Clinic Membership lets your clinic set one clear rule for unused membership treatments: in membership settings, you choose how long after a membership year any unused treatments lapse. That is the whole of the setting, and it is enough to stop reception deciding member by member.
Most owners know the pattern. A membership year ends. A few treatments sit unused. The member asks at the desk what happens next. Reception looks for a note, asks a colleague, or improvises something that feels fair for this person. The next week another member asks the same question, and the answer drifts.
Nobody meant to be inconsistent. Without one rule written down, every unused treatment becomes a small negotiation. That is tiring for the desk and unclear for the member.
How the lapse setting works in Clinic Membership
In membership settings, clinics set how long after a membership year any unused treatments lapse. You choose the period once for that membership. The setting is the rule. When the period you set has passed after the membership year, unused treatments lapse.
That is all the setting does. It does not invent a period for you. It does not decide money outcomes. It does not carry unused visits forward. It holds the length of time you chose, after the membership year, before unused treatments lapse.
Put the rule in membership settings and your team has something firm to point to. The member hears the same answer every time, because the answer lives in the setting, not in whoever is on the desk that day.
Why one rule matters for unused treatments in Clinic Membership
Case-by-case answers feel kind in the moment. Over a year they become a patchwork.
One member is told unused visits stay for a while. Another is told they go at the year end. A third is told "we'll see". Reception means well each time, but the clinic no longer has a single story. Members compare notes. The desk starts every conversation from scratch.
A lapse setting reverses that. You decide, in membership settings, how long after a membership year any unused treatments lapse. Reception can say what the clinic has set. The conversation shortens. The rule is the same for everyone on that membership.
It also protects the people at the front desk. They are not asked to invent policy under pressure. They are asked to explain a setting that already exists.
Owners often put off writing the rule down because the conversation feels awkward. Leaving it unset is more awkward still. Once the lapse setting is filled in, the awkward part is done, and every later conversation inherits the same answer.
Used, booked and left on the patient card in Clinic Membership
Alongside the lapse setting, your team needs a clear view of where each member stands during the year. On the patient card, Clinic Membership shows used, booked and left. That breakdown is covered in the Help Centre article on used, booked and left on the patient card.
Used is what has already been taken. Booked is what is already in the diary. Left is what remains. When a member asks how many treatments they still have, reception can look at the card rather than reconstructing the year from memory or paper notes.
That view sits next to the lapse setting in day-to-day work. The card tells you what is left now. The lapse setting tells you how long after a membership year any unused treatments lapse. Together they give the desk a clean answer without inventing one.
What reception notices with Clinic Membership
Day to day, the shift is mostly what stops happening.
- Fewer one-off decisions. The lapse period is set in membership settings, so the desk is not inventing a new answer each time.
- Shorter conversations. Members hear the clinic's rule, not a personal exception made on the spot.
- Clearer handovers. When someone new is on reception, the setting is still the setting.
- Less second-guessing. Used, booked and left on the patient card show where the member stands before the year ends.
None of this replaces your team's welcome or their judgement. It takes one recurring argument off the desk and puts a single rule in its place.
If unused treatments are part of a wider pattern, it is worth reading membership reports with care. Our post on how to read Clinic Membership reports for churn warning signs walks through that side of the picture.
First steps with the lapse setting in Clinic Membership
You do not need a long project to put this in place. A sensible first pass looks like this:
- Open membership settings and find the lapse setting for the membership you want to tidy.
- Set how long after a membership year any unused treatments lapse, as the rule your clinic wants to hold.
- Tell reception the rule in one sentence, so they can explain it the same way every time.
- Show the team used, booked and left on the patient card, so they can answer "how many do I have left?" from the card.
- Stop negotiating member by member. Once the setting is live, the desk points to it.
After that, the setting looks after the rule. Reception looks after the welcome.
One rule, set once, in Clinic Membership
Unused treatments at the end of a membership year do not have to become a debate. In membership settings, clinics set how long after a membership year any unused treatments lapse. That is the lapse setting. Used, booked and left on the patient card keep the running picture clear during the year.
Clinic Membership brings your patients, calendar, memberships and payments together in one place, so membership rules and the patient card stay in step. Free covers up to 10 patient records. See pricing for paid plans.
