The Business
Before you can test this system, you need to understand the business it serves. Everything in the M&D module exists because of how ABC's membership model works in the real world.
🏗️ What ABC Actually Is
ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors) is a national trade association for the construction industry. Think of it like a franchise model: there's one national organization, but the actual member relationships happen through independent local Chapters spread across the country.
The most important thing to understand is that membership is corporate, not individual. A construction company joins ABC — not a person. The company joins through one local Chapter (their "Primary Chapter"), but can also belong to additional Chapters if they work in multiple regions.
This is the root of a lot of the system's complexity. One company, potentially multiple chapters, but National dues only get paid once. The system has to track all of that.
💰 How Money Flows Through the System
This is the single most important concept to internalize. When a member company pays their dues, that payment doesn't just sit with the Chapter. It gets split and forwarded to multiple parties. Here's how:
The member sees one invoice. But behind the scenes, that invoice is broken into separate buckets: Chapter Dues, State Dues (if applicable), National Dues, and voluntary contributions like FEA, TCEF, and PAC. Each bucket has different rules about who controls the amount and where the money goes.
The critical rule: National dues amounts are locked. Chapters can set their own Chapter dues, but they cannot change what National charges. This is enforced at the system level — it's not just a business rule, it's a hard constraint in the software.
📊 Dues Categories: Why Members Pay Different Amounts
Not every member pays the same amount. ABC uses Dues Categories to tier its pricing based on company type (contractor, associate, supplier) and annual revenue. A large general contractor with $50M in revenue pays significantly more than a small specialty sub.
Categories are grouped into Schedules. Think of a Schedule as a pricing sheet for a given year — it lists every category and what each one costs. A Chapter can have multiple schedules in the same year (for example, one for urban members and one for rural).
Each category breaks down into the same buckets as the invoice: Chapter $, State $, Other $, National $, and Total $. When a member is assigned to a category, their invoice amounts are driven by that category's pricing.
📅 The Membership Timeline: First Year Is Special
Most members renew on a standard January–December calendar year. But the first couple of years for a new member are handled differently, and this is where a lot of the invoice math complexity comes from.
There's also the 15-for-12 program: if a company joins in October, November, or December, they can pay for 12 months and get 15 months of membership. The system creates a $0 renewal invoice for Year 2 (with full amounts as Original and full amounts as Credits), marked as paid on the same date and flagged as 15-for-12.
👥 Who Uses This System (and Why It Matters)
There are four groups of people who interact with the M&D module, and understanding their perspective helps you write better tests:
Chapter Staff are the primary users. They do everything: set up the dues year, run batch invoicing, create individual invoices, record payments, and submit monthly data to National. Most of the system's UI is built for them.
ABC National Staff oversees all chapters. They define National dues amounts, review monthly chapter submissions through a Processing Queue, approve or reject them, and publish approved data to Wells Fargo for payment processing. They have a different navigation and see data across all chapters.
Member Companies interact through the portal. They see their invoices, pay online (credit card or ACH), and view payment history. They have a much simpler experience — they don't see the complexity behind their invoice.
Member Portal Admins (Level 3) are the specific contacts within a member company who have permission to view and pay invoices in the portal. Not every company contact can do this.
How It Works
Detailed system workflows showing invoicing, payments, national reporting, and critical edge cases.
Annual Cycle
How a chapter's dues year unfolds — from setup in the summer through batch invoicing in the fall to monthly reporting all year long.
⚙️ Dues Year Setup: Laying the Foundation
Before a single invoice can be created, Chapter Staff must configure the dues year. This is a critical setup phase, typically done in summer, where the chapter defines all the financial parameters that will drive invoices for the next 12 months. Think of it as building the pricing engine.
Setup includes: Dues Categories (the membership tiers and their dollar amounts), Schedules (groupings of categories), Additional Line Items (voluntary contributions like FEA and TCEF), Discount-If-Paid-By windows (early payment incentives), and Invoice Memos (custom messages that appear on invoices). The system supports bulk copy from the previous year to save time.
A unique part of the setup is the National Dues Alignment screen. When ABC National changes its category structure mid-year, chapters must map their existing categories to the new National structure. This ensures invoice amounts stay correct and synchronized across the organization.
Also during setup: Percent Not Deductible calculations for tax purposes. Chapters enter the percentage (provided by National), and this auto-generates a tax disclaimer line item on every invoice for that year.
📋 Batch Invoicing: The Annual Push
Once setup is complete, typically in September or October, Chapter Staff runs the annual batch invoicing process. This is a four-step wizard that creates renewal invoices for all members at once. The system handles the heavy lifting — calculating prorated amounts, applying discounts, formatting invoices for print or email, and generating the PDF files in bulk.
Step 0 begins with audits. The system runs 11 audits (6 focused on members, 5 on invoices) to catch common data issues: members with invalid categories, chapter-only members with broken cross-references, members who should be prorated, and duplicate invoices. Importantly, these audits are NOT required to pass. Chapter Staff can review errors and decide whether to fix them or continue anyway. This is an audit tool, not a blocker.
Step 1 is record selection. Chapter Staff chooses which members to include: active ABC members with paid prior-year invoices who don't already have a current-year invoice. The system shows the full list, lets staff search and deselect anyone who shouldn't be invoiced, and compares the list to last year to highlight changes.
Step 2 is customization. This is where the magic happens: staff choose invoice layout options (address type, contact name, category sorting), select which additional line items and discount windows apply, pick invoice memos, and decide which categories print on the invoice. They can also create or save Preference Sets — named groupings of memos, discounts, and line items that can be reused in future batch runs. This section is powerful and detailed, designed to give chapters full control over invoice appearance.
Step 3 commits everything to the database. The system writes all invoice records, assigns invoice numbers, and deletes the temporary batch files. Once this step runs, invoices appear on the Dues Landing Screen and are ready to be emailed or mailed to members.
📊 Day-to-Day Invoice Management: The Year Continues
After batch invoicing, Chapter Staff still has work to do. Individual members join, need invoices created ad-hoc. Categories change. Companies need adjusted invoices. Payments come in and need to be recorded. The Dues Landing Screen is where all this happens.
The landing screen shows all invoices with filters: by status (Open, Paid, Dropped), type (New, Renewal, Adjusted), company name, date paid, and more. Staff can drill into any invoice, view its history, see what was paid and when. They can edit open invoices (changing addresses, memos) and mark invoices as Paid when members send checks. For partial payments, they record the amount paid and select which dues buckets (National, Chapter, State, Other) the payment applies to. The system generates a new adjusted invoice for the remaining balance.
One key rule: Paid invoices are now editable by Chapter Staff. This was changed from the original spec. Staff can change the category on a paid invoice, and the system creates an adjusted invoice showing the difference between what was paid and what should have been paid.
📤 Monthly Reporting: The Heartbeat
Every month, a formal process happens. Chapter Staff gathers all paid invoices for the month, reviews them against configured audits, and submits the data to ABC National. National then reviews, approves, and publishes the data to Wells Fargo for payment processing. This is the critical financial reporting cycle.
On the Chapter side, Staff access a Monthly Dues screen for the selected month/year. They see all paid invoices, line alert statuses (OK, Information, Warning, Error based on audit results), and options to submit to National and generate reports (Dues Statement PDF, Dues Detail by Member, FEA, TCEF). Once they click "Submit to National," the data locks and moves to National's queue.
On the National side, there's a Processing Queue showing all chapters' submissions sorted by status (Open, Submitted, Under Review, Approved, Published). National Staff reviews each chapter's data, can request sign-off from Chapter Staff (via automated email), approves when satisfied, and then publishes invoices to Wells Fargo. Published data is locked and cannot be changed without National explicitly reopening the month.
Invoicing
The invoice is the core document in this system. Understanding invoice types, creation rules, and payment logic is essential to testing the module.
📄 Invoice Types: Three Flavors, Different Rules
The system distinguishes three invoice types, each serving a different purpose. New (N) invoices are created for members in their first year of membership. A member can only have one New invoice per year. Renewal (R) invoices are annual invoices for existing members who have paid a prior-year invoice. Like New invoices, only one Renewal per member per year. Adjusted (A) invoices are corrections or modifications to existing invoices. A member can have multiple Adjusted invoices in the same year.
Invoice numbers reflect this: YY-COMPANYID + Type. So a 2025 invoice for Company ID 12345 might be 25-12345N (New), 25-12345R (Renewal), or 25-12345A1, 25-12345A2, 25-12345A3 (Adjusted sequence). The original invoice number (N or R) is stored on each Adjusted invoice so staff always knows what they're adjusting.
The key differences: New and Renewal invoices have locked original amounts. Staff cannot change what the National portion is, what the Chapter portion is, or what the State portion is. Those amounts come from the member's dues category and are read-only. Only Adjusted invoices allow credit changes. Adjusted invoices also have a special feature: they're the only way to credit National dues (on a New or Renewal, National credit is forbidden except through an Adjusted invoice).
🧮 The Proration Math: Year 2 Gets Special Treatment
A member who joins in their first calendar year (say, September) gets a full 12 months of membership. But then in Year 2, they're on the calendar year cycle like everyone else. Because they've already paid for September through August, Year 2 only covers September through December — 4 months. The system pro-rates their dues down to reflect this shorter billing period.
The formula is: Total = (Annual Dues / 12) × (12 - month_joined + 1). The credit shows the difference between full-year Original and the prorated Total. So if a member joins in September and Year 2 Annual Dues is $1200, the calculation is: ($1200 / 12) × (12 - 9 + 1) = $100 × 4 = $400. Original is $1200, Total owed is $400, Credit is $800.
The system auto-calculates prorated amounts when creating a Year 2 Renewal for an eligible member. It marks the invoice as Prorated so staff knows to expect different amounts. This calculation applies to the Chapter, State, and National portions separately.
💳 Invoice Payment & Category Changes
Invoices can be paid at creation time or marked as paid later when the check arrives. The system validates that chapter-only members have valid cross-references at payment time (if the XREF is broken, the invoice can't be paid, except in the partial pay case). Once paid, the payment date, amount, and payment method (check, credit card, ACH) are recorded on the invoice.
One scenario that comes up frequently: a member is invoiced under one category, but before payment their company growth means they should be in a higher category. Chapter Staff can change the category on an unpaid invoice, and the system recalculates all amounts based on the new category. If the invoice is already paid, changing the category triggers the creation of an Adjusted invoice showing the difference between what they paid and what they owed in the new category.
Partial payments are also supported. Staff enters the amount paid and selects which dues buckets the payment applies to. The minimum partial payment must be at least the National dues amount. The system generates a new Adjusted invoice for the remaining balance. National dues themselves cannot be split — you either pay the full National amount, or $0, but not $500 of $1000.
🔗 Discounts, Line Items, and Invoice Customization
Every invoice can include additional line items (FEA, TCEF, PAC, chapter-defined items) and can be subject to discounts. Discounts are configured with actual date ranges (From/To dates), not relative to invoice date. So a discount might be "10% off if paid by November 15" — the system checks the payment date against that fixed window. Chapters can define multiple discount windows in the same year (e.g., 10% by November, 5% by December).
Discounts can be applied to the total invoice, or specifically to chapter/state/other dollars (National dollars never get discounted, per ABC's rules). Percentage discounts and flat-dollar discounts are both supported. Chapters can also choose to ignore prorate credits when applying discounts (useful for special promotions).
Additional line items can be per-invoice flat amounts (e.g., "$25 PAC contribution") or percentages (e.g., "5% technology fee"). Items flagged as "voluntary" allow members to opt in or opt out on the invoice. Items flagged as "mandatory" are always included.
Getting Paid
From the member's perspective, paying their dues should be simple. From the system's perspective, handling payment from multiple channels and recording it correctly is complex.
🔐 The No-Login Payment Link: Convenience Without Account Access
When Chapter Staff send a dues invoice via email, the email includes a link that members can click to pay without logging into the portal. This is the most frictionless payment path. The member clicks the link, sees their invoice, and pays immediately with no passwords or account setup required.
This convenience comes with security measures. The link is single-use and tied to a specific invoice. When a member (or anyone) attempts to use the link, they must complete a reCAPTCHA. If they fail payment 5 times, they're locked out for 30 minutes. These measures prevent brute-force attacks and bot abuse. If members are already logged into their portal account, the reCAPTCHA and lockout don't apply — they're bypassed for authenticated users.
Once the member arrives at the payment screen, they see the invoice details (member info, invoice number, amount due), see any voluntary contributions with checkboxes to opt in/out, and choose a payment method: credit card or ACH. The system passes the transaction details to the configured payment gateway (Authorize.net or similar), stores the transaction ID and timestamp, but never stores the credit card number itself.
🏪 The Member Portal: Full Control and History
Members who have a portal account can access their invoices directly. The portal shows two tabs: Open Invoices (unpaid) and Invoice History (paid invoices). The Open Invoices tab shows all current-year invoices with filters by type (dues), allows members to view payment details, print invoices, and pay. The Invoice History tab shows past invoices with date-range filters (30/60/90 days, 6 months, 1 year) and shows payment date, payment method, and check number (if applicable).
Portal access is role-based. Not every employee at a member company can see invoices. Only Member Portal Admins (Level 3) have access. This is a company-specific permission, not chapter-wide. The portal admins for Company A can see Company A's invoices; they cannot see Company B's invoices.
Portal payment works the same way as the no-login link: credit card or ACH, same gateway integration, same transaction recording. The key difference is that authenticated users skip the reCAPTCHA and lockout measures — the portal login itself is the security layer.
✅ Post-Payment: What Happens After Money Lands
When a payment succeeds — whether through the no-login link, the portal, or a check that chapter staff manually records — a series of automated actions happen. The invoice status changes from Open to Paid. The payment date, amount, method (online CC, online ACH, check), and gateway transaction ID are recorded on the invoice. The member's contact record is updated: their dues history is appended with the payment, their "Last Year Paid" field is updated. Voluntary contribution selections are recorded per invoice.
Email notifications fire automatically. Chapter Staff receive a payment confirmation email (configured with CC/BCC recipients per chapter). The paying member receives a confirmation email to the address they used for login (or the address on the no-login link). If payment fails at the gateway, the chapter is notified of the failure so they can follow up with the member.
For members in their first year, there's an additional automation: the system checks 15-for-12 eligibility (member joined Oct/Nov/Dec). If eligible, after the first-year invoice is paid, the system can optionally create a $0 renewal invoice for Year 2 (full amounts as Original, full amounts as Credits, marked as paid, flagged as 15-for-12). This gives the member 15 months of membership for paying 12 months of dues.
🚫 The Portal Payment Constraint: Full or Nothing
Members using the portal or no-login link cannot make partial payments. They must pay the invoice in full. This is a hard constraint, not a business preference. The payment screen doesn't offer a "payment amount" field — it shows "Amount Due: $X" and the payment is for that full amount.
Partial payments are only available to Chapter Staff via the Day-to-Day Invoice Management screen. This is intentional: partial payments are an administrative tool, not a self-service member feature. Members pay in full or don't pay. Chapter Staff, if needed for business reasons, can record smaller payments and generate adjusted invoices for the remainder.
National Reporting
Every month, chapters and National play a coordinated dance. Chapters submit their paid invoices, National reviews and approves, and the data flows to Wells Fargo for financial processing.
📅 The Monthly Dues Report: Chapter Side
Around the 20th of each month (date set by National), Chapter Staff log in and navigate to their Monthly Dues screen. They select the month/year they want to report on, and the system shows all paid invoices for that period. The table displays each invoice with its line alert status (OK, Information, Warning, or Error based on pre-configured audits), invoice details, and dollar amounts broken down by category type (National, State, Chapter, voluntary contributions).
Before submitting, Chapter Staff can run reports: Monthly Dues Statement (PDF showing summary), Dues Detail by Member (PDF with full breakdown), and separate reports for FEA and TCEF contributions. These are available at any point, not just before submission. Chapters also see Year-to-Date totals, helping them track progress toward annual goals.
Once satisfied with their data, Chapter Staff click "Submit to National." The submission is a deliberate, conscious action, not automatic. Upon submission, the chapter's data locks — they cannot make changes without National sending it back. The data moves to National's queue with status "Submitted."
🔍 The National Processing Queue: The Heartbeat
When a chapter submits, their data enters National's queue. National Staff access the Processing Queue, which shows all chapters with status counts (Open, Submitted, Under Review, Approved, Published). The queue is a table with columns for each chapter, submission date, locked status, and action buttons. National can update status per chapter, add notes (these don't carry over month-to-month), and request sign-off from the chapter contact.
The status flow is: Open (no submission yet) → Submitted (chapter sent data) → Under Review (National is examining) → Approved (National is satisfied) → Published (sent to Wells Fargo). At each step, National can drill into a chapter to see their invoice details and line alert statuses. National can also exclude specific member invoices from processing (useful if there's a data problem with one member but the rest of the chapter is fine).
One important note: National Sign-Off is optional, not required. National can approve and move to publish without requesting or receiving sign-off from the chapter. The sign-off option exists for additional confirmation, but it's not a gating factor.
Once National publishes a month to Wells Fargo, that data is locked. Changes to already-published months require National to explicitly reopen the month, a manual and deliberate action.
🔄 Corrections and Closed Months: When Mistakes Happen
Mistakes happen. A member type was recorded wrong, an invoice shouldn't have been included, or the amounts were calculated incorrectly. When this happens in a past month that's already been submitted to National or published to Wells Fargo, National can reopen the month for corrections.
There's no fixed window for reopening. National has discretion — they can reopen a month immediately, days later, or months later if needed. When a month is reopened, Chapter Staff can make corrections (change member types, remove invoices, adjust payment amounts), and then resubmit. Each resubmission creates a new version, and National can toggle between versions to see what changed.
Financial implications: if reopening a month changes the amount owed to National, that difference is handled through adjusted invoices in future months (no refunds to chapters, no negative invoices). If a chapter previously underpaid, they submit the difference in the next month's submission. If National overpaid a chapter, the chapter gets an adjusted invoice in a future month to pay it back.
📊 National Reports: The Big Picture
Beyond the month-to-month processing queue, National Staff have access to analytical reports. The Dues Payments vs ABC Load File report identifies discrepancies between what chapters report as paid and what National's master data says should be paid. The SPM Dollars Entry screen records payment amounts by month for New, Renewal, and Adjusted invoices, plus Cloud Fees and other contributions, and ties to Wells Fargo actual payments. Out of Balance reports flag chapters where invoiced amounts don't match collected amounts across various categories (dues, cloud fees, FEA, TCEF).
These reports are auditing tools, used by National to ensure data integrity and catch misreporting at the chapter level.
Edge Cases & Special Scenarios
The situations that don't fit the standard flow. These are the cases that break assumptions and are high-bug-density testing areas.
🗂️ Chapter-Only Members: The XREF Complexity
Most members join one chapter (their Primary Chapter) and pay National dues through that chapter. But some members belong to multiple chapters. When a company belongs to Chapter A (primary) and also Chapter B (secondary), Chapter B can invoice the member for Chapter B dues, but not National dues. Chapter B's invoice includes Chapter $ and State $ (if applicable), but the National $ line is $0.
Internally, this relationship is tracked via a cross-reference (XREF): Chapter B's invoice record points to the member record in Chapter A's system, indicating "this is a chapter-only member, and their national home is Chapter A." The system validates this cross-reference at payment time. If the XREF is broken or missing, the invoice cannot be paid (except in the partial-pay case, where staff can override).
This creates a class of defects: broken XREFs, missing XREF lookups, or XREF validation that incorrectly blocks legitimate payments. It's a high-bug area because the relationship is complex and the error messages are often confusing to chapter staff.
⚠️ Start-Up Contractor: A Removed Feature
The Start-Up Contractor feature has been completely removed from the system as of ABC-2181. This was a 24-month discounted-rate program for new contractors, but it is no longer used. All references to it have been stripped from the UI (Dues Year Setup, batch invoicing, batch audits). Historical data may still exist in the database, but the business rules no longer apply.
If you encounter Start-Up Contractor references in old documentation or legacy code, ignore them. The feature will not be developed or fixed.
📐 Proration Edge Cases: Join Month Matters
Proration happens only in Year 2 for members who joined between February and December. A member who joins in January is already aligned with the calendar year, so no proration happens — they just renew normally Jan-Dec. A member who joins in December gets a full Year 1 (Dec through Nov), then a Year 2 proration for only 1 month (December). The calculation still applies: (Dues / 12) × (12 - 12 + 1) = (Dues / 12) × 1 = Dues/12.
Proration applies to all dues buckets proportionally. If Chapter dues are $600 of $1200 total, and the invoice is prorated to 50%, both Chapter and total scale to $300. The ratio is preserved.
💰 The 15-for-12 Program: The $0 Invoice
Members who join in October, November, or December are eligible for 15-for-12: they pay for 12 months of membership but get 15 months. The system implements this by creating a $0 renewal invoice for Year 2. The Original amounts are full-year amounts. The Credit amounts are also full-year amounts. The Total owed is $0. The invoice is marked as Paid on the same date as the Year 1 invoice, and it's flagged as "15-for-12" so staff knows it's not an uncollected invoice.
This feature has been a source of defects in the past. The $0 invoice must be created correctly, marked as paid, and properly flagged. If any of these fail, Year 2 appears to have no invoice, which can cause issues in batch invoicing and monthly reporting.
👤 Life Members: Individual and Rare
Most membership is company-based (dues categories, tiers, revenue-based pricing). But a small subset of members are Life Members — individuals afforded lifetime membership status in recognition of substantial past contributions to ABC. They don't fit the standard company-dues-category model. Life Members are tracked in the system separately and have special handling during batch invoicing and reporting.
🗄️ Non-CHAD2 Chapters: File Imports Instead of Real-Time Data
Not all ABC chapters use CHAD2 as their member database. Some chapters use legacy systems or external AMS software. For these chapters, the M&D module supports monthly file imports. Chapter staff upload a Bridge file (from a third-party vendor) or a Load file (from legacy CHAD), the system parses and transforms the data, and treats it as if members and invoices were created directly in CHAD2.
The import process transforms flat-file data into CHAD2's relational structure. If the import has structural errors, the system communicates what's wrong. After a successful import, the chapter proceeds with the same monthly reporting workflow as CHAD2 chapters.
💵 PAC and Voluntary Contributions: Opting In and Out
PAC (Political Action Committee) contributions and FEA/TCEF contributions are additional line items on invoices. Some are mandatory (always invoiced), others are voluntary (members choose to opt in or opt out on the invoice or portal). The system tracks member selections and records them per invoice. Voluntary items default to "opt in" status, but members can uncheck them to exclude from payment.
Glossary
Quick reference for terms you'll encounter throughout the ABC Membership & Dues module. Bookmark this section.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Chapter | Independent local organization chartered by ABC National. The direct interface with member companies. |
| Chapter Office | Territorial subdivision within a Chapter. |
| Primary Chapter | The one Chapter through which a company pays National dues. Every company has exactly one. |
| Chapter-Only Member | A member company that pays National dues through a different chapter but belongs to this chapter (pays chapter/state dues only). |
| National-Paying Member | A member company that pays National dues through this chapter. The most common type. |
| Dues Category | Membership tier based on company type (contractor, associate, supplier) and revenue. Determines invoice amounts. |
| Dues Schedule | Grouping of categories with dollar amounts for a year. A chapter can have multiple schedules in the same year. |
| National Category | Numeric identifier (accepts decimals) that maps a chapter's category to ABC National's category structure. Used to lock National dues amounts. |
| Invoice Type | Three types: New (N) for first-year members, Renewal (R) for subsequent years, Adjusted (A) for corrections/modifications. |
| Invoice Status | Open (unpaid), Paid (payment received), or Dropped (member cancelled, invoice void). |
| Prorated Invoice | A Year 2 invoice reduced to cover only the remaining months of the calendar year after Year 1 membership ends. |
| 15-for-12 | Program offering 15 months of membership for paying 12 months of dues. Eligible if member joined Oct/Nov/Dec. |
| FEA | Free Enterprise Alliance — issue advocacy donations, optional additional line item on invoices. |
| TCEF / Trimmer | Trimmer Construction Education Foundation — education donations, optional additional line item on invoices. |
| PAC | Political Action Committee — political contributions, optional additional line item on invoices. |
| Preference Set | Named grouping of memos, discounts, and additional line items created during batch invoicing for reuse across batch runs. |
| Discount-If-Paid-By | Early-payment incentive with fixed date range (e.g., 10% off if paid by Nov 15). Can be flat $ or percentage. |
| Dues Report Transition Date | National setting (e.g., the 20th of each month) controlling which month defaults on the Monthly Dues screen. |
| SPM | Schedule of Paid Members — counts New and Renewal invoices only (excludes Adjusted). Used for financial reporting. |
| Wells Fargo (WF) | Payment processor through which chapters remit National dues and contributions to ABC National monthly. |
| XREF | Cross-reference linking a chapter-only member to their national-paying chapter. Validated at payment time. |
| Bridge File | Monthly data file from third-party AMS vendors, used by non-CHAD2 chapters to import member/invoice data. |
| Load File | Monthly data file from legacy CHAD, used by non-CHAD2 chapters to import member/invoice data. |
| CHAD | Legacy AMS (Access-based system), predecessor to CHAD2. |
| CHAD2 | New web-based AMS currently being built, replacing CHAD. |
| Billing ID | System ID for additional line items (FEA, TCEF, PAC, custom items). |
| Member Portal Admin (Level 3) | Contact within a member company authorized to view and pay invoices in the member portal. |
| No-Login Payment Link | Invoice-specific URL included in email that members can click to pay without portal login (includes reCAPTCHA and lockout). |
| Life Member | Individual afforded lifetime ABC membership in recognition of substantial contribution. Tracked separately from company members. |
| Processing Queue | National Staff's dashboard showing all chapters' monthly submissions sorted by status (Open, Submitted, Under Review, Approved, Published). |
| Line Alert Status | Audit result flag on monthly invoices: OK (pass all audits), Information (minor issue), Warning (possible issue), Error (likely issue). |
Testing Strategy & Priorities
High-level approach, critical workflows, and regression focus areas
Invoice Rules & Management
Validation testing, create/edit/delete rules, type restrictions, and category changes
Scenario Thinking
Cross-functional scenarios and what-if analysis for comprehensive testing.
Dues Year Setup Testing
Category creation, schedules, discounts, memos, and copy-from-year workflows
Batch Invoicing & Audits
12 total audits (6 member, 5 invoice, 1 email merge), Step 1-3 validation, and preference sets
Regression Checklists
Organized regression testing coverage by feature area.
Portal Testing
No-login access, reCAPTCHA, payment gateway, already-paid scenarios, and member dashboard
Monthly Dues Process & National Reporting
Chapter submission, National queue, status transitions, month-closed restrictions, and versioning
Integration Points & Cross-Module Dependencies
Wells Fargo, email system, company profiles, and module dependencies