Recurring payments at a gym with RoninBox

Recurring payments at a gym work on a simple idea: each member has a monthly fee per period, and you decide how periods are counted and how each member pays. RoninBox generates the monthly fees on its own, tells you who owes and blocks bookings for anyone who doesn’t pay after a few grace days. This guide explains the options so you can choose before opening your gym.

The core piece: the monthly fee

A monthly fee is a member’s billing period. It brings together their plan, extensions and payments received, with a start and end date. RoninBox creates it automatically for every member with a plan, and it determines the classes the member can book. See Monthly fees.

First decision: how periods are counted

This is a gym-wide setting, in Gym settings ▸ Payment settings. The option names are misleading:

	Monthly	Calendar month
What it is	The calendar month	A 28-day period from each member’s start date
Dates	From the 1st to the last day of the month, the same for everyone	Each member has their own cycle
When it fits	You charge everyone on the same day	Each member pays from their sign-up date
Edit a period’s dates	No	Yes

With “Monthly”, if you charge everyone on the 1st, your payment calendar follows the month. With “Natural Month”, a member who starts on October 5 has a first period from October 5 to November 2, and the next one starts on November 3. Details and examples in Monthly fee type.

The Monthly Fee Type field, in Billing settings.

Caution

Choose it when you open your gym. Monthly fees already created keep their dates, and a gym with both kinds of periods mixed together is hard to read and to bill.

Second decision: how each member pays

Each member has a saved payment method:

• Cash. They pay at the gym and staff record the payment.
• POS. They pay by card at the gym’s terminal. Staff also record it.
• Online payment (checkout). They pay each month with a secure Stripe payment link (card, MB Way, Bizum or other available methods) and get a reminder to complete each renewal.
• Recurring card payment. Automatic charge to their saved card: the period is paid on its own.

The last two are only available if RoninBox enables online payments for your gym; you request them from the team, they aren’t set up in the app. You choose which methods you offer your members, with at least one active. Staff can always record a cash or POS payment. See Online payments and Take cash or POS payments.

My billing, as the member sees it.

Caution

RoninBox records an online payment when Stripe confirms it’s paid, not when the member returns to the page. Some methods take a while to confirm, and in the meantime the monthly fee stays pending. Before manually recording a payment the member says they made online, check that Stripe won’t confirm it later.

Third decision: what happens to those who don’t pay

A member with an unpaid monthly fee isn’t blocked right away:

1. They have some grace days, which you set (from 1 to 28; 11 by default), counted from the start of their monthly fee. Within that window they can book.
2. Within the window, the plan can limit how many classes they book while they owe (from 0 to 999; empty means no limit).
3. After the window, they can’t book until they pay. Once they pay, they can book again without you doing anything.

With “Monthly”, an unpaid previous month also blocks bookings with no grace days. See Unpaid fees and grace days.

Tracking: who owes and how much comes in

• Monthly billing shows projected, collected and pending amounts for each month, plus the table of monthly fees with their status.
• The member list can be filtered by pending payments.
• Income that isn’t from a member, like a T-shirt, goes in generic payments and adds to the month’s totals.

Change prices without editing member by member

A plan’s price can’t be edited once created. You create a new plan, specify which one it replaces, and each member moves to the new one on their next monthly fee. See Chained plans.

Before and after

Task	With a spreadsheet	With RoninBox
Create each month’s fee	You copy it member by member	It’s generated automatically for each member with a plan
Know who owes	You check row by row	You filter by pending payments
Raise a price	You change each member	One new chained plan
Block bookings for unpaid fees	Manually	Automatic after the grace days

Next step

To see how payments would be set up for your gym, contact the RoninBox team at roninbox.com.