In order to collect a payment from a customer’s bank account, you must first obtain authorisation to do so. You can do this by sending an authorisation request using one of three methods available within your GoCardless dashboard.
If you haven’t yet added the customer you would like to take payment from, please see our section on adding customers before continuing.
Please note: There are two exceptions to this rule - Paylinks and Instant Bank Pay*. These features enable you to request payment from a new customer, which then process automatically upon receiving their authorisation.
* Instant Bank Pay is currently only available for payments being collected from UK customers paying in GBP via Bacs.
Overview of payment types
This article provides an overview of the different types of payments you can create for your customers via the GoCardless dashboard.
These are:
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One-off payments
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Subscriptions
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Plans
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Paylinks
Which one you choose will depend on several factors including:
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How you want to charge your customer(s)
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Whether the customer is already active or still needs to authorise their Direct Debit with you
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The method you offer your customers to sign up e.g. via email, a link on your website, etc.
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The number of customers you would like to create the payment/subscription for
Each subsection will provide you with more information on each of the different payment types and will include guides on how to create them for your customers. Here's a brief overview of what information you can to find in each subsection:
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Collecting single payments
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Collecting recurring payments
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Managing payments
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Managing subscriptions
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Managing plans
Collecting single payments
In this section you will find information on how to take one-off payments from your customers. From creating a one-off payment for an individual customer to creating payments in bulk for multiple customers. You will also find a guide on how to set up paylinks, which enable you to collect a payment from a customer immediately upon authorising their Direct Debit mandate.
Collecting recurring payments
In this section you will find more information on subscriptions and plans, including how to invite or assign your customers to them.
Managing payments
Here you will find guides on how to make changes to a payment, such as editing, refunding or cancelling it and how to retry payments that have failed.
Managing subscriptions
If you need to amend a subscription, such as editing or pausing it, you will find articles guiding you through each process in this section.
Managing plans
In this section you will find guides explaining how to make changes to a plan, such as editing details or removing a customer.