Self Sign-up / Prospective Members / User Approval Process

Note: If you want to allow purchasing memberships / subscriptions online, also see Membership / Subscription Sign-up & Pay Online

If enabled, users can sign up and create their own account. These accounts will automatically be given a "Contact" (previously "request")  Membership identifier defined in the Registration Settings at:

Settings > Customers > Registration

They will not be charged for this "membership" . (If you previously set a price with your "request" type, you will be able to change or remove it, but will not be able to set a new one.)

By default, when a user signs up, they are not allowed to reserve items or have items checked out to them until they purchase or are assigned a Membership type that allows those options.  You can change these default options though (see below), but with care.

This is to allow your organization to ensure the user, if they signed up themself online, fills out any required paperwork or agreements before you loan or rent items to them. 

Self Registration Settings

When you visit:

Settings > Customers > Registration

You will see a number of basic settings, including the main option to allow people to sign up for new accounts themself.

Allow self registration:  Enabling this options allows users to create their own account on the site using the "Create Account" link when not logged in. If unchecked, admins must create all accounts.

Require Email Domain During Self Registration: When not using Single Sign On with internal users, or when only allowing one or a small number of other organizations to create accounts, you can limit account registration to people with specific email domains (e.g you would enter myturn.com to only allow people with @myturn.com emails to register). Self registration must be enabled and the email domain must be set. Separate multiple domains with commas (e.g. abc.org, xyz.edu). Admins can still create accounts with email from other domains.

Allow Check Out: Be careful to not enable this option if you charge for membership or have an approval process. Only enable this option if you want to be able to check items out to users as soon as they create their account.

Only use this option when:

• You are only lending internally, to trusted partners, or where they do not charge a membership fee.

Allow Reservations: Enable this option if you want users to be able to reserve items as soon as they create their account. This will allow the to request/reserve items before they purchase or are assigned a membership. 

Use this option when:

• You want to encourage people to request items before they purchase a membership to encourage them to come in to pick the item up at which time they will be required to purchase a membership.
• You do not have a membership approval or purchase process  (internal lending or pay as you go)

Advanced Options: these options will typically only be used when you do not have a membership approval process or only offer pay as you go memberships. They are the same options you would set on other Membership Types.

Prospective Members

When a member signs up and does not purchase a paid membership, and you do not automatically allow admins to check items out to them, they will become "prospective" members and will appear at:

Customers > Prospective Members

When you want to approve the member, you can assign or sell them a membership by clicking "Membership" for their record. 

You can also handle this process the first time you check something in out to them using the "Start Cart" button. 

If you use the start cart or check out page, you will need to sell or assign them a membership before you can check items it out to them. During this time, you may also want to check and confirm their ID or address or follow any other procedures your organization has set up for new members. Either way, you will want to select the membership they are purchasing or you are assigning to their account. Then save or record transaction at the bottom of the page:

Approving members who purchase a paid membership

When setting up your paid membership types, you can have a warning set on the users account to let admins know this is a new member and they should check their ID/Address or other approval process. For each membership type at:

Settings > Customers > Membership Types

you can automatically have their User Warning set the first time they purchase a membership:

This warning will appear when checking items in/out to the user and you can clear the warning once your procedures are followed using the "Update Warning" button: