Bacs custom notifications

The following is a guide to building custom notifications for merchants using GoCardless Pro or GoCardless Custom, and for partners. 

 

What are custom notifications?

In order for payers in the UK to authorise merchants to take payments from them via Bacs, the local Direct Debit payment scheme, they must complete a Direct Debit Instruction, also known as a mandate.

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

1. Direct Debit setup confirmation
2. Advance notices

Merchants using GoCardless Pro or GoCardless Custom have the option to use GoCardless’ own notifications, or to create their own custom 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. 

You may also build your own payment pages to further customise your payers’ experience.

Custom notifications will need to be approved by GoCardless before being implemented.

 

How to build custom notifications

There are 3 steps to ensure compliance with Bacs scheme rules and GoCardless processes:

1. Create a Direct Debit setup notification
2. Create notifications to inform payers of upcoming payments. Depending on your collection type, these notifications could relate to: 
1. Subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals
2. Subscription amendments
3. One-off payments, or payment schedules of varying amounts
3. Submit notifications to GoCardless for approval

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

 

1. Direct Debit setup confirmation

This tells the payer that their Direct Debit mandate has been correctly set up. 

 

There are 2 compulsory points to note around how the notification should be sent:

1. Confirmation must be received by the payer either within 3 business days of them providing their details, or alongside their first payment notification, if the first payment is taken within a month of the payer providing their details
2. Confirmation can be provided via email or post

 

The notification itself has 8 compulsory elements, and there is an additional compulsory element for partners:

Compulsory:

1. Heading advising confirmation of the set-up of the Direct Debit Instruction. For example ‘Important: Confirmation of the setup of your Direct Debit Instruction to [Service User Number (SUN) Name]’. There is flexibility on the exact wording, but the payer must be aware (1) that a Direct Debit has been set up, and (2) who is charging them
   • Merchants - the SUN name is the wording you’ve chosen to appear on payers’ bank statements, typically simply your trading name
   • Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: name] to populate the SUN name
2. Mandate reference
   • Integrators - make a GET request to the mandates endpoint, and pull [reference] to populate this field
   • Postal notifications - see here
3. Payer details as obtained in the sign-up process
   • Account holder name
   • Bank account number - details must be redacted
   • Sort code
4. Wording advising the payer to check the details provided. For example ‘Please check the details above. If they are incorrect, or there are any other issues, please contact us.’
5. Merchant contact details - email address or phone number
   • Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: email] or [scheme_identifiers: phone_number] to populate this field
6. Advice of right to cancel. Text to read ‘You have the right to cancel your Direct Debit at any time.’
7. Privacy notice. Text to read ‘Payments by GoCardless. Read the privacy notice.’
   • Postal notifications - Text to read 'Payments by GoCardless. Read their privacy notice at www.gocardless.com/privacy'
8. The Direct Debit Guarantee. You must include the full text of the Direct Debit Guarantee, including the Direct Debit logo, as shown below. You can read more about the Direct Debit Guarantee here.
   • Merchants - in place of the boxes currently reading 'GoCardless', this text should read your SUN name i.e., 'GC Re + [text you have chosen to appear on payers' bank statements]'
   • Partners - in place of the boxes currently reading 'GoCardless', make a GET request to the creditors' endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: name]
   • Merchants and partners - ensure you use the correct number of days advance notice - i.e., 3 days

 

Compulsory for partners:

Include wording specifying the name of the merchant who will be charging the payer. For example ‘[Merchant Name] can now collect payment(s) from you by Direct Debit.’

Make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field. This may be different to [scheme_identifiers: name] as mentioned in point 1, in that:

• For standard merchants - [scheme_identifiers: name] = GoCardless
• For pro merchants - [scheme_identifiers: name] = merchant name

Therefore, pulling [name] makes it explicitly clear to payers which organisation their payments are ultimately going to, as this will always reflect the merchant name.

 

You can see an example notification below.

 

 

 

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

This 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.

This notification may be combined with the mandate setup confirmation.

 

There are 2 compulsory points to note around how this kind of advance notice should be sent:

1. Notice must be received by the payer no less than 3 business days prior to the payment being charged, unless you have explicitly agreed with GoCardless for this to be 2 business days
2. Confirmation can be provided via email and/or post

 

The advance notice itself has 5 compulsory elements and 1 recommended element.

Compulsory:

1. Service User Number (SUN) name
   • Merchants - this is the wording you’ve chosen to appear on payers’ bank statements, typically simply your trading name
   • Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: name] to populate this field
2. Payment details
   • Amount being charged 
   • Charge dates, including final charge date, if applicable
   • Instruction that the amounts will be charged via Direct Debit
3. Mandate reference
   • Integrators - make a GET request to the mandates endpoint, and pull [reference] to populate this field
   • Postal notifications - see here
4. Merchant contact details - email address or phone number
   • Partners - make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [scheme_identifiers: email] or [scheme_identifiers: phone_number] to populate this field
5. Privacy notice. Text to read ‘Payments by GoCardless. Read the privacy notice.’
   • Postal notifications - Text to read 'Payments by GoCardless. Read their privacy notice at www.gocardless.com/privacy'

Compulsory for partners:

Include wording specifying the name of the merchant who will be charging the payer. For example ‘[Merchant Name] can now collect payment(s) from you by Direct Debit.’

Make a GET request to the creditors endpoint, and pull [name] to populate this field. This may be different to [scheme_identifiers: name] as mentioned in point 1, in that:

• For standard merchants - [scheme_identifiers: name] = GoCardless
• For pro merchants - [scheme_identifiers: name] = merchant name

Therefore, pulling [name] makes it explicitly clear to payers which organisation their payments are ultimately going to, as this will always reflect the merchant name.

 

Recommended for merchants and partners:

1. Heading that is identifiable to payers. For example 'You've set up a Direct Debit subscription'.
2. Include the payer details as obtained in the sign-up process
   • Account holder name
   • Bank account number - details must be redacted
   • Sort code

You can see an example notification below.

 

2.2. Advance notice - subscription amendments

It is a Bacs Direct Debit scheme requirement for payers to be notified of any amendments to existing subscriptions, for example price changes.

Notice must be received by the payer at least 3 business days before further payments are charged under the new terms, unless you have explicitly agreed with GoCardless for this to be 2 business days.

The amendment notification has the same required elements as the ‘Advance notice - subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals’, and it must also include the date that any changes will come into effect.

We recommend the heading to be ‘Your subscription has been updated’

 

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

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

The requirements are exactly the same as in section 2.1, except that for payment schedules of varying amounts, advance notice must be sent before each payment.

This notification may be combined with the mandate setup confirmation. However note that for payment schedules of varying amounts, only the first advance notice may be combined with the DD setup confirmation. Separate advance notice must be sent for each future payment.

You can see an example notification below.

 

3. Submit notifications to GoCardless for approval

Mock ups of your notifications must be sent to GoCardless for approval prior to your go-live date. Once you have written approval from GoCardless, you may implement the notifications. 

To test your notifications, 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 relevant information in each type of custom notification.

All information is required unless specified otherwise.

	Direct Debit setup confirmation	Advance notice
		Subscriptions of fixed amounts at regular intervals	Subscription amendments	One-off payments, or payment schedules of varying amounts
Heading that is identifiable to payers	Compulsory Must include the SUN name, and the term ‘Direct Debit Instruction’	Recommended	Recommended	Recommended
Mandate reference	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory
Payer details	Compulsory	Recommended	Recommended	Recommended
Wording advising the payer to check their details	Compulsory
Merchant contact details	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory
Merchant name	Partners - compulsory Merchants - N/A as this will already be displayed via the SUN name	Partners - compulsory Merchants - N/A as this will already be displayed via the SUN name	Partners - compulsory Merchants - N/A as this will already be displayed via the SUN name	Partners - compulsory Merchants - N/A as this will already be displayed via the SUN name
Advice of right to cancel	Compulsory
Direct Debit Guarantee including Direct Debit logo	Compulsory
Privacy notice	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory
SUN name		Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory
Payment details		Compulsory	Compulsory	Compulsory
Date that any subscription amendments will become effective			Compulsory

 

 

Postal notifications

If you're using custom payment notifications and are notifying payers via post rather than email, you'll need to follow the steps below to locate some of the required information for the notifications.

 

Mandate reference

This is a required element in all notifications.

Note that it is only possible to locate mandate references once you have entered your customers' details into the dashboard.

1. Go to the 'customers' tab in the GoCardless dashboard

 

2. Click on the customer's name

 

3. Click on their bank account

 

4. Populate your notifications with the mandate reference that appears