Any linkage between contribution and membership records?

The only link between CiviContribute and CiviMember is the payment record associated with a membership. This is stored in civicrm_membership_payment table with an indirect FK to a civicrm_contribution record (since they could be potentially other forms of payment beyond CiviContribute).

You can configure online contribution pages to include a membership signup/renewal block. When user signs up/renews on these pages we automatically create:

• a contact record (if this is a new contact in your DB)
• a contribution record
• a membershp record
• a membership payment record which links the membership to the "contribution"

If you are entering a Membership manually from a contact record page, I think you need to:

1. Create / Edit the membership record in the Memberships pane of the contact record
2. Create the payment as a contribution in the Contributions pane of the contact record
3. If you add members to any Groups (eg "Members"), you need to do that manually too.

You could, I believe, integrate steps 2 and 3 by creating a Profile of type Contribution and including the "Add to group" there.

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