Best practice for invoice timing & due dates with GoCardless Direct Debit

Accounting
1

I’m a bit confused about the best practice for timing invoices and due dates when using GoCardless.

Example scenario:

  • A customer has already signed up for Direct Debit

  • Let’s say today is the 1st of the month

  • I want the payment to be collected on the 20th

What is the recommended approach in this case? Specifically:

  • When should the invoice be created — on the 1st, or closer to the 20th?

  • What should the due date be if I want collection to start on the 20th?

  • Is it good practice to create the invoice on the 20th and set the due date to 0 days?

  • Or is it better to create the invoice earlier and set a future due date?

  • Is there any minimum number of days that should be used once the mandate is active?

Would appreciate hearing how others handle this in real-world setups. Thanks!

2

I am in a similar position. I would like to be able to issue invoices on or around 7 days prior to the end of the month with a “Tax date” on the invoice set to the 1st of the month. At the moment this requires a manual intervention on every invoice to change the invoice date to a date in the future at the point where I issue the invoice. I have previously requested that the invoicing finction allows for both an Invoice Date and Tax Date. I don’t recall that I ever got a response from Quickfile.