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There are two ways to collect payments, either automatically or manually.
Automatically
During the set up of your GoCardless for Xero account you have the option to choose your payment setting. Choosing to take payment automatically will ensure that for each new invoice you raise for a customer that has a Direct Debit mandate set up, we will automatically collect the payment from the customer on the due date of the invoice.
You can exclude certain customers or branding themes from being automatically collected. Find out how to do so here for customers or branding themes.
Manually
If you’d rather have greater control over when your customers’ invoices are collected, you can instead manually schedule invoices for collection.
To do this, you can follow these steps:
1. Create a one-off or repeating invoice in Xero
A one off invoice means that a single payment can be collected, whereas a repeating invoice will allow you to collect the amount specified each time the repeating invoice is generated.
2. Schedule the payment
Go to the Invoices page on the GoCardless for Xero dashboard and find the invoice you would like to collect.
If you want to collect on the invoice due date, first select the invoice by clicking the checkbox on the left of the invoice entry. Next, click Bulk Action in the top right and in the window that opens, select Collect on due date.
If you wish to collect a payment for the invoice as soon as possible, click collect now to initiate the payment - your customer will be charged as soon as possible, based on the scheme timings.
If you see a "No mandate" message on the Status column for a particular invoice, that means your customer hasn’t yet set up a Direct Debit yet. If you’re unsure of how to invite a customer to set up a Direct Debit, please follow this guide.
3. Sit back and wait for the payment to be collected
Your customer will be notified three business days prior to the payment being collected. The notification they receive will look like this:
Receiving funds
Once your customer is charged, the time needed to transfer the money to your account depends on where your customer is located. For the UK, collected funds will reach your payout account two business days after the customer’s charge date.
Not based in the UK? Take a look through our payment timings guide for other countries.