Payments with GoCardless

This article gives you a brief overview on setting up payments with GoCardless to utilise with Billingbooth.

Before you can start using the payments functionality, your account will need to be on our Business, Professional or Enterprise plan. Drop us an email at support@billingbooth.com to get your account upgraded.

The following steps describe the basics to get your payments set up and ready to be billed:

1. Configure general payment options
2. Connect to GoCardless
3. Add a payment method to a customer
4. Do a billing run

1. Configure general payment options

The first step with setting up payments is to configure a few generic options as well as linking your GoCardless account. There are two ways to reach these options, the first is to click the "Settings" link in the left-hand navigation menu, this opens up a drop-down menu, from that menu click "Payment Collection". The second way is through the Payments section itself, by clicking "Payments" in the left-hand navigation menu and then clicking the "Payment Settings" button at the top-right of the page. This is effectively a shortcut to the Payment Collection settings page.

For more information on the fields themselves, you can read our Payment Settings article for more information.

2. Connect to GoCardless

Choose GoCardless from the available tabs at the top-right of the Payment Collections page, from here you're given a brief overview of the benefits GoCardless brings with it and a button allowing you to connect your GoCardless account to Billingbooth. Click the "Connect with GoCardless" button to proceed.

This will take you to the GoCardless site where you can login to GoCardless to connect your account by entering your GoCardless credentials and clicking the "Connect your GoCardless account" button. If you haven't set a GoCardless account up yet, click the "Sign Up" link at the bottom-right of the screen. Once the process of connecting your account is complete will should be taken to a success screen.

3. Add a payment method to a customer

Head to the "Customers" page using the left-hand navigation, from there, select the customer you'd like to add a payment method to from the list and click "Payments". This screen shows you the Payment History of the customer and also their configured Payment Methods. To add a new payment method, click the "Add Payment Method" button at the top-right and you will be taken to a wizard which will help you with the rest of the process.

From the "Provider" list, select "GoCardless" and click the "Continue" button to proceed to the next step of the wizard.

For step 2, the first field is a drop-down list called "Action" which has two options. The first is "Send out a new Direct Debit mandate", if this is selected the second field will be "Email address" allowing you to enter the email address a new Direct Debit mandate request is sent to. Your customer will then receive an email asking them to complete the process of setting up a new Direct Debit mandate.

Once that's complete, the new mandate will automatically be added to the respective customer within Billingbooth.

Alternatively, you can select the second option from the "Action" drop-down list, "Link to existing GoCardless mandate". This will change the secondary field into a "Mandate" field. Click the "Choose Mandate" button and it will reveal a list of mandates already assigned to your customers. Select the applicable mandate and it will reveal the bank details of that mandate as well as a "Choose mandate" button, click the button for the mandate to be selected in the "Mandate" field.

You can now proceed to the completion step by clicking the "Continue" button.

4. Do a billing run

After you have performed a billing run, if you have selected to collect payments automatically via the Payment Collection Settings (see step 1), then Billingbooth will create a payment for every invoice issued. If you selected to collect payments manually, select the customer you wish to charge from the "Customers" page and then click "Payments". Click the "Take Payment" button at the top-right of the Payment History panel. Enter the amount to bill in the "Amount" field and make sure the "Provider" field is set to "GoCardless". The "Collection date" is an optional field, clicking the field will present you with a calendar that you can select a future date from and the payment will be taken on this date. If you wish to take the payment immediately, leave this field blank.

Following this a payment will appear in respective Payment History lists with the status of "Pending Submitted" with a charge date based on the "Collection period after invoice issue date" value in Payment Collection Settings.

To see the Payment History of all your customers, simply click "Payments" in the left-hand navigation menu. To see a customer specific Payment History, click "Customers" in the left-hand navigation menu, select the customer you'd wish to see the payment history of and then click "Payments" in the sub-navigation menu.

As long as the status of a payment is "Pending Submitted", it can be cancelled using the Cancel button in the Actions column of the Payment History table. If you cancel a payment and wish to re-issue it, you will have to do this manually, for help on setting a payment up manually, follow the manual payment instructions outlined at the start of this step.