Manually Adding Subscriptions
Important note: These instructions are only to be used to add existing subscriptions into MemberPress that can be presently found in one of our supported gateways (e.g. PayPal, Stripe, etc.) AND that is active (meaning it is not expired). They cannot be used to create a subscription that does not already exist, or activate one that is expired.
If you want to manually give customers free access you only need a transaction record. See Creating Manual Transactions for more information.
This page covers using the Add New button on the MemberPress > Subscriptions page. Please note that there are other ways to manually add subscriptions to your MemberPress site, which you may want to use for other reasons. Please see the last section on this page for those.
When to Manually Add a Subscription
You should use these instructions when you have an active, automatically recurring subscription that appears in your payment gateway, but not in MemberPress. This may be due to:
- Adding a subscription that you created outside of the MemberPress registration form.
- Adding a subscription that you failed to add to your subscription import file.
- Adding a few subscriptions when you do not want to create an import file.
If you need to manually add larger numbers of subscriptions you may find it easier to simply follow our bulk import instructions here.
Note: Creating subscriptions and transactions in MemberPress does not create them in the payment gateway and does not generate any charges.
How to Manually Add Subscriptions
Here are the steps you must follow to manually add subscriptions to your site:
- Add a User
- If the customer already has an account
- Look up their username or email address under User in the WordPress admin Dashboard
- If the customer does not already have an account
- Go to Users->Add New
- Fill out the required fields
- Recommnbed: leave "Send the new user an email about their account" checked.
- Click Add New User
- If the customer already has an account
- Add a Subscription record
- Go to MemberPress->Subscriptions
- Click the "Add New" button at the top of the screen
- Fill out the necessary fields (see New Subscription Page Options below for more details).
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Note: If you are adding subscriptions for an existing payment in a payment gateway the subscription id must match exactly. See How to Fix Subscriptions when Users Signed Up Under Bad Gateway for more information.
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- Click Create
- Add a Transaction record
- Go to MemberPress->Subscriptions
- Find the new subscription in the list
- Hover over the subscription id and then click the "Add Txn" link
- Fill out the form and click Create. See Creating Manual Transactions for more information.
Note: A transaction record is required to give the user access to protected content.
New Subscription Page Options
After clicking the Add New button on the MemberPress > Subscriptions page, you will be taken to the New Subscription page. Here is a table outlining the various options you can edit on that page. Options marked with the asterisks (*) are required fields.
| Option | Description |
| Subscription Number* |
The unique Subscription ID for the Subscription. This should match exactly what you see in the payment gateway. |
| User* | The username of the user this subscription will be associated with. Only created users will appear here. This option cannot create a new user. |
| Membership* | The Membership that this subscription will be for. Only published memberships will appear. |
| Sub-Total* | The sub-total (amount before tax) of this subscription. Should match what is in the gateway. |
| Tax Amount | The amount of taxes for this subscription. Should match what is in the gateway. |
| Tax Rate | The tax rate in percentage. (Ex: 10.000 for 10%). Should match what is in the gateway. |
| Status* | The current status of the subscription. Should be set to Enabled. |
| Gateway | The payment gateway associated with this subscription. Your created gateways in the MemberPress > Settings > Payments tab will appear here. |
| Created (UTC/GMT) | The date that this subscription was created on. This field is displayed in UTC/GMT. Should match the created at date found on the subscription in the gateway. |
| Trial | The trial period for this subscription. Check only if the subscription had a trial period. |
| Trial Days | The number of days for the subscription's trial period as applicable. |
| Trial Amount ($) | The sub-total (amount before tax) of this subscription's trial period as applicable. |
Granting Access to Protected Content
Please note that subscriptions do NOT create access to protected content. Complete, non-expired, non-refunded transactions do that. Subscriptions can be viewed as placeholders for a group of recurring transactions for a single user.
Therefore, to grant access to your site's protected content, you will need to then add a transaction to this user's subscription. You can follow our instructions here to create that transaction manually. For access, you only need to add the last payment the user has made.
Other Ways to Manually Add Subscriptions
- Using the Add New button on the MemberPress > Members page. When to use: Adding a user who is not already a WordPress user on your site AND granting them free/temp access to your membership content. See this page for more details.
- Creating a manual transaction. When to use: Giving an existing WordPress user on your site free/temp access to your membership content.
- Importing Subscriptions. When to use: Adding many subscriptions in one bulk batch. Instructions vary based on subscription type (automatically recurring or one-time payment type). Be sure to carefully review our overview page first.