GoCardless in Xero
- GoCardless & Xero - Integrations
- Adding Customers Via GoCardless in Xero
- Selecting which invoices are paid via GoCardless
- Checking Mandate Matches
- GoCardless in Xero - Cancelling Payments
- Invoices not collecting
- Reconciliation issues
- Instant Bank Pay Payments
GoCardless & Xero - Integrations
If you use GoCardless with Xero, you will use one of the two available integrations.
GoCardless in Xero is a new Xero integration that was launched in April 2021.
All merchants who signed up after that date will likely be using GoCardless in Xero.
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GoCardless for Xero |
GoCardless in Xero | |
| Dashboard |
GoCardless for Xero is an entirely separate dashboard from Xero and GoCardless, where you can collect payments for your invoices. |
GoCardless in Xero is integrated into Xero, so there is no separate dashboard. You will still need to connect your GoCardless account to GoCardless in Xero; however, you won’t need to use a separate dashboard to manage your payments. |
| Features |
*Please note, Success+ is only available on the Advanced, Pro & Custom plans. Availability of plans and features may vary by region. Please consult our Product Bundle Description to read the full details. |
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How to identify if you use GoCardless for Xero or GoCardless in Xero
You can check which integration you’re using through your GoCardless dashboard.
To do this:
- Head to manage.gocardless.com and log in to your GoCardless account
- Click on Settings in the top right corner and then on Connected apps
- You will now see the apps that are connected to your GoCardless account:
If you’re using GoCardless for Xero, it will display “GoCardless for Xero”
If you’re using GoCardless in Xero, it will display “Xero”
Switching between different versions of the Xero integration.
If you would like to use a feature that isn’t available in your current version of the Xero integration, you can contact the GoCardless Support team, who can help you swap.
GoCardless for Xero offers:
- Installments ✅
- Intuitive customer matching (great if you have a large number of unmatched customers) ✅
GoCardless in Xero offers:
- Instant bank payments ✅
To switch to a different version of the Xero integration, contact GoCardless Support help@gocardless.com.
Adding Customers Via GoCardless in Xero
There are two ways to invite customers to sign a mandate in Xero.
- Send the customer an invoice with the GoCardless Payment Method selected. The customer will have the option to sign a mandate via the invoice.
- Sending a separate, unique invite link to customers:
- Create a draft invoice and select the relevant contact, or in the contacts list, click the menu icon next to the contact.
- Click Share direct debit authorisation. This option is only available when the contact you've selected doesn't have a direct debit authorisation set up already.
- Copy the link provided.
- The link is unique to the contact. Xero automatically matches the mandate to the contact record in Xero.
Selecting which invoices are paid via GoCardless
You can select which invoices & invoice themes (branding themes) have the GoCardless Payment Method applied. This is useful if some of your customers want to pay their invoices by other means.
For individual / repeating invoices:
You can deselect the GoCardless Payment Method of an individual or a repeating invoice. To do this:
- When viewing the edit/create invoice page in Xero, click manage under the Online Payments heading.
- Here you can select or deselect GoCardless as the payment method.
For invoice/branding themes:
What is an Invoice/Branding Theme?
There are two ways to switch off payment methods for invoice/branding themes. This allows you to assign an invoice/branding theme that has the GoCardless Payment method switched off:
Managing invoice themes in bulk
- In Xero, navigate to the Manage Connected Services Page
- Click Manage Themes at the bottom of the table
- Select or Deselect the invoice themes you wish to edit
- Here you can select a specific Payment Method for each invoice or “None”, if you do not wish to have any Payment Methods attached to invoices by default.
- Click Save to complete the action
Editing an existing invoice/branding theme
You can edit your existing invoice/branding theme to add or remove the GoCardless Payment Method
- Navigate to Settings and then click Invoices Settings
- Select the template you wish to edit
- Click Options (top right) and then edit
- Locate the Payment Services (Bank Payments) (located on the right side of the screen)
- You can now either
- Select GoCardless as a payment method (if it’s not selected)
- Select another Payment Service
- Click into the box and delete the content to remove all Bank Payment methods attached to that invoice template
- Once you have selected one of the above options, click Save to apply the change
Please note: This will not affect any payments which have already been created.
Checking Mandate Matches
If payments are not being collected from a customer, you can check to see if the mandate is matched to the correct customer record:
Duplicate customers in Xero
If there is more than one contact for the same customer in Xero, you can fix any connection issues by unmatching the mandate, merging the customer in Xero and re-matching the mandate.
How to check if a mandate is matched to the correct customer
- Navigate to the Matched customers page with Xero and search for the name of the customer you wish to collect payments from
- Check if there is more than one record; if there is, we would recommend merging the Xero contacts if both records are for the same person/entity.
- Before actioning the merge, you will need to unmatch the Direct Debit mandate.
- Next, merge the records in Xero and re-match the mandate.
How to check for mandates that are attached to the wrong customer record
If only one customer record shows up, but there isn’t a matched mandate, it could mean that the mandate is matched to the wrong Xero customer record.
You can check which Xero customer the mandate is matched to:
- Scroll to the bottom of the Matched customers page.
- Change the items per page to 100.
- Locate the Customer ID (starts with CU…). This can be found on the individual customers page within the GoCardless Dashboard
- Back on the Xero Matched customers page, press “Control F” (Mac) or Command F (Windows) and enter the customer name in the search box.
- If you don’t find the customer on the first page, repeat the process for every page. This can be time-consuming, but it’s the most effective way to locate the mandate.
- Once you have found the matched customer, un-match and then re-match them as needed.
GoCardless in Xero - Cancelling Payments
Important: Payments created via Xero should not be cancelled within the GoCardless dashboard. Doing so could cause Xero to recreate the payment if the invoice still has GoCardless set as the Payment Method.
To cancel the payment, simply remove the GoCardless Payment Method* from the invoice. The GoCardless payment will be automatically cancelled as long as it has not been submitted to the bank for collection.
If you want to ensure that no future payments are collected via GoCardless, you can go into a customer's repeating invoice and remove GoCardless as the Payment Method there as well.
*Can’t remove the Payment Method? You might need to delete the payment from the invoice first.
Invoices not Collecting
Having trouble collecting a payment in Xero? Here are some things to check to hopefully resolve the issue:
- Is the mandate is matched with the Xero record (guide here)?
- Does the customer have a mandate attached to their record (see our guide)?
- The due date is in the future when the invoice is approved.
- The invoice is in the customer’s domestic currency
- The invoice is not over your transaction limit. If this needs to be increased, you can request this by an administrator of your account logging into your GoCardless dashboard and going to Settings > Account settings > scroll down to Transaction limits and clicking on Request increase.
- GoCardless is the payment service on the invoice (guide here).
- If the customer set up their Direct Debit mandate after the invoice due date, you can try going into the invoice edit screen (no changes needed) and clicking Update.
If all the above is true, we would encourage you to speak with Xero about why the invoice was not collected, as we don't have access to your Xero account.
To contact Xero support, head to one of their support articles (like this one) and scroll to the bottom of the page. There, you will see "Still have questions?" and the option to fill out a support ticket.
Reconciliation issues
You can find the Xero reconciliation settings within Xero. We've listed common issues below, along with ways to check and resolve any reconciliation issues:
| Issue | Resolution |
| Funds not transferring from “GoCardless Account” to your payout bank account |
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| GoCardless Fees are not appearing within Xero | Check that the “Fees account” is set correctly. |
| Invoice payments are not posting to Xero | If the amount due on an invoice has been changed after the GoCardless payment was submitted to the bank, the invoice will not show as paid within Xero. We have a manual process here you can use to add the payment to Xero. |
Changing Bank Account Settings
Account Name - The name of the account where GoCardless posts the invoice payments.
Payout Bank Account - The account where GoCardless posts the funds. If you change your payout bank account in GoCardless you should also update the bank account here. You can have one bank account per currency.
Fee accounts - The Xero account that the GoCardless fees are posted to.
Useful to know:
- Direct Debit payments are collected on the invoice due date or as soon as possible after the due date.
- If the amount due is changed on an invoice the GoCardless payment will be cancelled and recreated as long as the payment has not been submitted for collection.
- When a payment fails, the invoice will show as outstanding. You can retry the payment from the GoCardless Dashboard or use Success+
- Xero may suggest possible mandate matches when viewing an invoice or contact.
Instant Bank Pay Payments
Please note: The Instant Bank Pay feature is currently available for all merchants based in UK, US, Canada, EEA, Australia, and New Zealand who are collecting GBP payments from customers in the UK.
Please register your interest here if you'd like to be notified when Instant Bank Pay is available in your region.
Instant Bank Payments are collected straight away, regardless of the invoice due date.
Want to collect the first invoice via Instant Bank Payment and future invoices via Direct Debit?
You can set the customer’s first invoice to be collected via Instant Bank Pay.
Your customer will have the option to set up a Direct Debit mandate with the next invoice they receive, so that any future invoices can be collected via Direct Debit automatically. Alternatively, you can invite the customer to sign a Direct Debit mandate via a GoCardless sign-up link and then match the mandates up within Xero.
You have the option to ask them to continue paying via Instant Bank Pay, but please note that if they are asked to pay via Instant Bank Pay each time, they must pay each invoice via the Instant Bank Pay flow rather than having it collected automatically.