BECS direct debit · Your own Stripe account

Gym direct debit software built for Australia

Members pay straight from their bank account on a schedule you set. Failed payments retry themselves. Every dollar settles into a Stripe account you own — never ours.

Flat 2.75% + 30¢ per transaction, all-in. No commission on anything you sell.

Why direct debit still beats cards for memberships

Card payments have one structural problem for recurring memberships: cards expire. Every January a wave of reissued Visas and Mastercards quietly breaks a slice of a gym's revenue, and the owner spends a fortnight chasing members who genuinely believed they were paid up.

BECS direct debit avoids that failure mode entirely by drawing from the bank account rather than a card with an expiry date. Bank details change far less often than cards do — which is why direct debit has been the backbone of Australian gym billing for decades, long before any of this ran on software.

It is also the clearest test of whether a platform was designed for this market. Software built for a card-first market treats direct debit as a feature request. Software built here treats it as the default path.

What's included

On every plan — there is no billing tier and no payments add-on.

Card and BECS direct debit
Australian members pay from their bank account or by card, whichever they prefer. No card-expiry churn every January.
Five billing frequencies
Weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or yearly — matched to how your community actually gets paid.
Automatic retries
A failed payment retries on the next billing run, plus one-click manual retry from the dashboard. No logging into Stripe.
Never falsely paid-up
A subscription isn't marked paid until the charge actually succeeds — so you don't unknowingly give away memberships.
Your Stripe, your money
Revenue settles into your own connected Stripe account. Your payment relationships stay yours no matter what.
Transparent, flat fees
2.75% + 30¢ per transaction, all-in, with no platform commission on top. International cards add 1.5%.

Billing frequency is a failed-payment strategy

Failed payments cluster around a small number of causes: expired cards, insufficient funds on a payday mismatch, and members who changed banks without telling anyone. Direct debit solves the first. Billing frequency solves the second.

This is the underrated argument for fortnightly billing in Australia. A member paid fortnightly whose gym fee comes out monthly is being asked to hold a larger balance than their cash flow naturally supports, and the failures land in the same week every month. Matching billing frequency to how your community actually gets paid removes a category of failure rather than managing it.

For the failures that remain, two things matter: automatic retry on the next run, so a temporary shortfall doesn't need human intervention, and never marking a member paid-up until the charge succeeds. Optimistic accounting there is how gyms end up giving memberships away without noticing.

WeeklyFortnightlyMonthlyQuarterlyYearly

Who holds your payment relationship

Most comparison of billing platforms stops at the percentage, which is understandable and incomplete. The more consequential question is who holds the relationship with the payment processor — because that determines what happens if you ever want to leave.

When payments run through a platform's own merchant account, your members' saved payment methods live inside that platform's system. Moving to different software then means re-collecting bank or card details from every member, which is the single most disruptive thing you can ask an entire membership base to do — and a substantial reason gyms stay on software they have outgrown.

WeeksPro connects to a Stripe account you own. Your revenue lands in your account, your members' payment methods sit under your merchant record, and switching software stays a software decision. It is worth checking which arrangement any platform is offering before the fee comparison, not after.

Frequently asked questions

What is BECS direct debit?
BECS — the Bulk Electronic Clearing System — is the Australian bank-to-bank payment network that direct debits run on. For a gym it means a member's fee is drawn straight from their bank account on schedule, rather than charged to a card that carries an expiry date. It has been the backbone of Australian gym billing for decades for exactly that reason.
Can members pay by card as well as direct debit?
Yes, and offering both is the practical answer. Some members strongly prefer a card, particularly for shorter commitments, and forcing a single method costs you sign-ups. What matters is that direct debit exists as a first-class option rather than an afterthought bolted onto a platform built for a card-first market.
How often can I bill members?
Weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Fortnightly is underrated in Australia: a member paid fortnightly whose gym fee comes out monthly is being asked to hold a larger balance than their cash flow supports, and the failures land in the same week every month.
Where does the money go?
Into your own Stripe account. WeeksPro connects to a Stripe account you own rather than holding funds in a merchant account of its own, so your revenue and your members' saved payment methods sit under your merchant record — and stay yours if you ever leave.
What happens when a payment fails?
It is retried automatically on the next billing run, and you can retry it manually with one click from the dashboard. A member's subscription is never marked paid-up until the charge actually succeeds, so you don't end up unknowingly giving away memberships.
What are the fees?
A flat 2.75% + 30¢ per transaction, all-in — processing included, with no platform commission stacked on top. International cards attract an additional 1.5% surcharge. The WeeksPro software fee is separate and flat: A$89/month +GST for up to 50 members through to A$279 for up to 500.
Do you charge per member or take a cut of my revenue?
No. There is no per-member charge and no commission on bookings, event tickets or retail. Your monthly tier fee is the whole software cost, so a good year doesn't cost you more for identical software.
Can I move my existing direct debit members across?
Studios switching with 50 or more members get a free white-glove migration performed personally by the founder — members, class schedules and billing — plus a 24-month price lock. Members will need to authorise the new direct debit under your Stripe account, which is a normal part of any billing platform change.

Stop chasing payments

30-day free trial with every feature, no credit card. Switching with 50+ members? The founder migrates you personally, free, and locks your price for 24 months.