Glossary of terms

In this article you can find a glossary of terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used across the GoCardless product. 

Choose a letter below to navigate directly to your selection, or alternatively scroll down to browse the list.

 

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

 

A

Active	Term given to a customer / mandate when payment can be processed from their bank account. (Note: a bank account can be active without an active mandate - in these cases payments cannot be processed).
Advanced notice	Payment or subscription notification provided to the customer prior to payment being charged or when assigned to a subscription.
AML	Anti-Money Laundering
API	Application Programming Interface - If building an integration with GoCardless, you would use our API to do so.
AUDDIS	Automated Direct Debit Instruction Service - the electronic Direct Debit system used by Bacs to submit Direct Debit Instructions to banks.
Autogiro	The direct debit scheme for collecting krona-denominated payments from customers in Sweden.

 

B

Bacs	The organisation responsible for the UK Direct Debit scheme.
Bacs International  Payments	The payment method used to transfer GBP payouts to a merchant's bank account that is based outside the UK.
Bankgirot	The clearing house for inter-bank payments in Sweden, which manages the Autogiro scheme.

 

C

Chargeback	A Direct Debit payment that has been reversed and returned to the customer's bank account under the Direct Debit Guarantee.
Creditor	A merchant using GoCardless to collect payments is called a 'creditor'. Each creditor has a separate account in our system.
Creditor ID (CID)	Each merchant has a unique creditor ID that enables us to identify individual accounts. Creditor ID's begin CR000...

 

D

Dashboard	The GoCardless platform that can be used to manage your customers and payments.
Direct Debit	Pull-based payment method used by GoCardless. Direct Debits are collected directly from the customer's bank account.
Direct Debit  Guarantee	The customer protection provided by banks and building societies when an unauthorised or fraudulent payment is collected from their bank account by Direct Debit.

 

E

Event

Every action posted to our API will have a corresponding 'Event' that records each action. These actions can be viewed in the dashboard on the Events page or received from our API as a webhook.

 

F

Failure	Payments and mandates can fail during creation, and payments can also fail during collection. You will receive email notifications if any payments or mandates fail.
Faster payment	The payment method used to transfer GBP payouts to merchant bank accounts.

 

H

Holding period

The number of working days between the customers being charged and the payments being sent to your bank account. The usual holding period for an account is 1 working day.

 

I

Inactive	A customer that has a cancelled Direct Debit mandate is 'inactive'. You cannot collect any payments from an 'inactive' customer.
Indemnity claim	Customers can file an indemnity claim with their bank to reverse a Direct Debit payment they did not authorise.
Indemnity form	In the event where we can raise an account's transaction limits, GoCardless will require merchants to sign an indemnity form first.
Integration	A third party system that uses the GoCardless API to collect payments is called an 'integration'.

 

L

Late failure

Payment failure reports that are received more than one working day after the payment charge date are classified as a 'late' failure report. We expect to receive payment failure reports one working day after the charge date.

 

M

Mandate	Authorisation given by your customer to collect funds by Direct Debit from their bank account.
Mandate ID	Each mandate with have its own ID to identify the correct Direct Debit authorisation to charge payments against. Mandate ID's begin MD00...
Merchant	An organisation or individual collecting funds through GoCardless is referred to as a 'merchant'.
Metadata	Custom references can be added to your customers' details to help you track payments. These references are known as 'metadata'.

 

N

Notification	Customers are required to be informed of their payments before they are collected. The GoCardless notifications are sent by email.
Not yet confirmed	Payments that are not yet confirmed include any payments that are 'pending submission', 'submitted', or 'pending customer approval'.

 

O

Organisation

An organisation can create an account to collect payments with GoCardless. The account will be given an organisation ID. Multiple creditors can collect payments under the same organisation account.

 

P

Paperless Direct Debit	An online Direct Debit mandate form that customers can complete to set up a Direct Debit. This is submitted to the bank via Bacs AUDDIS.
Partially refunded	Status attributed to a payment where a portion of the full payment amount has been refunded to the customer.
Partner	A third party who have built an integration with our API that multiple merchants can use to collect payments via GoCardless. Examples include accounting platforms, sports club management platforms, and charity donation platforms.
Paylink	Customers can authorise a one-off payment to be collected by Direct Debit using a Paylink.
Payment	An individual amount that is collected from a customer.
Payment ID	Each payment will have a unique ID that enables us to identify the transaction. Payment ID's begin PM00...
Payout	The funds we transfer into your bank account are called 'payouts'. Payouts can include multiple payments that have been grouped together to send to your bank account.
Payout Interval	The number of calendar days between our system sending payouts to your bank account. Accounts will have a default payout interval of 0 calendar days so that payouts are sent as soon as possible. The payout interval can be increased if requested.
Pending	A payment that is in the process of being collected is 'pending'. Payments get confirmed one working day after the charge date.
Plan	Created through your GoCardless dashboard, a plan is a template for a subscription. You can add multiple customers to the same plan and they will all have the same subscription.
Plus (account)	Our mid pricing package that provides an additional benefit of your customers seeing your business name on their bank statements.
Pricing package	GoCardless offer three different pricing packages - Standard, Plus and Pro.
Pro (account)	Our premium package, offering a fully white-label Direct Debit solution and volume-based scalable fee pricing.

 

R

Redirect URI	The web address customers can be directed to after they complete their online Direct Debit mandate.
Refunded	Status given against payments that have been refunded in full through GoCardless at the request of the merchant. Please note: these requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

 

S

Scheme	Different countries and regions use different systems to process Direct Debit payments, these systems are referred to as 'schemes'.
SEPA Core	The Direct Debit scheme for collecting Euro-denominated payments from customers in Eurozone countries.
SEPA Credit Transfer	The payment method used to send Euro payouts to a merchant's bank account.
Service User	An organisation approved by a sponsor bank to submit Direct Debit requests, specific to Bacs (the UK Direct Debit scheme).
Service User Number  (SUN)	A 6 digit unique identifier issued to every Service User in the UK.
Sponsor bank	A bank that enables access to the Direct Debit Scheme and provides Service User Numbers or Creditor IDs.
Standard (account)	Our lowest pricing package, where merchants are charged a transaction fee for each payment processed. No monthly fee.
Subscription	Enables the collection of regular, recurring payments that are scheduled to be collected from a customer.

 

V

Verification

Every GoCardless account is required to be verified before receiving funds.

 

W

Working days

We specify working days when with our payment timings as processing only occurs on working days. No payments are processed during weekends and Bank Holidays.