Pausing a membership stops a member’s plan and billing for a set period while keeping their profile and history in Cobot. For example, a member who travels for 3 months each summer can pause their membership while they’re away and pick it back up when they return.
Your Cobot subscription fees are based on your number of active members. Members on a plan with a price of $0 who aren’t part of a team aren’t included in that number, so a paused member doesn’t add to what you pay for Cobot.
Which Method to Use
Cobot offers 2 ways to pause a membership.
Canceling the membership and undoing the cancellation later. This works best when the member returns on the same plan. It’s quick to set up and you reactivate the member yourself when they come back.
Moving the member to a Paused Membership plan. This works best when the member returns on a different plan. You schedule the plan change in advance, and on the date you choose, Cobot switches the member to their new plan and starts invoicing them for it. There’s no follow-up needed on your end.
The Paused Membership plan method works only for individual members who are not part of a team.
Cancel the Membership and Undo the Cancellation Later
This works as a 'pause' function. Go to the member’s profile » Membership » Cancel Membership.
Choose the date you wish the membership to be canceled (the earliest cancellation date is the next day) » Check the delete bookings box if applicable » Cancel Membership.
Undo Cancellation
To reactivate their membership on their original plan, simply go to Membership » Undo Cancellation.
Move the Member to a Paused Membership Plan
Start by creating a plan for paused members if you don’t have one yet by going to Products » Membership Plans, add a new plan named “Paused Membership” (or something similar) with a price of 0. You only need to create this plan once and can reuse it for any member you pause.
Tick the Hidden checkbox so it doesn’t appear publicly.
After the plan is set up, go to the member’s profile under Manage » Members » Click on the member name » Plan » Change plan.
Select the new 'Paused Membership' Plan » Choose the date you want the membership to be paused on » Change Plan.
Scheduling the Members Return/Unpausing the Membership
If the member already knows their return date, you can schedule it in advance and Cobot moves them back onto a paid plan automatically.
Cobot allows only 1 scheduled plan change at a time, so wait until the Paused Membership plan takes effect before you schedule their return. Then go to Manage » Members » member name » Plan » Change plan, select the plan they’re returning to, and choose their return date.
On that date, Cobot moves the member to the new plan and sends the first invoice for it.
IMPORTANT NOTES
Changing a member’s plan doesn’t refund or credit fees they already paid for their current plan. If you pause them partway through a billing period and want to reimburse them, do this manually by issuing them a credit. Click here to learn how to do this. Or here to learn how to issue a refund.