Point-of-sale is a one-time transaction where the credit card is swiped, cash or check is offered as payment. (In some cases, it is debited against the member’s account.) Monthly billing is an authorized, contracted relationship between the buyer (member) and the seller (club) wherein a specific fee is debited automatically to a credit card, checking or savings account.

There is no “packaged answer” to this question. It depends a great deal on types of usage, data management, billing receivables processed, number of terminals, sophistication of internal operations processes, etc…etc…ultimately you want to partner with a software company that understands your business goals and has a product/service to match. Call and ask for a demo!

There are a number of ratios and statistics that are commonly used to measure membership and operating performance in the industry. While this is not a complete list of all possible ratios in this category, I recommend the following as key indicators and critical to your analysis as it pertains to membership and operations: Membership Attrition (measured on an annual basis for a more accuracy), Average dues payer (or average monthly dues), average initiation fees, revenue per square foot, revenue per member, memberships per square foot, cost of sale (sales and marketing cost per new member, payroll to/or as a percentage of revenue, dues as a percentage of revenue, operating expense as a percentage of revenue.

I also recommend the calculation of finance and liquidity ratios such as the current ratio and debt-equity ratio to measure the financial position of your operation(s).

PCI Compliance has been a popular issue lately and has prompted a lot of questions and inquiries.

PCI Compliance and validation regulations outline a set of security standards PCI Compliance security standards that are designed to protect cardholder information that is stored and used in applications or while making a transaction. The Payment Card Industry pcisecuritystandards.org/, including Mastercard and Visa, require banks, online merchants and Member Service Providers to adhere to these standards to ensure the security of cardholder data. If a company/merchant is PCI compliant they have developed and maintain secure systems and applications that protect cardholder data and encrypt transmission of this data across open, public networks. This becomes critical as it relates to transmitting EFT records for monthly member billing. You should confirm that your software provider is PCI compliant so that your member records are not in danger of being compromised in any way. Failure to comply with these security standards can result in fines, restrictions or permanent explusion from card acceptance programs.

For more on this subject, read "Time to Comply," the PCI story that appeared in the May 2007 issue of Club Industry's Fitness Business Pro magazine.
Time to Comply