AccountsDebts
GoCardless Billing Request Flow
How to send a Direct Debit setup link from a debt, including optional first-payment amounts, job context, send routes, and setup-only links.
Choose Set up Direct Debit from the debt payment choices when the customer needs a GoCardless mandate before you can collect from them. The same route is also what sits behind Invite to GoCardless on the debt row.
What Needs To Be In Place
- No active mandate yet: This route is for customers who are not already set up for Direct Debit.
- GoCardless integration: If the business has not connected GoCardless yet, the popup stops at a Manage GoCardless prompt instead of letting you send a setup link.
- Contact details: The customer needs contact details to make the route useful, and GoCardless still requires a saved email address behind the scenes before Work Planner can create the setup request.
Customer and Link Details
- Customer, email, and mobile: The popup shows you the customer details Work Planner will use so you can spot missing or stale contact data before sending anything.
- Setup link: Once a preview or live request exists, the link stays visible in the popup so you can copy it again without starting over.
First Payment (Optional)
- Amount to charge now: Enter a figure above 0.00 when you want the customer to set up the mandate and pay immediately as part of the same journey.
- Recorded against the same debt job: This route already knows which debt and job you started from, so any first payment taken during setup stays tied to that same job.
- Description: Use this to explain that first payment on the customer side and later in your own records.
- Leave blank or 0: This creates a setup-only link. The customer authorises Direct Debit, but no payment is taken during setup.
Sending the Link
- Send setup link: Builds the setup link first, then opens the Message Customers Popup on your Direct Debit invite email and Direct Debit invite text. The customer gets an email, or a text if they prefer texts or have no email address, and you can check the message before it goes. It reads Resend setup link when a link has already been sent.
- Changing the wording: Edit the Direct Debit invite email and Direct Debit invite text templates in Settings, Document Templates. The link goes wherever the template has its Direct Debit link detail.
- Preview-first behaviour: Work Planner creates or reuses the setup URL before it opens the send popup, so you are always sending a real live link rather than placeholder text.
What Changes After Sending
Once the link has been created, the debt row can show DD Setup Sent in the GC column. The customer still needs to finish the GoCardless setup before you can use the ordinary GoCardless payment route on that debt.
Related articles
- GoCardless Confirmation and Cancel-Recreate Flow: Covers what happens once a setup link already exists and needs managing.
- Billing Request and Direct Debit Setup Flow: Shows the customer-side equivalent when you are managing setup from the customer record instead of the debt list.
- Taking a Payment: Useful when you need to compare setup links against manual payment or immediate collection routes.