Moving members who are billed somewhere else

Updated 2026-08-19

If your members are billed by anything other than a Stripe account you can connect, their payment details cannot come with them. Not because of MatPilot: card numbers and direct-debit mandates are held by the processor that collected them and no platform can hand them to another. So each member authorises once, here. Done in the right order it costs you one message and each member about forty seconds.

The order that avoids double billing

Pick a cutover date, ideally the start of a month. Let the last cycle run on the old system, then cancel there. Members start on MatPilot from that date. One cycle each, no overlap.

The mistake to avoid is starting people in MatPilot while the old direct debits are still live. Cancel the old subscriptions as members switch, or on the cutover date, and check the old system is empty before you close the account.

Set MatPilot up first

Have your plans and timetable in place, and your waiver uploaded, before you invite anyone. The first thing a member does is pick a plan, and it should be the right one at the right price.

Get everyone in as members

Even though billing starts fresh, you still want everyone in the system. Paste your list of names and emails: see Bulk importing members via CSV. Each one receives an invitation with a code to set up their account.

Then tell them, once, in plain language

Send one announcement: what is changing, what they need to do, by when, and that their price is not changing (if it is not). See Sending an announcement.

What they do: open the app, choose their plan, enter payment details once. That is the whole ask.

Offer direct debit, not just card

While everyone is entering details anyway, this is the single best moment of the whole migration to move your academy onto direct debit. It costs a fraction of what card processing costs, on every payment, forever. You will never again have this many members entering payment details on the same week.

See Turning on bank debit for your gym, SEPA direct debit vs card and Cut your fees with direct debit.

Chase the stragglers without chasing

You will not get everyone in the first pass. Two things help:

The members screen shows you who has not started a plan yet, so the list of who to nudge is just there
The front desk can finish it in person in under a minute: pull them up, pick the plan, hand them the tablet. See Adding a new member and Walk-in enrolment via kiosk

Expect roughly three quarters in the first few days and the rest at their next class. That is normal and it is why the cutover is a week, not a day.

Closing the old account

Before you cancel your old software, export everything you might want later: member list, payment history, attendance, signed documents. Once the account is closed you cannot get it back, and some of it (payment history in particular) is worth keeping for your accountant regardless of which system you use next.