A payment plan for a member who is behind
How a gym agrees a written payment plan with a member in arrears, records each instalment, and keeps reminders and statements honest until it ends.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Fitness businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Every gym has them: the loyal regular who lost a job, the member whose business had a bad quarter, the student whose allowance ran out mid-term. Three months of fees are unpaid, the member still wants to train, and nobody at the desk wants an argument at the turnstile.
A payment plan can keep the member and recover the money, but only if it is written down, recorded properly and watched. A plan that lives in a receptionist's memory tends to end with the arrears forgotten, or with a member who believes they agreed to something different. Here is how to run one cleanly in Achekam.
Put the agreement in writing first
Before any money changes hands, agree the terms and put them on paper. A short agreement should say:
- The arrears: which invoices are behind, by number and month.
- The instalments: how much, on which dates, and how they will be paid.
- Current fees: whether the member keeps paying each new month's fee on time while the plan runs. Insist on it, or the arrears simply grow.
- Missed instalments: what happens if one is missed, such as the plan ending and the full balance falling due.
- Reminders: that the member may keep receiving automated reminders and statements while the plan runs (more on this below).
Achekam can send any document for electronic signature, with signature and initials fields placed on it, an expiry and reminders. The signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents, where they sit beside the member's other paperwork. An envelope with a signer from outside the business must be linked to a client or a CRM lead before it is sent, so make sure the member exists as a customer first. For gyms in Nigeria and Kenya, note that the completion certificate always describes the signatures under South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, whatever the workspace's country.
Recording each instalment
When an instalment arrives, record it as a customer payment. Achekam lets you record a payment against one invoice or spread it across a customer's invoices, and a part payment leaves the invoice part-paid. If the member pays more than is due, the extra is held on their account rather than lost.
Decide one rule and stick to it. The simplest is oldest invoice first: each instalment pays down the oldest unpaid month before touching the next. That keeps the story easy to explain ("July is now cleared, August is half paid") and keeps the ageing honest.
A worked example in words: a member owes three months. The plan says one instalment each fortnight plus the current month's fee on time. The first instalment is recorded against the oldest invoice and leaves it part-paid. The second clears it and starts on the next month. Meanwhile the current month's invoice is paid by its own pay link and is never mixed into the arrears.
If an instalment is recorded against the wrong invoice, a receipt can be re-allocated. Administrators can refund or reverse a receipt if it was recorded in error.
What credit control keeps doing
Credit control is on for new workspaces. Once a day it e-mails overdue reminders, by default at 7, 14 and 30 days overdue with the invoice PDF attached, and once a month it sends a statement to every customer with a balance. It never charges anyone, and it records whether each e-mail went out.
Credit control works from the overdue invoices themselves. A member on a plan still has overdue invoices until the plan clears them, so unless you change how credit control runs for your gym, expect the reminders and the monthly statement to keep arriving. That is why the agreement should mention them. Members take an automated reminder far better when they were told it would come.
Two points help members pay on time:
- Reminder e-mails carry no pay link. Achekam never charges a member automatically, with no saved cards or debit orders, and its reminders do not include a link. For each instalment, send a pay link from the relevant invoice.
- Pay links expire. A link lasts 14 days by default, and there is no link for a draft or voided invoice. If an instalment date falls after the link lapses, create a new one.
Statements that show progress
A statement of account is produced as a PDF that can be e-mailed, and the screen says whether it was sent. For a member on a plan, a statement after each instalment is the clearest proof of progress: it shows what was paid and what remains.
Inside the gym, the receivables ageing shows how long each balance has been outstanding, in 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 day groups. Watch the member's oldest amount move into a younger group, or disappear, as the plan works.
When to end the plan
A plan ends in one of three ways.
- It is completed. Every arrears invoice is paid. Send a final statement showing the account up to date, and file it with the signed agreement.
- It is broken. An instalment is missed and not made good. Follow what the agreement says: usually a conversation first, then the full balance falls due.
- It is abandoned. The member leaves and the balance will not be recovered. An unpaid debt can be written off once a partner approves, so this decision sits with the owners, not the front desk.
Before you agree a plan at all, it helps to have a policy for members who want to leave mid-contract; see early cancellation fees. And if a member's instalment ends up on the wrong month, sorting out overpayments and wrong months shows how to put it right.
For a general view of chasing unpaid accounts, ICAEW's helpsheet on chasing debtors walks through checking your own processes, chasing informally first and then choosing next steps, with UK examples.
A good payment plan is boring: agreed once, recorded the same way every time, and visible on every statement. Write it down, record instalments oldest first, and tell the member exactly what e-mails to expect.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
