Some facilities sponsor players, instructors, influencers, or staff with a complimentary membership while still wanting the membership to renew automatically and behave like a normal paid plan.
A common mistake is setting the Next Billing Date far into the future to avoid charging the customer. While this prevents billing, it also prevents the membership from renewing normally — which can interfere with credits, expiry, and ongoing automation.
Recommended Setup
For sponsored or complimentary members, the cleanest approach is:
Temporarily change the membership plan price to $0
Set the member’s Next Billing Date back to the normal renewal schedule (for example, tomorrow if it renews weekly)
Let Birrdi continue handling renewals automatically
This allows the membership to behave exactly like a standard paid membership:
Credits renew normally
Expiry and renewal logic continue working
Membership status remains active automatically
Square records the renewal as a $0 charge
Example Use Cases
This setup works well for:
Sponsored players
Influencers
Staff memberships
Instructor accounts
Temporary promotional memberships
Complimentary VIP access
Ending the Sponsored Period
Once the complimentary period ends, you can:
Restore the original price on the membership plan, or
Move the customer to a standard paid membership plan
After that, future renewals will process normally again.
Important Note
Avoid pushing the Next Billing Date far into the future unless you intentionally want to pause the membership lifecycle entirely. Doing this can stop normal renewals and affect how credits and membership automation behave.