Please note: this article is only relevant for Bacs users currently processing Direct Debit payments through a Facilities Management (FM) bureau |
1. Preparing for your bulk change
Preparing for your bulk change
Before your bulk change date, you will need to complete the tasks below:
- Notify your customers of an upcoming change in payment provider
- Collect your customers’ data and format it in our CSV template
- Create a Sandbox account and test the validity of your CSV file
1. Notifying your customers of the pending bulk change
GoCardless will provide you with a bank-approved notification letter which you will need to send out to your customers to inform them that you are changing payment processors. This will need to be sent prior to bulk change date and can be sent via letter or email.
2. Collect your customers’ data and format it in our CSV template
The following information is required to migrate your customers over to GoCardless:
- Your customer’s full name (or company name)
- Their bank account details (account number and sort code)
- Their email address
- Their address
If you do not already hold all of the above information for your customers, you will need to reach out to your current provider to obtain this.
If you would like to migrate customers without an email address over to GoCardless, you will need to handle your own postal notifications. This feature (custom notifications) is limited to our Pro and Custom packages.
Once you’ve gathered all the above information, you will need to format it into a CSV template that we provide to you. This template also gives you the option to add in optional fields, such as custom references to easily identify your customers with.
3. Create a Sandbox account and test the validity of your CSV file
Ahead of your bulk change date, you will need to create an account in our Sandbox (testing) environment by going to https://manage-sandbox.gocardless.com/signup, and run a test upload of your data to ensure it is formatted correctly.
Once you’ve set up your Sandbox account, please email us to let us know that you have set up the account, along with the email address you set it up with. This allows us to locate your Sandbox account and enable the bulk change tool on it for you.
After we’ve enabled the tool, and you have correctly formatted your customers’ data in your CSV file, you can import it into your Sandbox account following the steps here.
Once uploaded, our tool will let you know if your CSV file is valid or if any amendments need to be made. If there are any errors, you’ll need to adjust and re-upload your file until it is valid.
On the bulk change day
On the day of your bulk change, your customers will be migrated to GoCardless through the cancellation and re-creation of their Direct Debit mandates.
Cancellation of existing mandates
Your current Direct Debit bureau will cancel your existing customer mandates on the agreed bulk change date, meaning you will no longer be able to collect via them.
The creation of mandates within GoCardless
On the same day, you will upload your CSV file (that you previously validated in your Sandbox testing account) to your GoCardless account. Once uploaded, we will process the import and your customers’ new mandates will be created.
Please note that this action needs to be carried out by 3:30 pm.