Setting up direct debit payments through a business used to be a lot of hassle.
Businesses had to be big enough to ensure security for their clients and a business had to pass a fitness test before being allowed to participate in the direct debit scheme.
For ease, many businesses turned to bureaus - intermediaries - to process payments on their behalf. B
Thankfully, there are now much more easier options available to a business for setting up a direct debit payment facility.
Landscape Juice uses GoCardless to process direct debit payments.
Setting a client payment plan via GoCardless
The system is easy to administer, quick to set up and there are an array of tools available for collecting payments quickly and efficiently.
For example, you may have a client that you visit several times each month but you want to collect 12 equal payments throughout the year.
Go to the 'plans' section, click on the create plan button.
A pop-over box will appear asking for details of what the plan is about.
To set up a recurring payment, click the drop-down menu to the right of 'interval'. Choose how regularly you want to payment to recur.
It's possible to set up weekly or monthly as default but there is also the option to set up a custom recurring payment after so many days, weeks or months.
Fig 1. below demonstrates how easily it is to set up a unique plan for your client.
Once a new client payment schedule has been set up it will appear in the payments dashboard.
Setting up a one-off payment plan
It's also easy to set up and process single one-off payments.
Just go into the payment dashboard and click on the create a new plan button.
Fill in the details as before but this time select the 'just once' option from the drop down menu.
The one-off plan is then listed on the plans page. This can be deleted once payment has been processed.
Clicking on the plan reveals details for that plan. A link is generated that can be embedded into an email, a web page or invoice. If your businesses uses Xero, for example, an invoice can be generated with the payment linked embedded into an invoice generated directly.
The customer page lists out all clients that you have on the scheme, when they were set up. By clicking on each client you'll be taken to a transaction page where you can edit certain details, add notes and see a history of all transaction for that client.
From the 'payments' and 'payout' menus you can track payments that are pending and when they were transferred to your bank account.
Search for a client
There is a search bar that allows toy to search for clients or payments etc.
Set up and collect direct debit payments for your clients
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Replies
Just as easy to collect irregular payments. The GoCardless help system shows you how. For instance, I have one client who uses our services often but with no regularity - the jobs, therefore payments, vary and they can happen at any time of the month. We do the work, I submit the payment request to GoCardless and the invoice to the client, the money arrives automagically in our business account a few days later.
Clients like it, I love it.
Ditto for ease of use; it's great. About 35% of our existing clients use it and 50% of new ones. We estimate the service cost for the whole year (to end Feb) and then work out a monthly figure. One off adjustments/payments also easy to enter. Gives us a good deferred income in Jan and feb when things slightly quieter. Customers love it and are often really surprised that a small company can offer direct debit - gives customers a further positive view of your professionalism. Money is going in pretty much daily, with an email detailing payments & fees, plus get a end of month summary. Fees are 1% per transaction capped at £2. I don't mind this since it's similar for banking charges, but mostly the admin time saved is well worth it.
use it myself, great service