Works
If you're used to accounting software, you might expect to start by creating invoices. Member Splash works differently:
You set up products. Dues, fees and assessments are products, each with a fee type and price. Show/Hide/Require rules control which account types see each product. Products set to Require are automatically included, so members can't opt out.
Members log in and pay. On the Payments tab, members see the products that apply to them, itemized with one total.
Invoices are only for charges billed to an account. Charges placed "on account," like snack bar purchases at the Point of Sale, are collected by sending an invoice. Dues aren't invoiced.
See How Billing Works in Member Splash: Payments vs. Invoices for details.
4. Payment Processing
Payments run through our payment processing partner, using a merchant account set up for your club. When members pay dues, fees, or other charges:
They pay by credit card or ACH (bank transfer) directly through your site
Payments are processed securely. Member Splash never stores full credit card numbers
Each payment is recorded on their account with a full payment history
When the product with the Membership Fee fee type is paid, the account is automatically marked Paid. Only Membership Fee products control Paid status, so set this fee type on your dues product
You get real-time reporting on who has paid and who hasn't
Installments: You can let members split membership, initiation, or equity fees into scheduled card payments. See Installments Overview.
💡Getting ready for a new season? Review the New Season Checklist for every step to prepare.
5. Returning Member Renewals
Returning members don't need to reapply every year. Their account already exists with their unique Account ID, so renewal is simple.
How renewals work: The assumption is that members keep the same membership level the following year. When it's time to renew, a club admin sends an email to the community letting everyone know it's time to log in and pay dues for the upcoming year.
Members simply:
Log into their existing account
Review their information and update anything that's changed
Go to the Payments tab
Pay their membership dues
Pricing flexibility for renewals: Admins control renewal pricing through product setup. You can:
Offer early bird discounts for members who renew by a certain date
Add late fees for members who renew after a deadline
Adjust pricing for the new season as needed
Members aren't filling out lengthy applications again. They're just logging in and paying, which increases renewal completion and reduces work for your team.
6. Administrative Backend
Staff and volunteers get their own admin logins to the Dashboard, where they can:
View and edit all account records (waitlist and active members)
See account types and payment statuses at a glance
Manage the waitlist and convert waitlist accounts to members
Run reports on membership, payments and attendance
Send bulk emails to specific account types or payment statuses (like renewal reminders)
Set up products, pricing, early bird discounts and late fees
Record offline payments when needed
Create or update registration forms
The system keeps a record of changes, payments and member activity, so you can easily see who's on the waitlist, who's active and paid, who's renewed, and everyone in between.
7. Check-In
Member Splash includes photo-based check-in for your facility:
Staff open the check-in screen, usually on a tablet or computer at the entrance
They search by name or Account ID
Member photos appear on screen so staff can confirm identity and check members in with one click
Staff can see right away if an account isn't in good standing
Guest visits can be tracked to help enforce your guest policies
Every check-in is logged with a date and time, so you can see attendance trends and peak times in your reports.
Other Tools
Depending on your plan, Member Splash also includes:
Point of Sale for snack bar and pro shop sales
Communications for emailing members