A parent asks if their subscription can come out just after payday instead of mid-month. Until now the collection day you set on a plan only applied to people joining from that point on — anyone already paying stayed on their original day. You can now move an existing member's collection day yourself.
Where to find it
Go to Finance → Online Payments and open the Recurring Payments tab. Find the member's row and choose Change collection day….
Choosing when the change takes effect
A Direct Debit's collection day can't simply be edited — the existing instruction has to be replaced with a new one. That matters because replacing it stops any payment that hasn't yet been sent to the bank, even a payment that was perfectly correct and just happened to be on the old day.
Rather than refusing, Scoutworks shows you exactly what each choice costs before you confirm anything. You'll see something like:
Pick the new day of the month, then pick when it should take effect:
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| After the next payment | The change is saved and applied automatically once the payment that's already lined up has been collected. Nothing is lost. |
| Change it now | The new day starts straight away. The payment named in the dialog is cancelled and won't be collected — you'll need to tick a box confirming you understand before you can continue. |
Every date and figure in that dialog comes from the live Direct Debit schedule, not an estimate — so what it tells you is what will actually happen.
Seeing and cancelling a pending change
If you chose to apply the change after the next payment, the member's row shows that a change is waiting, with the new day and roughly when it will take effect. You can withdraw it any time before it starts — once the change is under way it can no longer be cancelled.
What the parent sees
The parent isn't asked to do anything. Their Direct Debit instruction is replaced behind the scenes and their bank notifies them of the new arrangement in the normal way. The amount they pay doesn't change — only the date.
Good to know
- A payment is never quietly lost. If applying a saved change would cancel a payment you hadn't agreed to lose, it waits rather than going ahead. If it can't find a safe moment after a few months, it stops and tells you instead of guessing.
- Changing the plan's day is still separate. Editing the collection day on the plan itself sets the day new joiners inherit. Use this option when you want to move someone who is already paying.
- One member at a time. If a whole plan is on the wrong day, get in touch — moving everyone at once is something we can help with.
What's next
- Collecting Subscriptions from Parents — setting up recurring payments and their collection day.
- Pausing a Member's Subscription — stopping collections for a while rather than moving them.
- Seeing a Member's Full Payment History — checking what's scheduled after a change.
Was this article helpful?
What's next?
Related guidesCollecting Subscriptions from Parents
How to set up recurring Direct Debit subscriptions to collect regular payments from parents, including adding members who join part-way through a term.
Read articlePausing a Member's Subscription
How to pause a Direct Debit subscription for a member who is away or needs financial support, choose how long the pause lasts, and control whether their parent is notified.
Read articleSeeing a Member's Full Payment History
How to see every payment for one member — subscriptions, one-off payments and event payments — on a single timeline, with what is still to come and what has already been collected.
Read article