How does GoCardless *actually* work?

Hi Daniel,

GoCardless is essentially an online payment system whereby you have all your bank and payment details stored securely and which then allows you to process transactions with others who also have an account. You integrate with one another through pre-authorisations, which, once accepted, allow you to link. The closest comparison I can think of is PayPal as you set up a 'profile' and go from there.

Here is a guide on setting up and using GoCardless on Clear Books: http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/support/guides/integrations/clear-books-gocardless-integration-setup/

Please let me know whether this answers your question, or whether there is anything more I can help you with.

All the best,

Chris

Hi Chris

I've seen the GoCardless set-up guide which is how I know that I've got gocardless up and running and pre-auths working and that sort of stuff.

However, I'm discovering things along the way rather than reading about them. Things like:

• If you have a pre-auth in place, payment is automatically requested up to this value every time an invoice is created
• You can request a one-off payment without requiring a pre-auth
• You can renegotiate pre-auths

I'm just a little surprised to see that there isn't a manual in place that tells me the complete end-to-end picture on how gocardless can work, and therefore the benefits of it, and so on.

For instance, I still don't know

• every month when a new recurring invoice is created is it automatically sent to the customer and automatically paid?
• when I make an invoice, is it the due date that it gets requested?
• I need to tell my customers when payment gets taken from their account; when is this, in relation to invoice creation date?
• when a payment actually hits my bank, will the invoice be marked as paid?

As you can see I think a guide for how to run your business with gocardless would be better than how to set it up...

Best wishes

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

We are currently in the process of creating a GoCardless User Guide which we hope to publish in the very near future.

But, to answer your questions; Go Cardless will only carry out transaction between two parties who have pre authorisations between one another. You have to agree the pre auth for each of your contacts.

When you set up a recurring invoice it will be automatically sent out at regular intervals from the date of creation. The due date is the deadline for payment. During the set up there will be two parts to take note of. Firstly you will haver to set the payment type to GoCardless and secondly there is an option to tick or untick 'Payment on Recurrence'. This what will determine whether the payment is taken automatically or whether your customer has to first confirm it.

Finally, you will still have to physically mark the payment as paid and then allocate the funds.

Here is a guide on using GoCardless on Clear Books and creating recurring invoices http://www.clearbooks.co.uk/support/guides/tools/recurring-automatic-gocardless-invoices/

I hope this explains everything.

i clicked on go cardless without even realizing what it was .... is it possible to cancel it and was it just a 1 off payment for the £10 i cant find anything that relates to is apart from the payment having gone from my bank