Multiple Invoices to Direct Debit Request

Feature Request Implemented
1

Is there any quick way of converting multiple DRAFT invoices to the stage when we can requesting direct debit payments?

  1. QF already provides a mechanism to convert multiple DRAFT to SEND status so that no problem
  2. The majority of clients have pre-authorisation for GoCardless (GC)
  3. Would like not to have to trawl through each invoice to set the “Collect by Direct Debit”
2

I think what you may be looking for here is a way to multi-check a bunch of invoices and make simultaneous collections on all?

If this is the case I will switch this to a feature request. Unfortunately in the mean time you would need to request manually on each individual invoice. If they all relate to the same client (presuming they don’t) you could make a generic collection from the client detail screen for any amount you wish then when it clears attach the credit to pay down the invoices.

3

Thanks for the advice Glenn
It looks as if I’m going to have to go through each invoice - pity
Yes I would like this to be included in the feature list.

4

I’ve done some investigation and GC provide on their help centre “How do I bulk import payments?”

https://help.gocardless.com/customer/portal/articles/1796263

The downside is that this will be processed entirely through GC and with no link back to the invoice in QF

5

Yes this would not link into QF and would mean you’re manually adding the payments to the invoices later.

The manual DD collect option was actually only added to QuickFile a couple of months ago. The next iteration would be to allow multiple invoices to be checked and to request payment as a batch.

Unfortunately I don’t have a timeframe for this right now, this actually is the first request we’ve had to add this feature and typically we focus on those areas that get the most attention. I will update you here when we can look at this further.

EDIT:

In the mean time we do have an API method to handle this

It’s listed under the client functions:

http://api.quickfile.co.uk/methods.aspx?t=Client

The method is: Client_NewDirectDebitCollection

http://api.quickfile.co.uk/1_1/methodView.aspx?schema=Client_NewDirectDebitCollection

6

If you are going to have a feature to “allow multiple invoices to be checked and to request payment as a batch” would this then generate just one DD request for the total of the invoices? If so then an enthusiastic +1 for this feature! I often have more than one invoice for a customer totalling well over £200 in a month, so generating just one DD would enable me to take advantage of the GoCardless £2 charge limit.

7

Yes this was discussed previously and has the support of a few users. I think I mentioned in the previous thread that there are some technical issues doing it like that, specifically with the way the system handles the payments allocation when the DD has cleared. It was always designed from the onset as one DD request to one invoice and changing this is not simple.

We do allow generic amounts to be taken against a supplier account so I suppose we could add an option to the batch request feature to lump together payments from the same client. Unfortunately doing this it would mean that the cleared funds would deposit to the client account not directly to the invoices, so this extra step would be manual. If that’s an acceptable trade off I see no reason why it can’t be incorporated into the batch request feature.

8

I’ve updated the thread to “planned”, we should have this implemented within 2 weeks.

9

The following enhancement should solve this problem. You can now bulk collect and consolidate multiple invoices for the same client into a single payment request.

http://community.quickfile.co.uk/t/bulk-collect-and-merged-direct-debit-payments/6288