Open Your Business is the biggest step in your onboarding checklist. It covers creating a membership type, connecting payments, and deciding how members pay. Give yourself a few minutes for this one.
Important: You need at least one group created (see Sort Your Groups) before you can allocate a membership to it.
Step 1: Create a membership type
Tap Begin on the Open Your Business card.
Enter a name for the membership, for example "Senior Men's Membership."
Choose who it's for:
If your club requires admin approval to join, pick specific groups or sections from the list. Selecting a section selects every group nested inside it.
If your club is open for anyone to join, PLAI automatically assigns the membership to all members, since there is no group to allocate to yet at that point.
Choose Free or Paid.
Free memberships need no further payment setup. Paid memberships move you into Stripe activation next.
Note: You can create more than one membership type during onboarding. Repeat this flow for each one, for example a paid membership for players and a free membership for committee members.
Step 2: Activate Stripe (paid memberships only)
On the "Activate Your Payment Method" screen, review the processing fee shown for your region (for example, 4.4% + 50p in the UK).
Tap Activate Stripe. You are taken to Stripe's own onboarding flow to add business details, a bank account, and identity verification.
Once done, you are returned to PLAI with confirmation that your payment method is active, along with an example of your net payout after fees.
If Stripe is already active on your club from a previous membership, this screen is skipped entirely.
Important: Paid memberships cannot go live without an active Stripe connection. If you back out of Stripe Connect partway through, you will be shown the activation screen again with a retry option.
Step 3: Choose how members pay
Pick one of three modes:
Pay Upfront – a single one-time charge at registration. Enter the fee amount, and PLAI shows the processing fee deduction and your net payout.
Pay by Subscription – recurring billing at an interval (weekly, monthly, quarterly, 6-monthly, or annually). Available intervals are calculated from your season length, so a very short season only offers intervals that fit inside it. Rolling clubs get ongoing intervals with no end.
Let Member Decide – members choose between Upfront and Subscription at registration. You configure both options in full before this can be saved.
Step 4: Joining fee and free trial
After choosing a payment mode, you'll be asked:
Whether to add a one-time joining fee, charged on top of the first payment regardless of payment mode. If yes, enter an amount.
Whether to add a free trial period. If yes, enter the number of days. During the trial your member's status shows "On Trial"; once it ends, the membership fee becomes due and their status shows "Overdue" if unpaid.
Note: Discount codes never apply to the joining fee, only to the underlying membership fee.
Step 5: Review and confirm
Before anything is saved, a summary screen shows every setting you've configured: membership name, group allocation, payment mode, fee amounts, joining fee, and free trial. Each has its own edit icon if you need to fix something.
Tap Confirm to save the membership. You can then add another membership type, or mark the Open Your Business step complete.
FAQ
Can I set a fee of £0 for a paid membership?
No. A £0 fee makes it a free membership by definition. Paid memberships must have a fee greater than zero.
What if my free trial is longer than my season?
PLAI will warn you: "The free trial period is longer than your season. Members may not be charged before the season ends." You can still proceed, it is a soft warning, not a hard block.
How is the net payout calculated?
Net payout is the fee amount minus the processing fee (4.4% plus 50p per transaction). This is shown as an estimate wherever you enter a fee amount.