Membership Settings

The Benecaster → Memberships section of the admin panel is only visible when the built-in membership system is active or being set up. It contains separate sub-screens for each aspect of membership configuration.

Memberships → Tiers

Create and manage the subscription tiers your listeners can join. Each tier you create is provisioned as a Stripe Product and Price automatically when you save.

Field	Notes
Name	Displayed to subscribers on the account page and checkout
Slug	URL-safe identifier. Set on creation and cannot be changed — changing it would break existing token and bridge references.
Description	Short text shown alongside the tier in subscriber-facing contexts
Prices	One row per billing cadence you sell — monthly, annual, quarterly or any interval Stripe supports. A tier with no prices is free. See Built-in Membership → Prices.
Trial days	Number of days before the first charge; 0 to disable trial
Tax category	Paid tiers only, shown once Stripe Tax is ready in the show’s Stripe account. Two questions, What kind of content is it? and How do subscribers get it?, with nothing chosen for you. See Sales Tax.
Active	Inactive tiers are hidden from checkout but existing subscribers keep access

Deleting a tier is refused while anyone is on it — paying, free, comped or given access by hand — or has a plan change scheduled onto it, and nothing changes. To stop offering a tier, untick Active instead. The one exception is a free tier that a paying subscriber is moving onto: it can’t be made inactive until their move has happened at their renewal, so the refusal tells you to wait, then untick Active. See Stopping or Deleting a Tier.

Tier badges (the visual chips shown on subscriber accounts) are configured from within each tier’s edit screen. See Tier Badges for details.

Tier Order

Your tiers show as one ordered list, lowest tier first. Drag a tier by its handle to reorder it, or focus the handle and use the up and down arrow keys — a screen reader announces the new position as you move.

Every move saves itself. The status line reads Saving… then Order saved, or Couldn’t save the order. with a Retry link if the save fails — the list snaps back to the last saved order until you retry. If the list has gone out of date (a tier was added or deleted in another browser tab), the screen says so and reloads instead of offering Retry.

New tiers are always added at the end of the list.

Order matters beyond display. Content gated with [benecaster_tier_gate] to a tier is also shown to every tier after it in the list — reordering tiers changes who a gate admits.

Memberships → Buy-ups

Create and manage buy-up options — supplemental charges existing subscribers can add to their subscription without changing their base tier.

Field	Notes
Name	Displayed on the subscriber account page and in the buy-up purchase flow
Slug	Immutable identifier used in API references and webhook payloads
Description	Short explanation shown to subscribers before purchase
Price	Charged via Stripe on the same billing cycle as the subscriber’s base subscription
Billing interval	Monthly or annual
Cap	Maximum number of active buy-up holders (0 = unlimited)
Tax category	Shown once Stripe Tax is ready in the show’s Stripe account. The same two questions as a tier, with nothing chosen for you. See Sales Tax.
Active	Inactive buy-ups are hidden from the account page purchase flow

Creating a buy-up provisions a Stripe Product and Price automatically. Subscriber-facing buy-up purchase UI is on the subscriber account page.

Memberships → Badges

Controls the site-wide tenure badge — a chip that displays how long a subscriber has been a member.

Setting	Notes
Show subscriber tenure badge	When checked, a tenure chip is appended to every subscriber’s badge list. Default off.

Milestone labels (e.g. “1-Year Member”, “5-Year Member”) advance automatically based on each subscriber’s earliest active token date. Unchecking the box removes the chip from all surfaces immediately.

See Subscriber Tenure Badges for the full feature overview, including milestone thresholds, the [benecaster_member_since] shortcode, and developer customization options.

Memberships → Avatars

Controls the subscriber avatar upload feature site-wide.

Setting	Notes
Enable subscriber avatars	Master toggle. When disabled, `AvatarManager` stops serving uploaded avatars and falls back to WordPress Gravatar / default behavior.
Clear all avatars	Bulk action that removes every `_benecaster_avatar_attachment_id` user meta row. Useful when disabling the feature permanently. Irreversible — confirm before running.

See Subscriber Avatars for the full feature overview.

Sales Tax

Benecaster → Settings → Payments has a Sales tax section between the live keys and Webhook. For the full walkthrough, including Stripe’s side, see Setting Up Sales Tax and VAT.

Setting	Notes
Calculate tax automatically	Off by default, and saved with Save settings. Adds sales tax or VAT, calculated by Stripe Tax in your own Stripe account, to new paid membership signups. Donations are never taxed.
Stripe Tax status	One line per Stripe account: Site Stripe account first, then each show with keys of its own. Each line reports what Stripe says: Stripe Tax is ready., not set up yet (a required setting is missing in Stripe), on but “Include tax in prices” has no default, No Stripe keys for this mode. or Not checked yet.
Check Stripe Tax again	Asks Stripe again for every account. Benecaster also checks when this screen loads and once a day.

Tax is added to a show’s new signups only when all three hold: Calculate tax automatically is ticked, that show’s Stripe account reports Stripe Tax is ready., and every active paid tier and buy-up on the show has a tax category. If Stripe Tax is ready but the box is unticked, an amber line under the status lines says no tax is added until you turn it on and save.

Existing subscribers

Turning tax on taxes new signups only. Under Existing subscribers, each show selling built-in tiers has a row with its number of renewing subscribers.

While tax applies to the show, the row has an Apply tax to existing subscribers button. Otherwise it reads Tax does not apply to this show yet: Calculate tax automatically must be on, Stripe Tax ready in its Stripe account, and every tier and buy-up given a tax category.
The button asks first. The confirmation says how many subscribers of the show it affects, that tax is added from their next renewal, and that depending on your “Include tax in prices” setting in Stripe it either raises what they pay or lowers what you receive. It is worth telling them before it happens. Choose Yes, apply tax or Cancel.
It then runs in the background, showing Applying tax… N of M checked., and finishes with Done. Tax added for X, already taxed Y, skipped Z.

Nothing is charged when it runs. Tax starts with each subscriber’s next renewal, with no proration. Each skipped subscriber is listed with the reason:

Their plan or a buy-up has no tax category. This is also how a tier you have since made inactive shows up. Give it a category and run it again.
Stripe cannot work out where they are. They can add a billing address on their account page.
Stripe returned an error. Run it again later.

Running it again is safe: subscribers already taxed are counted and left as they are.

A subscriber whose data is erased, or whose WordPress account is deleted, drops off the skipped list, and the skipped figure goes down with them.

Tax notices

These appear in your notification bell, and each links to the screen where you fix it.

Notice	When it appears
Choose a tax category for your tiers and buy-ups	Stripe Tax is ready in a show’s Stripe account and an active paid tier or buy-up there has no tax category. It names each one, as the tier “…” or the buy-up “…”. With Calculate tax automatically on, it also says the show’s new signups are not taxed until all of them have one. It cannot be dismissed, and clears once every category is set.
Stripe Tax is not ready	Calculate tax automatically is on, but a show’s Stripe account reports Stripe Tax not set up, or no “Include tax in prices” default. New signups on that show are not being taxed. Dismissible.
Some subscribers’ payments are not being taxed	Stripe could not place some subscribers’ billing addresses, so their payments are being taken without tax. It names them by show and says each has been emailed a link to update their address. Each name clears once Stripe can place them. Dismissible.
Your subscription sales have passed US$1,000 this year	A show’s built-in membership sales passed US$1,000, or about the same in other currencies, this calendar year while Stripe Tax is not active in its Stripe account. At most once a year per show. A prompt to talk to your accountant, not tax advice. Dismissible.

The notices update as soon as you save a tier or buy-up, change the setting, or re-check Stripe Tax.

Supporter Wall (per-show)

The Supporter Wall is configured per show rather than as a global Memberships setting. To enable or configure it, open a show’s settings and look for the Supporter Wall section.

See Supporter Wall for setup instructions and display options.

Name	Set by	What it does	Kept for
`wordpress_logged_in_*`	Benecaster	Keeps you signed in to your Benecaster account.	Until you sign out, or two weeks with "Remember Me".
`wordpress_sec_*`	Benecaster	Secures your signed-in session over HTTPS.	Until you sign out, or two weeks with "Remember Me".
`wp-settings-*`	Benecaster	Remembers your admin screen preferences.	One year.
`benecaster_ls_purchase_sign_in`	Benecaster	Signs you in to your new account on the page you bought from, once your purchase has gone through.	Thirty minutes, or until you are signed in.
`benecaster_ls_cookie_consent`	Benecaster	Remembers the choice you make on this banner, so we do not ask again.	One year.

Name	Set by	What it does	Kept for
`__stripe_mid`	Stripe	Lets Stripe recognise the device across payment attempts to detect card fraud.	One year.
`__stripe_sid`	Stripe	The same fraud check, for the current visit only.	Thirty minutes.