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Since 2015 we've been helping Irish businesses to simplify the collection of fees using SEPA direct debit.
No setup fees
No minimum term contract
Add your customer's name and email address and you're ready to start collecting
Setup the collection, your customer approves electronically or via paper mandate
Watch your money arrive and simplify your bank reconciliation.
Businesses small and large too often spend time chasing customers for payment. Through working with our customers we've learned a great deal about the value direct debit delivers to businesses.
The use case in this short video may apply to your business, contact us to learn more about how people gain from introducing SEPA direct debit in their operation.
SEPA direct debit is simply a payment, from one party to another.
However, the main difference between what is generally considered a payment, where someone logs onto their banking portal to send money to a 3rd party, is that with direct debit the receiving party instructs their bank to submit a request to take the funds from the payer’s bank account on a particular date.
Of course the payer should be made aware of this before the debit happens.
This debiting of the payer’s account is permitted only where the payer has provided their permission, to do so otherwise is just disrespectful but also unlawful. Thankfully there are protections in place at the SEPA direct debit scheme level to deal with such carry on, specifically designed to protect the payer.
SEPA direct debit can be used to debit your customer's account once, or once every so often, OR it's used to collect on a recurring basis. The latter is a common use case, where an ongoing service is being delivered and service/maintenance fees need to be collected maybe every month.
We see numerous different types of business using direct debit ranging from services and distribution to professional services and leisure, it varies greatly.
The easiest thing is to speak with us, we'll go through how the service might be able to help you.
1. Getting paid on time. This is critical. We have first hand knowledge here, it's part of why we created the business. Waiting for payment, chasing people and the uncertainty, it's stressful. Getting paid on time gives you options, be it to invest in the business, buy materials or simply pay off debt. You're in control.
2. Solid cashflow. Knowing when cash is due in is a serious advantage. You can plan spending, you can show proof of funds and have a line of sight on cashflow should you need to raise capital.
3. Space in mind. Many of our customers remember what life was like prior to introducing direct debit, it's a fantastic means of assisting the Credit Control function in any size of company. Helen and her team in our short explainer video can vouch for that.
A common misunderstanding with people looking to employ recurring payments to collect their income is that a Standing Order (SO) is a direct debit. While they are similar in that both result in funds being received there are some critical differences:
1. With SOs the funds are pushed from the payer's account to the merchant's account whereas with SEPA direct debit the funds are pulled from the payer's account by the merchant. With SO the payer sets the amount and the date of the payment, both values cannot be changed. Change to either means the SO is cancelled and setup once again with the new details, it's a headache.
2. With direct debit the merchant sets the amount to be debited from the customers account, this is the critical element as it allows the merchant to pull what's due.
3. Where a direct debit collection fails to collect the merchant is advised, this is not the case with Standing Order. This might sound like a small aspect but continuous watching for payments to arrive is time consuming whereas with direct debit you can manage by exception.