This document outlines the settings and processes we have tested to ensure that your REALTOR® membership dues billing and NAR image fee increase runs smoothly. If you have questions about whether a particular setting or workflow is right for your association, use the provided notes section and contact our support team to discuss your questions. If you have successfully run billing in the past using different settings and processes, continue to do what works best for you.
Table of Contents
Terminology Glossary:
NAR Image Fee = Special Assessment for the Consumer Advertising Campaign.
Increasing from $35 to $45 for 2023
Broker = Designated REALTOR®
Association dues/membership = local, state, national, RPAC, and image fee that
allows an agent to be a REALTOR®
In-App Training:
Click the “Need Help?” tab on the right side of any GrowthZone screen to open our new Resource Center. In there, you’ll find interactive guides and training to help you configure the system as suggested below. Look for sections of this document marked with , indicating there is an in-app guide to walk you through those steps in more detail.
1. System Setup
1.1 - Finance General Settings
Setup> Finance, General Settings
These settings enable and disable different features in the system. Since these dues are typically billed once a year, these suggestions favor giving your team control over your billing instead of automating the process.
Ensure you have a Logo for Invoices and Statements
The logo indicated on the Finance General settings is used in the < logo > merge field on your invoice and statement templates. If you need precise placement and sizing, insert your logo directly onto your invoice template(s) in Setup - Document Generation. Note: In this case, you would need to remove the < logo > merge field from your template.
Disable Automated Billing
Automated Billing is useful if you frequently bill your members for a small set of items. As a real estate association, we know that you have a variety of dues and fees billed on a number of different schedules. Automated Billing can make your processes more complicated by requiring you to constantly monitor when your members will receive invoices. When enabled, this feature hides advanced controls to set the invoice date and due date of your dues invoices.
Set Lead Time Days to Greater Than Zero
This field restricts access to the Invoice Before Autopayment feature when it is set to 0. The exact value of this field only matters if you are using automated billing. Since we’re not using that, you can set this to 15 which is a reasonable default value if you choose to use automated billing in the future.
Enable Invoice Before Autopayment
With Invoice Before Autopayment enabled, invoices indicating that the invoice will be paid by payment profile (on a specific date) will be generated when running your upcoming billing. You can set the date that these automatic charges will happen when generating your membership dues invoices.
Disable Auto-Apply Credits to Newly Created Invoices
This should be disabled while creating your REALTOR® dues invoices. If your members have paid for MLS fees in advance, the system will automatically apply those credits to their membership dues invoice. This will partially pay or even close their membership dues invoice and result in two potential issues: a partial payment in NAR eCommerce and a transfer of funds between your MLS and association financial entities. If this feature is valuable for your MLS invoices, you can re-enable after you have delivered your invoices and processed your automatic payments.
Enable the New My Billing Info
We encourage you to enable the Use the new My Billing Info tab (if you haven’t already). When enabled, your members will see a “My Billing Info” section in their Info Hub left-hand navigation. This makes it easier for members to view their open invoices, make payments, and download receipts.
1.2 - Fee Item Settings
Setup> Services, Products and Commerce, Fee Items
Check the following settings for each fee item used for your association dues. This will include NAR Dues, State Dues, Local Dues, NAR Image Fee, RPAC, etc.
Review NAR eCommerce Splits
Confirm that money received for this item will be sent to the correct association and Bank ID. For more information on this, visit our Knowledge Base.
Ensure your NRDS Financial Record Sync Mapping is Correct
Make sure that the correct NAR-defined short code (NATL, STAT, IMAG, RPAC, LOCL) is set . For more information on this, visit our Knowledge Base.
NEW FEATURE: Prompt messaging when someone chooses to deselect a voluntary fee.
If someone deselects a voluntary payment (such as RPAC) when checking out or setting up autopay, you now have the option to include a confirmation window with a customizable message. This gives your association an ability to share the value of these contributions in the moment and remind them how important this contribution is.
To enable this, go to Setup> Fee Items. For those fees marked as voluntary, you’ll see the Require Confirmation checkbox. Once enabled you can customize your message. View this article for more details
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