Take instant bank payments using GoCardless

This article explains how to take payments for your FreeAgent invoices using GoCardless Instant Bank Pay.

Once you’ve set up the integration between FreeAgent and GoCardless, you can enable the GoCardless Instant Bank Pay option on your FreeAgent invoices.

You can also use GoCardless to take one-off or recurring payments using Direct Debit mandates, or collect invoice payments online using Tyl by NatWest, Stripe or PayPal. Find out more about payment solutions in FreeAgent.

1. Enable the GoCardless Instant Bank Pay payment option on your invoice

Once you’ve set up the integration between FreeAgent and GoCardless, when you create an invoice, or create a recurring invoice profile, select the 'GoCardless Instant Bank Pay' checkbox in the 'Payments' section and create the rest of your invoice as normal. You can also use GoCardless to set up a Direct Debit mandate with your customers for one-off, and recurring payments.

If you'd like GoCardless Instant Bank Pay to be selected by default when creating future invoices, find out how to set up default payment settings.

2. Include the payment link in your email

When you are emailing your invoice, select the checkbox next to 'Include online payment button below content' or include an [online_payment_link] tag in the body of the email. This will embed an online payment link in the email that your customer will receive. This link will let your customer pay your invoice using their banking app or online banking with GoCardless, or a debit or credit card.

Please note:

• If a bank transaction is explained against the invoice before your customer makes the payment, when they select the payment link they’ll only be able to pay the remaining balance of the invoice, not the full amount.
• Your customer will be prompted to pay the full amount of the invoice created. It won’t be possible for them to partially pay the value of the invoice.

How this works for your customers

When your customer receives your invoice via email, they can select the 'View and pay' button that you previously added to your email.

This will show them your invoice, along with the option to pay using their banking app or online banking with GoCardless. Any other payment options you enabled while creating your invoice, such as Tyl by NatWest, Stripe or PayPal, will also be available to them.

Your customer will then be taken to the GoCardless instant payment portal which will ask them to enter their personal details, select their bank, and approve the payment in their specific banking app.

They’ll be given a confirmation once the payment is successfully authorised.

Reconciling invoice payments

If you have enabled auto-reconciliation for GoCardless invoices, FreeAgent will automatically mark the invoice as paid once payment has been received. It will also reconcile the charge that GoCardless has issued to you for using the service.

If you haven’t enabled auto-reconciliation, you will need to mark the invoice as paid and account for the GoCardless charge manually.

Find out more about how the GoCardless integration works.

GoCardless payment status

As soon as your customer has made a payment using GoCardless Instant Bank Pay, your invoice will show a payment status of ‘Payment Processing' while FreeAgent waits for GoCardless to confirm that the payment has been transferred to your account.

Finally, once the payment is transferred into your bank account you’ll see a 'Payment Complete’ status in the 'GoCardless payment status' area.

Within the GoCardless payment status box, there will be a designated date for when the transaction relating to the payment of the invoice should be visible within your bank account which can then help you to locate the relevant transaction in your GoCardless bank account in FreeAgent.