BECS AU custom notifications

The following is a guide to building custom notifications for customers on GoCardless Advanced or GoCardless Pro and for partners using the add-on feature Custom checkout experience and payer notifications.

In order for payers in Australia to authorise merchants to take payments from them via BECS AU, the local Direct Debit payment scheme, they must complete a Direct Debit Request (DDR).

Once the DDR has been set up, there are 2 types of notifications that payers can receive:

1. DDR and Service Agreement documentation

2. Pre-payment notifications

Customers on GoCardless Advanced or GoCardless Pro have the option to use GoCardless’ own notifications, or to create their own custom notifications by using our Custom checkout experience and payer notifications add-on feature.
Please note there is an additional “add-on” monthly fee called Custom checkout experience and payer notifications.

Partners can opt to create custom notifications as well. This will enable merchants who are using GoCardless through their app to offer their customers (payers) a consistent branding experience.

How to build custom notifications

1. Create a notification including the payer’s DDR and Service Agreement
2. Create notifications to inform payers of upcoming payments. Depending on your collection type, these notifications could relate to:

• Amendments to a DDR or service agreement e.g., price change, pause or resume

• Subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals (optional)

• One-off payments, or payment schedules of varying amounts (optional)

3. Submit notifications to GoCardless for approval

The details for each are below, and there’s a summary table here.

1. Notification including the payer’s DDR and Service Agreement

This compulsory notification provides the payer with the necessary documentation relating to their DDR and Service Agreement, i.e., the terms and conditions of the agreement they have entered into.

It must be received by the payer within 7 days of the DDR being set up.

There are 2 compulsory elements to this notification, and 5 recommended elements.

Compulsory:

Recommended:

2.1. Advance notice - amendment to a DDR or service agreement

This compulsory notification lets payers know of any amendments to their DDR or service agreement, for example a price change, pause or resume.

It must be received by the payer at least 14 business days before further payments are charged under the new terms.

The notification has 4 compulsory elements and 1 recommended element.

Compulsory:

Recommended:

Remind payers of the name that will appear on their bank statements.

Partners can retrieve this information by making a GET request to the creditors endpoint and pulling the field [scheme_identifiers: name].

2.2. Advance notice - subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals

This optional notification tells the payer when to expect a series of payments of the same amount and regular intervals. A single notification to cover the entire subscription is sufficient. 

Although optional, GoCardless recommends sending this notification to ensure that payers are fully informed of all debits that will be made against their account. 

We recommend that the notification includes:

2.3 Advance notice - one-off payments, or payment schedules of varying amounts

This optional notification tells the payer when to expect a single payment, or any payment in a payment schedule of varying amounts.

Although optional, GoCardless recommends sending this notification to ensure that payers are fully informed of all debits that will be made against their account. 

We recommend that the notification includes all details as mentioned in section 2.2, except that for payment schedules of varying amounts, advance notice is sent before each payment.

3. Submit notifications to GoCardless for approval

Example templates of your payment pages must be sent to GoCardless for approval prior to your go-live date. Once you have written approval from GoCardless, you may implement the payment pages. 

To test your payment pages, you can sign up here for a sandbox account.

What if I’m a partner?

When creating a new partner app and going through our technical certification process, you’ll be able to submit custom notifications for approval through our partner portal.

Summary table

The below shows a summary of the information required in each type of custom notification.