Direct Debit Best Practices - GoCardless for Cheqdin

1. Invoice Due Dates 

Direct debit runs are triggered according to the invoices that you have sent. Multiple direct debit runs will be initiated if you post multiple invoices in a month to the same billpayer.

We recommend that you:

• Provide sufficient time for your customers to make payments.
• Give a minimum of 7 days as the due date (from the date the invoice was issued).
• Do not trigger multiple invoices in the same period as much as possible.
• Maintain at least a 7- 10 days gap between the due dates of the invoices.

For example, if Billpayer A's first invoice was issued on 1st August, with the invoice due date as the 7th, the second invoice should ideally be sent after the 14th as this will give ample time for the previous direct debit to go through.

2. Completing GoCardless Account Verification 

Verify your account by updating your bank details to receive payments.

When you sign up for direct debit, you’ll receive an email from GoCardless with instructions to complete the verification process. It is vital that you complete the verification process to receive payout funds to your bank account. To complete the verification, Sign in to your GoCardless account.

3. Send Mandates 

Inviting a parent/bill payer to set up a direct debit with your centre is simple, you can do this by sending mandates from your billing dashboard. The billpayer will receive an email with instructions on how to complete the setup. When a parent/bill payer has finished setting up their direct debit with your centre, your centre will be notified by email confirming the name of the bill payer who has completed the set-up. Also, the Direct debit status on your dashboard will change to 'Setup Complete'.      

In your Billing Dashboard, you will be able to:

• Send a link to your billpayers to set up Direct Debit
• Send a reminder to set up Direct Debit if they haven't set it up yet
• Cancel Direct Debit for a billpayer     

4. Sending Invoices 

Send invoices from Cheqdin to your customers for recurring or ad-hoc invoices.

When you send an invoice to a billpayer, they will receive an email along with the invoice. In the email, the bill payer will have a ‘Pay Now’ option, which they can use to change the amount to be debited from their account. This is particularly useful if your billpayer does not want to make the payment in full.

If a custom payment amount is not entered by the bill payer, the current (full) invoice amount will be debited from the customer's bank account on the due date.

5. How does the 'Pay Now' option work?

Payments will be automatically taken on the invoice due date if the bill payer has not taken any action.

When making a payment, if your customers have payment arrears or use alternate payment methods like voucher payments/others, they can enter an amount that they wish to make a payment for using the ‘Pay Now’ button (using the link they received by email).

6. The impact of initiating multiple invoices in the same period to a billpayer 

If one direct debit transaction is in progress, the other one will not be auto-processed. This is because, by default, direct debit does not allow overlapping transactions. 

If you have triggered multiple invoices (to a single bill payer) via direct debit, one transaction must be completed for the next one to run. When one transaction is completed, the bill payer will be notified by email to make a manual payment using the 'Pay Now' link in the email.

• If a direct auto-debit is in progress, the bill payer will not be able to make manual payments as the ‘Pay Now’ option will get disabled.
• Similarly, if a manual direct debit is in progress, the auto direct debit will be turned off for that invoice.
• Provide ample time for your customers to make payments - we recommend a minimum of 7 days as the due date
• As much as possible, do not trigger multiple invoices in the same period as this might confuse your billpayer.

Maintain a gap of at least 7- 10 days between the due dates for invoices.

7. How Payments Work 

To illustrate how payments with GoCardless for Cheqdin work, here’s a table on the payment cycles:

On average, it takes 5-7 working days to process a direct debit transaction.

8. Tracking & Reconciling Payments 

The live status of all direct debit payments can be viewed and tracked using 'Online Payments Summary' on your dashboard.

There are two payment modes:

Auto Direct Debit: Are transactions that were automatically triggered

Manual Payment - DD: Are transactions manually initiated by your customers

The direct debit payment status will fall under any of the following categories:

• In-Progress
• Successful
• Failed

Once a transaction has completed processing, the invoice status is automatically updated to paid/partially paid or unpaid.

9. Keeping track of Direct Debits 

You would be keen to find out who has set up a direct debit with your centre.

With Cheqdin's direct debit, you will be notified every time:

• When a customer/bill payer setups up a direct debit
• When you receive payments from your customers

Apart from initially verifying your bank account details using the GoCardless dashboard, you don’t have to use the GoCardless dashboard on a day-to-day basis. All direct debit-related information will be available in your Cheqdin Dashboard.

 10. Failed Transactions 

If for some reason, a direct debit transaction fails, the status of the transaction will be marked as 'Failed' in the 'Online Payments Summary' on your dashboard.

If you wish to find out the reason why a transaction failed, you will need to visit your GoCardless account dashboard (which opens on the GoCardless website) to understand the exact reason for the failure and thereafter get in touch with the customer to make a payment.

Here are your options for recovering a failed transaction:   

• Collect the money through offline payment methods such as cash, cheque, bank transfer, voucher, etc.
• Initiate a fresh invoice which will automatically calculate the payable amount

Need help? Contact us on live chat or write to support@cheqdin.com