Using GoCardless direct debit

There are several ways to use GoCardless to collect direct debits. Keep in mind that some require a GoCardless Pro or higher subscription. In addition, you may need to get special approval from GoCardless to use certain collection processes, such as taking payments by phone or in writing. Please make sure to contact GoCardless in these cases. FinDock cannot provide these approvals for you.

GoCardless data mapping

To enrich the customer profile with payment data and allow for updates to (recurring) payments in GoCardless from Salesforce, FinDock makes sure data is available in both Salesforce and GoCardless. The table below shows the data mapping between FinDock and GoCardless.

Setting up GoCardless direct debits

You can create direct debits with the following mechanisms:

• FinDock Payment API
• FinDock Quick Direct Debit component
• GoCardless Payment Link or Email
• FinDock payment schedules (for recurring payments)

Currently unsupported or redundant mechanisms:

• Custom Hosted Payment Pages
• Notifications / Engagement from Salesforce
• Update of mandate and bank details from Salesforce
• Cancelling single installments / payments from Salesforce
• Setting up a new payment / recurring donation with an existing mandate
• Triggering refunds from Salesforce
• Subscriptions and plans in GoCardless
• Manual entry of mandates in GoCardless

GoCardless payments via FinDock Payment API

You can use your own online payment form or FinDock Giving Pages to create single or recurring direct debits via the FinDock Payment API.

To trigger a direct debit onboarding flow with GoCardless, use PaymentProcessor=GoCardless-FinDock and for PaymentMethod use one of the following options:

• ACH Direct Debit
• Autogiro
• BACS Direct Debit
• PAD
• SEPA Direct Debit

The flow redirects to a GoCardless page for the given payment method. For example, the Bacs DD redirect goes to a payment setup pages like this:

One-time payments are collected automatically. To generate and collect future payments of recurring direct debits, you need to run a payment schedule.

GoCardless Payment Link or Email

This option requires GoCardless Pro.

You can invite customers to set up a new direct debit through GoCardless Payment Links & Emails. The customer is redirected to the same setup page as when you use the FinDock Payment API.

As with the API flow, one-time payments are collected automatically, where recurring payments are created through payment schedules.

GoCardless Quick Direct Debit

This option requires GoCardless Pro and separate approval from GoCardless.

You can use the Quick Direct Debit component to manually set up a GoCardless direct debit payment from within Salesforce from a Contact or Person Account record.

To use Quick Direct Debit:

1. Go to the record of the payer for whom you want to set up a direct debit payment.
   
2. Make sure the record has both a name and email address for the payer.
3. Input the payer's Sort Code and Account Number in the Quick Direct Debit window.
4. Select One Time or Recurring payment.
   • If Recurring payment was selected, select a Frequency and a Start Date.
   • If One Time payment was selected, enter a Description.
5. Enter an amount
6. Click Submit.

FinDock automatically sets up the direct debit with GoCardless. If successful, you see a green success bar at the top. If not successful, you instead see a red error bar at the top with a suggestion on what needs to be fixed, like “Validation failed: email can't be blank.”

Once successful, FinDock also creates the corresponding records (installment, mandate, payment profile, etc.) for the payment in Salesforce and relates them to the contact or person account. You can later edit these records directly as needed.

Payment schedules with GoCardless

Individual payments (Installment records) of a recurring direct debit are generated and collected through payment schedules.

When you run a payment schedule, FinDock compares the due date of the installment with the Next Possible Collection Date on the mandate at GoCardless to determine what should be done.

• If the due date is before Next Possible Collection Date, FinDock does not send a date, but rather lets GoCardless handle the collection date.
• If the due date is after Next Possible Collection Date, FinDock sends the date to GoCardless, and they collect on that date.

Once a payment has been collected, the status and open amount of the installment in Salesforce are updated automatically.

Bacs and Autogiro compliance

Once you have set up a Bacs or Autogrio payment in FinDock, GoCardless will:

• Register the mandate with the scheme authorities and/or banks as required.
• Send required notifications to the payer. See also Payer notifications.
• Collect payments from payer bank accounts.
• Manage the mandate based on communication with the scheme authorities.
• Send you, the merchant, updates on payments, mandates and payers (customers).

FinDock automatically checks lead-time compliance on mandates and sets next charge dates in accordance with the given scheme requirements.

GoCardless mandate management

Mandate status for new direct debits

Mandates used for direct debit always go through a pending registration acceptance phase at GoCardless. However, the mandates may already be used in some direct debit schemes in this phase. To ensure the right payments are selected in a Payment Schedule, FinDock therefore sets the mandate to active as follows:

• ACH Direct Debit
  • Status: Pending registration acceptance
  • Active: True
• Autogiro
  • Status: Pending registration acceptance
  • Active: False
• Bacs Direct Debit
  • Status: Pending registration acceptance
  • Active: False
• PAD Direct Debit
  • Status: Pending registration acceptance
  • Active: False
• SEPA Direct Debit:
  • Status: Pending registration acceptance
  • Active: True

Updating and cancelling individual mandates

With FinDock you can update and cancel direct debit mandates from Salesforce. However, GoCardless allows for very limited updates to customer details, mandates and payments.

To change the following details, for example, you need to set up a new direct debit:

• Contact (Customer) email
• One-time payment amount
• Cancellation of payments already created in GoCardless
• Bank account details

To cancel an individual GoCardless direct debit mandate:

1. Go to the specific mandate record.
2. Click the Cancel Mandate button.
   

FinDock automatically sends the cancelation request to GoCardless. If the operation is successful, the mandate is deactivated and the record status in FinDock is updated to Cancelled.

Bulk mandate management

Creating mandates requires GoCardless Pro or Enterprise and explicit approval from GoCardless.

If you need to create (lodge, in Bacs DD terms) or cancel several mandates, you can do this through mandate schedules.

To create new mandates:

1. Create a payment profile for each new payer mandate.
2. For record type, select IBAN if you are creating a SEPA payment, or BBAN for Bacs or Autogiro.
3. Fill in the required fields based on type of bank account.
4. Create a mandate for the payer and set status to pending registration.
5. Run a mandate schedule for the given direct debit payment method with GoCardless as processor.

To cancel mandates:

1. Set the status of mandate records to be cancelled to Pending cancellation.
2. Run a mandate schedule for the given direct debit payment method with GoCardless as processor.

Mandate schedule runs data quality validation. Keep an eye out for validation errors that need to be fixed before you can complete the mandate schedule run.

Reconciliation between GoCardless and FinDock

If a GoCardless direct debit is paid, FinDock receives a notification from GoCardless. From this notification FinDock creates an Inbound Report record for reconciliation through Guided Matching.

When you install FinDock, you get a set of managed and suggested rules for Guided Matching out-of-the-box to get you started. You can further expand on these rules by adding your own matching rules.

Handling GoCardless refunds

The refund process starts from the GoCardless end. Refunds cannot be triggered from Salesforce. For information on how to process refunds with GoCardless, please visit the GoCardless support site.

When a refund is initiated with GoCardless, FinDock receives notifications about the refund actions and automatically updates payment data in Salesforce accordingly.