Memberships & getting paid

For trainers

On the Pricing page you build either a recurring membership (a set number of sessions each week, every 4 weeks, or each month) or a one-off session pack (a block of sessions, often discounted, that never expires and is ticked off as used), then assign a client to one.
How you count the allowance is a separate choice from how often you bill, so you can sell what you actually sell. Per month (or week) gives exactly that number of credits every period, and unused ones roll over or reset as you choose. Per week is a limit rather than a pot: “up to 3 a week”, checked against the calendar week when a session is booked. Nothing accrues, nothing banks up and nothing runs out, so a longer month simply has more weeks in it — and a client is never wrongly flagged as over their allowance. No limit is the same idea with no number at all.
Billing every 4 weeks suits a client who trains a fixed number of times a week: “three a week” is exactly twelve sessions every period, whereas a calendar month is sometimes twelve and sometimes fourteen. Thirteen charges a year rather than twelve, so set the price accordingly; Direct Debit collects on the same 4-week rhythm.
For a recurring membership you choose whether unused sessions roll over or reset each period — sessions you owe a client (your time off) or add manually are always kept. (There’s nothing to roll over on a “no limit” plan, so the option doesn’t appear.)
Each booking debits a session credit, visible to you and the client. Direct Debit and standing-order members can’t book beyond their paid sessions; cash and bank-transfer clients can run an owed balance you settle with “Mark paid”.
“Mark paid” asks for the date the money arrived, prefilled with today. The next period runs from that date, so recording a late payment on the 12th doesn’t drag a client’s billing day to the 12th — enter the 1st and their renewal stays on the 1st. If they owed you sessions, the new allowance nets those off first (owe 2, add 8, they’re on 6). You can’t enter a future date, and the date shows in the client’s own credit history.
You can cap how far a cash or bank-transfer client may go into the red in Settings → Payments (default 2 unpaid sessions, or set “No limit”). Once they’d owe more than that, their booking pauses until you mark them paid.
When a session doesn’t happen it comes back as a make-up: you cancelling, you being on holiday, or a client cancelling with enough notice all create one automatically. A late cancellation doesn’t — your notice policy already decides that. Set how long they have to use it in Settings → Payments (60 days by default, or never). Make-ups are on top of any weekly limit, so a week off can genuinely be made up; they survive a paused membership and end with a cancelled one; and the client sees how many they have and when the first expires.
Booking time off deals with sessions already in your diary. It asks first, then cancels them, gives each client their session back as a make-up, and tells them. (It used to only stop new bookings from being offered, which left existing ones quietly in place.)
Take payment by Direct Debit (connect GoCardless in Settings → Payments — clients authorise it themselves), or track cash, bank transfer and standing order by marking paid; card is coming. Money always goes directly from your client to your own bank — never through TrainerBook.