| N.B. If you are looking for information on the bulk change process for a specific Direct Debit Scheme, you can find the relevant article in our Schemes section here. |
- I currently use a Direct Debit Bureau. How do I obtain my customer data?
- My Direct Debit Bureau has sent my customer details with their given name and surname in the same column. How can I split these into separate columns?
- I don’t have email addresses for my customers. Does this matter?
- When I enter a customer's bank account details into the CSV spreadsheet, the zero's disappear when I save the file. Will this be a problem?
- My customer data includes accents. How can I ensure this doesn't cause errors?
- I'm using the SEPA scheme and would like to use the local bank account format instead of IBAN. Is this possible?
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1. I currently use a Direct Debit Bureau. How do I obtain my customer data?
Your Direct Debit Bureau will hold information on file for each of your customers.
The best thing to do is download the template via your GoCardless account import area and send this file over to them, asking that they complete all fields they hold corresponding data for.
Ensure they return this to you securely using an appropriate level of encryption, and then once checked, you can upload this as required.
2. My Direct Debit Bureau has sent my customer details with their given name and surname in the same column. How can I split these into separate columns?
The easiest way to do this is through the Text to Columns conversion function within Excel. Please see Microsoft's guide on this here.
3. I don’t have email addresses for my customers. Does this matter?
4. When I enter a customer's bank account details into the CSV spreadsheet, the zero's disappear when I save the file. Will this be a problem?
You will need to ensure the zero's remain for the file to validate correctly. To do this all you need to do is convert your Excel spreadsheet to Text format. Please see step 4 in the relevant [Scheme] bulk change data import article for a walkthrough on how to do this.
5. My customer data includes accents. How can I ensure this doesn't cause errors?
If your customers' details contain accents or other special characters, you might experience issues when we run our automated checks.
This is because spreadsheet software like Excel by default doesn't understand the special characters in the file, so when you save it and upload it back to us, the special characters are corrupted, and the details no longer match up. This is because Excel doesn't handle what is called "UTF-8 encoding" properly.
In Excel on Windows, you can fix this by using the "Import Text File" tool to open the CSV file - click here for a step-by-step video walkthrough.
On Mac, Excel isn't able to open UTF-8 encoded files at all. You'll need to use alternative spreadsheet software (for example Apple's Numbers) or edit the CSV file carefully using a text editor.