GSheet Membership

In Recent Purchases, choose Reconcile and then "Abandon a sandbox test purchase". Verify the original transaction in the payment provider's test or sandbox environment, confirm that no real funds were charged, and confirm that any test roster changes have been removed or reversed without deleting a legitimate membership. Record a short note and mark it reconciled. This permanently prevents another fulfillment attempt for that payment without claiming a refund or a completed membership, and does not approve an email addition. Known live transactions cannot use this shortcut: a real-money purchase made for testing still needs a completed full refund or the correct fulfilled membership. Original errors and email-status notes remain available in expandable details instead of an active failure warning.

No — never. You only share it with the service account email address. It remains completely private to all other users.

The OpenSSL extension is needed to sign the JWT for authentication. It is enabled by default on virtually all shared and managed WordPress hosts (including WP Engine, Kinsta, SiteGround, Flywheel, and others).

No. Users with the manage_options capability always bypass all membership checks.

It is stored in your WordPress database (the wp_options table). With OpenSSL available, the plugin encrypts it using this installation's security salts; if encryption is unavailable, the credential-saving routine can retain plaintext rather than replace a working credential with unusable ciphertext. Check the encryption status on the Access settings screen. It is never sent to the browser or written to a file by the plugin. Keep the salts and database backups secure.

After the encrypted whole-roster cache expires (default 5 minutes / 300 seconds), the next read fetches fresh data and writes a newly encrypted payload. Reduce the cache duration in settings or click Clear Cache to force the next read to refresh.

The plugin logs an error and denies access as a safe default. Use Save & Test Main Roster in settings to verify connectivity. Signing in: verification code, then password This works for any member already on the roster, whether they got there through the plugin's own purchase pathway or not — a name typed in manually, imported from a spreadsheet, added after a mailed-in check, however your roster is maintained. The sign-in flow doesn't care how someone became a member, only that their email is on the sheet. It's part of the free plugin. There's no separate account-creation step. A member enters their email, and what happens next depends on whether they've signed in before: First time signing in? A 6-digit verification code is emailed to them. They enter the code and are prompted to create a password. From then on, that password signs them in directly. Already have a password? The code step is skipped entirely — they go straight to a normal password sign-in. (Pro's Authenticated mailbox sending, below, improves deliverability of these verification codes — it doesn't add the sign-in flow itself.) Authenticated mailbox sending (Pro add-on) With the GSheet Membership Pro add-on, you can connect a real mailbox (Google sign-in or an App Password) on the main settings page and route login verification codes, purchase confirmations and gift notices through it. A rejected verification code falls back to the site's normal mailer. Group Email can also use the authenticated mailbox for batched sending, or use Mailchimp for campaign delivery. Correctly configured mailbox authentication can improve deliverability; it does not guarantee that messages avoid spam filters. Group Email: message your roster (Pro add-on) With the GSheet Membership Pro add-on, the Group Email page in Membership Access lets you compose a message and send it to your roster — everyone, or a subset filtered by membership code. Delivery can use the site's batched mailer (including an authenticated mailbox) or a connected Mailchimp audience. Mailchimp can sync the filtered audience before a classic-mode send or target a segment of the synced full roster. Chapter sites send Group Email to their local chapter roster only, even if their access checks also include the main roster. Direct delivery and Mailchimp campaigns have different unsubscribe and reporting behavior; Pro includes send history and delivery reports. There are two ways to trigger a send: filling out the compose form yourself, or Email-in — forwarding a single email to a dedicated mailbox, covered next. Email-in: trigger a group email by forwarding a message (Pro add-on) Email-in is the second way to send a Group Email: instead of the compose form, you forward a message to a dedicated mailbox (e.g. blast@example.org). The plugin checks that mailbox on a schedule (IMAP); a message from an authorized sender that meets the subject-keyword rule is queued under the same audience rules as the compose form. The configured delivery method determines whether it goes through site mail or Mailchimp. Setting it up Create a dedicated mailbox for intake (a Gmail / Google Workspace account works well). Don't reuse a personal inbox — every unread message is examined. For Gmail / Google Workspace: enable IMAP (Gmail Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP), turn on 2-Step Verification for the account, and create an App Password (Google Account → Security → App passwords). The regular account password will NOT work over IMAP. In Membership Access → Group Email, fill in the Email-in card: host imap.gmail.com, port 993, the mailbox address as username, and the App Password. Add the email addresses allowed to trigger a send (one per line) and — strongly recommended — a required subject keyword. Enable polling, click Test connection, then send yourself a trial: forward a message from an allowlisted address (with the keyword in the subject) and click Check mailbox now.

The From: address of an email can be forged (spoofing) — an allowlist alone is not sufficient protection for something that can email your whole membership. The required subject keyword adds a second check; keep it private and choose a non-obvious phrase. The keyword is stripped from the subject before delivery. This does not replace mailbox security or prevent an attacker who learns the keyword from sending a forged message. Audience & attachments Embed a code filter in the subject to target membership levels: Meeting notes [codes: GOLD,SILVER]. The tag is removed before delivery. Without a tag, the membership code filter saved on the Group Email page is applied; if that filter is blank, all members receive the message. Works on both main and chapter sites. Chapter sites send to the local chapter roster only — the code filter narrows within that roster, regardless of whether access checks also use the main roster. Email-in attachments are uploaded to the media library. With Pro's File Delivery link mode, every attachment becomes an expiring, recipient-bound link that opens without a login; PDFs may also be watermarked for the recipient. With link mode off, the first file is attached to site mail (or converted to a link if over 5 MB), while additional files use shared login-gated links. Mailchimp link mode supports up to five personalized file links per campaign; additional files are omitted with a notice. Accepted and permanently skipped authorized messages are marked read and recorded to avoid duplicate sends. Unauthorized or unrelated messages are ignored and left unread, with their IDs recorded so they are not repeatedly processed. Sales — sell memberships The Sales half of GSheet Membership puts a configurable buy-membership picker on any page and, on a successful payment, writes (or updates) the buyer's row in your private Google Sheet so they can immediately log in on your site. Three-dimensional picker — buyers choose Delivery (Electronic / Print / Both) × Duration (1-Year and Lifetime included by default; the Pro add-on adds custom levels and multi-year durations) × Postage (Regular, First Class, Canada/Mexico, Other International), and the price updates live as they change selections. Discrete pricing matrix — you set the exact price for every saleable combination in the admin. Enter 0 for a free membership that skips the gateway; leave a cell blank to make that combination unavailable. Stripe Checkout — the free plugin uses Connect with Stripe and hosted onboarding, with no API keys to paste; Pro can use your own Stripe keys instead. Card details stay on Stripe's hosted checkout page. Pro's own-key settings provide a Test/Live switch; free Connect has no separate mode switch in WordPress. PayPal Standard Checkout (requires the Pro add-on) — buyers can optionally pay via PayPal instead of (or in addition to) Stripe. Both gateways share the same sheet-upsert pipeline, purchase log, and retry UI. Sheet upsert — on a verified webhook the plugin first tries to update the row that matches the buyer's email; if there is no row, it appends one. Renewals extend an existing future expiration date instead of overwriting it. Reliable webhook pipeline — per-event and per-email atomic locks prevent duplicate writes from concurrent webhook redeliveries; a sheet-write failure returns HTTP 500 so Stripe retries, and the admin sees a notice. The Pro add-on adds an admin retry control for failed sheet writes. Buyer confirmation email — configurable subject and body with placeholders (first name, selection, amount, code, expiration, login URL, etc.). Integrations can enrich purchase variables with gsms_purchase_email_vars and adjust the rendered confirmation body with gsms_confirmation_body. Roster-aware checkout and contact collection — checkout distinguishes the signed-in purchaser's own verified email from another entered email or a gift recipient. Add-ons can collect contact fields independently of local sheet-write columns using the same field list for rendering and paid-checkout validation. With Chapters, this supports international State / Province / Region, Country, and Zone for main-organization reporting without local mappings. Electronic-delivery buyers can select the international-address checkbox when international fields are collected, even without a local ZIP column; administrator direct-apply still uses only local mappings. Admin direct-apply — a separate [gsms_admin_picker] shortcode lets a site administrator apply a membership directly to the sheet without taking a payment, perfect for comp memberships, cheque / cash-in-hand orders, or back-filling an old purchase. Membership Level Names — map the raw membership codes stored in your sheet to human-readable names, so a member who's denied access sees a name like "Gold Member" instead of the raw code. Pro adds a level editor; copying Pro levels to free-only storage requires an explicit administrator action. Requirements PHP 7.4+ with the standard openssl, hash, and mbstring extensions (already enabled on every major WordPress host). WordPress 5.9+. The access features (above) configured with a working Service Account — the sales pipeline reuses the same sheet-writer. A Stripe account for live or test payments (a PayPal developer account too, if you use the Pro add-on's PayPal checkout). Selling setup Configure the Access settings first (see Installation above) and confirm the Save & Test Main Roster button succeeds. Go to Membership Sales in the WordPress admin sidebar. Every sub-page shows a "Setup" notice at the top reminding you which shortcode to put on which page. Fill in the Pricing Matrix, Code Matrix, and Payments sub-pages (see Configuration below). Create a page containing only the shortcode [gsma_membership_purchase] — that is the buy page. Create (or pick) a thank-you page and put [gsma_user_info] on it (that shortcode shows the buyer's status with an inline login form when they're not yet signed in). Select that page on the Settings sub-page under Thank-you page. Shortcodes [gsma_login_form] — renders the sign-in form (email, then a first-time verification code or a returning password) on the page you choose as the Custom Login Page. Independent of the Sales feature — every site can use it. [gsma_membership_purchase] — renders the full picker (Delivery × Duration × Postage) with live total and the Buy membership button. Place this on the page where you want to take payments. [gsms_admin_picker] — admin-only variant of the picker that applies a membership directly to the sheet without any payment. Only site administrators (manage_options) see it; everyone else sees a polite notice. [gsma_user_info] — place it on the thank-you page so buyers see their membership status (and an inline login form when they aren't logged in). Admin sub-pages Pricing Matrix — one row per Delivery, one column per Postage, repeated for each Duration. Type a price into a cell to make it saleable, including 0 for a free membership; leave it blank to make that combination unavailable. The Membership Levels block above the grid lets you choose which levels are currently offered for purchase. Code Matrix — the membership code written into the buyer's sheet row for each combination. Every membership level gets its own row of codes. Levels beyond the built-in 1-Year and Lifetime, including multi-year durations, can be added with the Pro add-on; each new level gets its own Code Matrix row automatically. A warning is shown if any saleable cell is missing a code. Payments — enable Stripe and use Connect with Stripe in the free plugin (no API keys or Stripe webhook secret to paste). With Pro, use your own Stripe keys instead and optionally enable PayPal, which has its own credentials and webhook setup. General Settings (sidebar label Settings) — currency, thank-you page picker, optional override of the access settings' expiration column, annual new-member bonus cutoff, buyer confirmation email templates, and option labels. Recent Purchases — the last 200 purchase events with gateway and sheet status. Reconcile guides administrators through the original-payment, intended-membership and correction checks, with a shorter path for a completed full refund and a missing-record review when an entry is no longer retained. It records the verified outcome without charging, refunding or editing the roster, prevents another renewal from that payment, and clears the warning only when no unresolved failures remain. Pro adds an inline Retry form for failed sheet writes and refunds for supported purchases; refundable Stripe Connect sales can also be refunded in the free plugin. Configuration: webhooks Stripe Connect (free plugin): On the Payments page, click Connect with Stripe and complete Stripe's hosted onboarding. No Stripe API keys or direct webhook signing secret are entered in the free plugin; payment confirmations are relayed through the hosted Connect service. Direct Stripe API keys (Pro add-on only): If you choose Pro's own-key mode instead of Connect, configure separate Test/Live keys on the Payments page and register its direct webhook: Developers → Webhooks → Add endpoint. Paste the Stripe Webhook URL shown on the Pro Payments page (ends in /wp-json/gsma-sales/v1/stripe-webhook). Subscribe to a single event: checkout.session.completed. Copy the resulting Signing secret (whsec_...) into Pro's matching webhook field for that mode. PayPal (requires the Pro add-on): In the PayPal developer dashboard → My Apps & Credentials → your app → Add webhook. Paste the PayPal Webhook URL shown on the plugin's Payments page (ends in /wp-json/gsma-sales/v1/paypal-webhook). Subscribe to CHECKOUT.ORDER.APPROVED and PAYMENT.CAPTURE.COMPLETED. Copy the resulting Webhook ID into the matching field on the plugin's Payments page.

The picker can be exercised without a payment gateway. A price of 0 also completes a free membership without sending the buyer to Stripe or PayPal. 1. Picker UI / pricing layout (no gateway at all) Fill in just the Pricing Matrix (real prices) and the Code Matrix (any short string like TEST). Visit your buy page. The picker renders, the cheapest combination is preselected, and clicking different options updates the live total. Leave a cell blank in the Pricing Matrix and reload — that postage / duration is greyed-out and unselectable, and the Buy membership button is disabled if the current selection has no price. 2. End-to-end with Stripe in TEST mode (Pro own-key setup) Sign up for a free Stripe account. No bank details are needed for test mode. Activate Pro, enable Stripe on Payments, select Test under Your own Stripe keys (Pro), save your pk_test_... and sk_test_... keys, and register the test-mode direct webhook as described above. The free Connect setup does not offer a Test/Live switch in the WordPress settings; do not use a test card against a live connected account. Visit the buy page, fill in a test email/name, click Buy membership, and on the Stripe checkout page use the official test card: Card number: 4242 4242 4242 4242 Expiry: any future date   CVC: any 3 digits   ZIP: any 5 digits After the redirect, open Membership Sales → Recent Purchases in the admin. Once the payment confirmation is delivered, you should see a new entry with paid from Stripe and inserted (or updated) for the sheet.

The first delivery is processed normally. Any duplicate of the same event is identified and returns HTTP 200 with status: duplicate without writing to the sheet. Two concurrent deliveries for the same event are serialized via an atomic per-event lock; the loser receives HTTP 409 so the gateway retries it. From 1.7.13 each processed event is stored as its own wp_options row with a 72-hour TTL — there is no fixed-size eviction window that could cause old-but-recent events to fall off and be reprocessed.