Arketa

Future start dates

Sell a membership that starts billing on a specific future date.

Future start dates let you sell a membership now but delay when billing (and access) begins. This is useful when a client signs up in advance, when you're launching a program on a specific date, or when you want to align all memberships to the same billing date.

Set a future start date on a pricing option

When creating or editing a membership:

  1. Go to Setup → Pricing Options
  2. Add or edit the membership
  3. Under Billing Options → When will clients first be billed
  4. Select Specific date and choose a date in the future

All clients who purchase this option will start billing on that date.

Sell a future-start membership to a specific client

If you want to offer a future start date to just one client (not everyone):

  1. Duplicate the pricing option you want to sell
  2. Set the future start date on the duplicate
  3. Mark the duplicate as Hidden (so it's not publicly visible)
  4. Purchase it for the client from the Point of Sale, or share the direct link

This way, the original option stays public with its normal billing, and the future-start version is only sold to that specific client.

Use cases

  • New year launch — sell memberships in December that start billing January 1st
  • Program cohort — all members of a 6-week program start on the same date
  • Aligned billing — set all new memberships to bill on the 1st of the next month
  • Pre-sale — take deposits or pre-purchases for a studio that's not open yet