Membership Status (the foundation)

💡 sheepCRM has 4 true statuses and describe where members are in the membership journey:

👉 These are system-driven
👉 You don’t manually control them
👉 You respond to what they are telling you

The status is shown on the membership in the contact record.

Status Overview

Status	What It Means	What It Tells You	Where You’ll See It
Pending	Membership created but not fully completed (e.g. payment or required steps outstanding)	Activation not yet complete	Pending Members report
Active	Membership currently valid within its start and end dates	Has access to member benefits. Can still be unpaid (as payment is tracked separately).	Contact record / segments
Lapsed	Membership expired and no renewal was completed in time	Membership ended naturally	Members Leaving report
Cancelled	Membership intentionally ended before or at expiry	Active decision to stop membership	Membership record / Leaving reports

“Renewal Due” is not a status. It is a timing condition based on the renewal window.

👉 It tells you when a membership is approaching renewal
👉 It does not tell you what action is happening

Renewal Model	What Happens
Manual	Admin creates the renewal
Self-Service	Member completes their own renewal
Auto	System generates renewal automatically

Term	Definition	Why It Matters
Membership Plan	Configuration template (price, duration, renewal model, payment options)	Controls how membership behaves
Membership Record	A single period of membership linked to a contact	One contact can have multiple records over time
Membership Period	The defined start and end dates of that membership	Drives status and renewal timing
Renewal Model	Manual, self-service, or auto	Determines who initiates renewal
Status Behaviour	Automatic movement between statuses	Controlled by system logic

In sheepCRM, membership and payment are separate - but connected

👉 Membership = where someone is in their journey
👉 Payment = whether that journey is financially complete

Term	Refers To	Key Insight
Renewal	Creation of a new membership period	Renewal does not equal payment
Invoice Created	Request for payment	Does not activate membership on its own
Payment Collected	Stripe / GoCardless / manual payment	Updates financial status, i.e. paid / unpaid
Unpaid Membership	Active membership without full payment	Appears in Unpaid Active Members report

🔴 Active does NOT always mean paid
👉 This is normal
👉 This is expected
👉 This is where you take action

💡 Reports show you where to act

Report	Purpose
New Members	Memberships created in a period
Pending Members	Incomplete memberships needing attention
Unpaid Active Members	Active memberships without full payment
Members Leaving	Lapsed and cancelled memberships
Membership Summary	Overall growth and churn

👉 You are not managing records
👉 You are monitoring signals