How to Create Your Apple Developer Account

Overview

Apple requires each of our clients to have their own Apple Developer Account and to grant MembersFirst permission to administer, develop for, and push applications on their behalf, in order to build a Mobile App in their ecosystem. The process to sign up for an account requires an employee from the club create a club-owned account, enable Two Factor Authentication through a club-owned Apple device, and grant administrative access to the MembersFirst team in order to serve an app to your members.

In order to apply for an Apple Account you should be comfortable providing Apple:

Basic business information about your club
A DUNS number (if you don't already have one, don't worry. Apple allows you to apply during the process of creating your account.)
A Credit Card from the same country in which the business is registered.

An Apple Developer account costs $99.00 USD annually and must be maintained to ensure any mobile apps that are developed under the account remain active in the Apple App Store. Your responsibility as the owner of the Apple ID is to make sure that the annual fee is paid directly to Apple every year and that any license agreements or updates to Apple's Terms of Service are agreed upon by the account holder. Please be sure that the email address you use to set-up the account is one that's monitored as there will be some information related to the health of your account that you will need to respond to. Delinquency in response or payment to Apple can result in your app being removed from the App Store.

Two Factor Authentication

As of March 2019, Apple now requires that every new Apple ID have Two Factor Authentication enabled in order to create an account that can support an app. This means that the club will be responsible for having an Apple Device on-premise in order to fully set-up their Apple ID. For many clubs, this is already happening in the Pro Shop or Events departments as they tend to be mobile-friendly first, however, if you do not have a club-owned Apple device available, one will need to be purchased to complete the Apple ID set-up. For more information on what Two Factor Authentication is, and how to enable it on your Apple ID, click here.

Apple ID

Start the process of creating an Apple ID. MembersFirst STRONGLY RECOMMENDS that any account you create is not tied to a single employee at the club, but rather an alias as it is very difficult to transfer ownership of the app from a single person's account to another if that person leaves the club. We recommend one of the following aliases:

Apple will ask for the following information:

First Name
Last Name
Country
Birthday
Email (This will be your new Apple ID.)
Password
Security Question 1
Security Question 2
Security Question 3

Once you've successfully created your Apple ID, and have enabled Two Factor Authentication, you are ready to begin enrollment in the Apple Developer Program.

Apple Developer Program

Click on Enroll. Enrolling as an organization requires the Apple ID you created previously. The entity with whom the Apple ID is associated will be the Legal Contact and will be required to respond to any changes with respect to Terms and Conditions.
In addition, you will be required to provide a DUNS number. If your organization does not already have one, instructions on acquiring one are available at https://developer.apple.com/support/D-U-N-S/
Accept the Apple Developer agreement and follow the instructions on the page.
Apple will call you at the telephone number supplied to verify your information before sending you an email to continue the Apple Developer Program enrollment.
- If Apple does not call you in a timely fashion you can log into your Apple ID account and then go to this support page to initiate a support call.
There is a link within the email to review the program license agreement and pay the annual fee.
- **Please Note: it may take up to 48 hours for Apple to approve your application.
Once everything is completed, you can sign into the App Store Connect website at https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/login
Go to Users and Access, and add the account your Project Manager provided you (i.e. [email protected]) as an Administrator on the account. This will allow MembersFirst to manage the app.

Apple Developer Account

Go back to your Apple Developer Account.
Click "People" on the left menu.
Invite the account your Project Manager provided you (for example, [email protected]) as an admin to your account.

Post-Mobile App Launch

Following the launch of your mobile app with MembersFirst, please keep a close eye on your email address that is registered to your Apple accounts. Apple updates their agreements and conditions quite frequently and these need to be approved by the account holder. MembersFirst can not accept these agreements on behalf of the client. If these emails and updated agreements are not reacted to, we run the risk of Apple removing the mobile app from the App Store, or preventing scheduled updates to be released.