Letting members check their own balance

Every member can have a private web page showing what plots they hold, what their invoice came to, what they have paid and what is left. It is read-only — there is nothing on it a member can change — and it exists mainly so that people stop emailing the treasurer to ask.

Turning it on

Settings → Links → tick Member balance pages.

Sending somebody theirs

Each member has a unique address, which you will find on their profile page, ready to copy.

More usefully, put {balance_link} into any email you send and each person gets their own. It works in ordinary emails to members and in overdue rent reminders.

There is no password

The address itself is the key — a long unguessable code, the same idea as an unsubscribe link in a newsletter. Members do not have accounts and do not need one for this.

If you would rather nobody could see theirs any more, untick the setting. Every link ever shared stops working immediately, and ticking it again brings them all back. There is nothing to reissue.

What it shows

• the plots they currently hold
• this year's invoice, itemised — rent per plot, each charge, each discount
• what it came to, what they have paid, what is outstanding
• the due date
• earlier years, but only where something is still owed
• anything they hold a deposit against, clearly kept separate from what they owe

The figures come from the same frozen records you see. A member and their treasurer can never be looking at two different numbers.

The page tells search engines to ignore it, and it is a plain page — no sign-up prompts, no pricing, nothing being sold to somebody who only wanted to know whether they had paid.