How to set up Direct Debits with GoCardless

Accepting Direct Debit payments from your customers is a great way to ensure that you get paid on time and is easier for your customers as they can quickly and easily make payment. If you support contracts for your clubs, it's even easier as payment can be taken for the contract booking without the customer doing anything.

The setup of the Direct Debit payment option involves creating a GoCardless account (or linking an existing account you have) as part of the process.

First off, log in to your Kids Club HQ system and go to the Administration section. Click on Organisation Settings in the left menu if you wish to add the Direct Debit payment option for all your clubs or navigate to the location or club that you'd like to add it for.

Select the Payment Options tab, click the Add Payment Option button and select the Direct Debit payment option:

Read the notes about this payment option then, if you are happy to proceed, click the Link a GoCardless Account... button.

This will redirect you to GoCardless where you can create your new account or log in to an existing account:

Complete the required details and follow the GoCardless process to the end. If you are creating a new GoCardless account, you will be asked to provide some additional verification details by them before they are able to make payouts to you so please ensure you complete this process.

Once your GoCardless account is set up, you will be redirected back to Kids Club HQ where the Direct Debit payment option will be available:

Some default settings for when payments are taken from the customers' Direct Debit mandate will have been set up. If you'd like to change these, click the Edit... button below the settings. Please see this article for more information.

Verification Status

Once you have verified your account with GoCardless, this will be shown against the Direct Debit payment option as a status of Enabled:

If at any time, the status of your GoCardless account changes (e.g. you change your bank account registered with them), you may need to re-validate your account.

If we detect this, we will email you to let you know and you can start the verification process by clicking the link shown next to your Direct Debit payment option:

When to take payments from customers

Once the Direct Debit is set up, it's important to ensure that you set up when the payments are taken for bookings. 

Please see this article for how to setup the payment settings.

What customers need to do to allow Direct Debit payments

Your customers need to set up a Direct Debit mandate with you before you can accept Direct Debit payments from them. You can see how they do this in this article.

Importing Direct Debits Already In GoCardless

If you already have some Direct Debit mandates in GoCardless for your customers, you can import these into Kid Club HQ by matching them agains your customers in Kids Club HQ.

Please see this article for how to import existing GoCardless mandates.