Anyone who has ever managed memberships in a spreadsheet knows the routine: open the file, scroll through every row, and manually check each join date against today's date to figure out who's about to expire. Miss one row, and a member's access quietly lapses without anyone noticing until they complain.

In this tutorial, we'll build a Membership Expiry Alert system — a table that automatically flags each member as "Active," "Expiring Soon," or "Expired," based on their join date and membership duration. No manual checking, no forgotten renewals.

Why this matters

A date sitting in a cell doesn't tell you anything by itself. What matters is the relationship between that date and today. Instead of checking that relationship manually every day, we'll let the system evaluate it continuously and surface the answer as a clear label.

Step 1: Create the Member Table

Start by creating a table to hold your membership records.

Click the add table button in the sidebar to create a new table

Name the new table Member

Add the basic fields you'd expect for a membership record: Name, Phone, Join Date, and Duration (in days).

Click the schema button to quickly add new columns to the Member table

Member table with Name, Phone, Join Date, and Duration fields added

For the Join Date field, choose the Date data type. For Duration, use Number and treat it as the number of days the membership lasts (for example, 30 for a monthly plan, 365 for an annual one).

Think ahead about your date math

Duration doesn't have to be in days — you could use months instead, as long as you're consistent. What matters is that the field clearly represents "how long this membership lasts from the join date," since that's what the next step will calculate against.

Step 2: Calculate the Expiry Date

Before we can flag anything, we need to know exactly when each membership expires. Rather than asking members to calculate this themselves, let's have the system do it.

Add a new column and choose Custom Logic as the data type.

Add a new column and select Custom Logic as the data type

Describe what you want in plain language: add the Duration (in days) to the Join Date to calculate the Expiry Date.

Describe the logic in plain sentence, for example add Duration days to Join Date to get Expiry Date

The system will show a clarification step to confirm your intention matches what it's about to build.

Clarification screen showing the system's interpretation of the expiry date calculation

Click Save to confirm.

What just happened

You now have an Expiry Date field that recalculates itself automatically. Change a member's Join Date or Duration, and the Expiry Date updates immediately — no manual math required.

Step 3: Flag Members as Expiring Soon or Expired

Now for the actual alert. Add another Custom Logic column, this time describing the flagging rule: if the Expiry Date has already passed, mark it as "Expired"; if it falls within the next 7 days, mark it as "Expiring Soon"; otherwise, mark it as "Active."

Add another Custom Logic column and describe the flagging rule comparing Expiry Date to today

Confirm the clarification screen once the system interprets your description.

Clarification screen confirming the conditional logic for Active, Expiring Soon, and Expired statuses

Click Save.

Why this works differently than a spreadsheet formula

In a spreadsheet, this would normally require a nested IF formula referencing TODAY(), which breaks the moment someone edits the wrong cell or copies it incorrectly. Here, the rule lives as a described intention — it doesn't break, and it re-evaluates every day without you touching it.

Step 4: Add Your Data

Let's test it. Add a handful of member records with different join dates and durations, so you can see all three statuses in action.

Click the add record button to create a new member entry

placeholder-11.png

Add a few more records:

A member who joined recently with a 30-day duration — should show Active
A member whose 30-day duration ends in the next few days — should show Expiring Soon
A member whose duration already passed — should show Expired

Today is 20 August 2026

Member table showing multiple records with different Join Date and Duration values

Once saved, look at the Status column — every row already shows the correct flag, calculated the moment the data was entered.

Member table displaying the Status column with Active, Expiring Soon, and Expired labels filled in automatically

Step 5: Build a Filtered View for Renewals

Knowing the status of every member is useful, but what you really want day-to-day is a quick list of who needs attention right now. Let's build a saved view for that.

Create a new view on the Member table, and add a filter where Status equals "Expiring Soon" or "Expired."

Create a new filtered view and set the condition where Status equals Expiring Soon or Expired

Save the view with a clear name, like "Needs Renewal."

Saved view named Needs Renewal showing only members flagged as Expiring Soon or Expired

The wow moment

Instead of scrolling through your entire member list every morning, you open one saved view and immediately see exactly who's about to lose access or already has. No manual checking, no spreadsheet scrolling.

Step 6: Keep It Accurate Over Time

Say a member renews their membership. Update their Join Date to reflect the new renewal date.
Updated Join Date from 20/06/2026 -> 22/08/2026

Editing a member's Join Date field to reflect a new renewal

The Expiry Date and Status fields recalculate instantly — no need to touch either of them manually.
Flag changes from Expired -> Active

Member record showing updated Expiry Date and Status after the Join Date was changed

What this replaces

This single update replaces manually recalculating the expiry date, re-checking the status, and possibly forgetting to update one or the other — all common ways renewal tracking quietly falls apart in a spreadsheet.

Recap: What You Built

Across these steps, you created:

A Member table with Join Date and Duration fields
A Custom Logic field calculating Expiry Date automatically
A second Custom Logic field flagging each member as Active, Expiring Soon, or Expired
A filtered view surfacing only the members who need attention
A system that stays accurate on its own as members renew

What you had before	What you have now
Manually checking every row's date against today	Status calculated and flagged automatically
Renewals easy to overlook	A dedicated view showing only who needs action
Formulas that break with one wrong edit	A described rule that keeps working as data changes

This pattern — combining a calculated date field with conditional flagging — applies well beyond memberships. The same approach works for subscription renewals, contract expirations, warranty tracking, or any scenario where "how much time is left" matters.

Try it yourself

This exact setup is available as a ready-made template. Duplicate it, explore it live, and make it yours with just a few clicks.