1. Sign up to Gocardless for Xero

Contents

1. Sign up to GoCardless for Xero

a)  Step one: connect

b)  Step two: automate

c)  Step three: reconcile

2. The main dashboard

3. The customers tab

a)  See the mandate status of a customer

b)  See whether customers are linked to Xero

c)  Manage customers using ‘Actions’

d)  Sync with Xero

e)  Manually add customers

f)  See more information about a customer in Xero

4. The invoices tab

a)  Manually process payments

b)  Collect now

c)  Process in bulk

d)  Cancellations and refunds

5. Automating payments

a)  Automate and edit email notifications to customers

b)  Automate payment collection

6. Matching customers

7. Xero Payments

a)  Branding themes

b)  Add a pay now button to your invoices

8. Reconciliation

9. Manage your team

a)  Manage who can use the dashboard

b)  Invite your accountant

c)  The accountant dashboard

10. User settings

Sign up to GoCardless for Xero

Step one: connect

Create a GoCardless for Xero account

To use GoCardless for Xero you need to create an account. This is different from your GoCardless or Xero accounts.

Connect to your GoCardless account

If you already have a GoCardless account simply sign in and connect to the app.

If you don’t have a GoCardless account you can set one up from here. GoCardless for Xero works with all GoCardless packages, so you can choose form Pro, Plus or Standard.

NB: you will need to verify your account to start taking payments. We’ll email you with instructions on how to do this.

Connect your Xero account

❖  Click ‘Connect to Xero’ and log in

❖  Select ‘allow access’ when prompted

❖  Review your details and confirm

NB. You can sign up to a 30 day trial of Xero if you do not yet have an account, and then navigate back to continue the sign-up process.

NB: If you have more than one account (e.g. as an accountant, have old accounts etc) there will be a drop down of available Xero accounts available. This is automatically in alphabetical order. You will have an opportunity on the next page to review the account you are signing up with, please check!

Step two: automate a

Choose whether to automate 2 processes

Choose whether mandate set up requests are sent automatically

❖  If turned on, new customers added to Xero will be emailed automatically requesting a mandate.

❖  If you choose automatic emails, you can edit the email template on the next screen, and from within the main dashboard.

NB: emails are sent once per day, not automatically on creation of a customer

Choose whether to automate payment collection

If you turn this function on, every time you create a new invoice in Xero the dashboard will automatically pick it up and charge your customer on the stated invoice due date.

Important: If you are an existing GoCardless customer and using the plans/ subscriptions functionality, we need to cancel the subscriptions you have set up in your GoCardless account to avoid customers being charged twice once you started using the GoCardless for Xero integration. GoCardless can “silently” cancel all the subscriptions in your account so that customers do not receive a cancellation message from you. Contact to organise this.

When setting up for the first time old DD mandates need to be cancelled and set up again within GoCardless. Directli can contact GoCardless to manage this on your behalf, and old mandates will be ‘silently’ turned off so your customers will not know about the change. If old mandates are not turned off, there is a risk of double charging customers.

If this function is off, you can still manually sync from Xero to process invoices individually or in bulk by using the ‘Collect now’ button in the invoices page.

Step three: reconcile

Choose bank account

Choose which bank account you would like payouts to be transferred to.

Bank accounts set up within Xero will appear on the drop down menu, simply select your preferred bank account and confirm.

You will need to have a bank account set up in Xero to complete this process.

Choose account codes for fees

Choose how you would like GoCardless fees to be recorded within Xero.

This is automatically set to 404 - Bank Fees. You can use the dropdown menu to change this if you would prefer an alternative code set up.

To reconcile your invoices automatically, GoCardless for Xero creates a clearing account, where all aggregate payouts from GoCardless are sent to (net of fees). This is then transferred to your chosen bank account, and is also reconciled against the relevant payout that appears on your bank feed. The GoCardless fees are then marked as an expense in the chosen account code Read more about this here.

The main dashboard

You can navigate back to this screen at any point by clicking on the house in the top left corner.

Blue panel (left) / This is your menu, hover over this to access the 'Customers' and 'Invoices' tabs.
Processing with the banks / This field will show all monies currently being collected from your customers. These payment requests have been submitted to the bank and cannot be cancelled.
Scheduled to be collected / This field will show all monies that are due to be collected in the future and have not yet been sent to the banks.
Unable to be collected / This field will show the outstanding balance that is unable to be collected due to the customer having no mandate and/or matching Xero ID. Manage this on the customers page or by matching customers.
Payments are automated / This field will show whether or not you have Automated Payments enabled. If your account is not set to Automate Payments and you wish to do so, you must go to the settings tab in the top right hand corner. Click on ‘Xero Automation’ and mark a tick in the box labelled ‘Automate Payments’. Remember to save changes. More here.
Matching Customers / This field will show how many customers you have in the dashboard that have not been matched to a Xero ID. You need to match customers who are not linked to enable reconciliation and payments, click on the box to do this.
Reconciliation Status / This field will tell you if all of your payments have been reconciled. Manage this by going to the ‘Xero Reconciliation’ page via the settings tab in the top right hand corner (below)
Settings
(top right) / When clicking on the 'Settings' cog, firstly the drop down tab will show which user is logged into the account and their corresponding login email address.
Use this menu to sign out, and to navigate to:
❖  User Settings
❖  Xero Automation
❖  Xero Reconciliation
❖  Team
❖  Help Centre

The Customers Tab

Navigate to the customers tab by hovering over the blue menu bar on the left.

See the mandate status of a customer
See whether customers are linked to Xero
Manage customers using ‘Actions’
Sync with Xero
Manually add customers
See more information about a customer in Xero

NB: A Xero customer is a contact with a raised invoice. Contacts without an invoice against them in Xero will not show in this dashboard.

See the mandate status of each customer

The status of each customer is shown in the mandate status column.

❖  Blue tick = live mandate

❖  Red Cross = cancelled mandate

❖  Dash = no mandate in place

❖  Amber tick = customer has chosen to approve each individual payment, so payments will not be taken automatically.

See customers linked to Xero

The ‘linked to Xero’ column shows whether your customers are linked to Xero. A tick means they are, a dash means they are not.

If your customer is linked to Xero, you can click on this to be taken to their page in Xero.

If your customers are not linked to Xero, you can match them on the matching page. Click on the GoCardless logo to back to the home screen and click on the ‘Matching Customers’ module.

Manage customers using the actions column

The ‘actions’ column shows available actions for each customer, which will differ depending on their status.

Customers with a live mandate (blue tick) / Option to turn off or on automated payments
Customers with a cancelled mandate (red cross) or no mandate (dash / Option to copy a unique link which you can send to the customer inviting them to set up a mandate which will automatically link to their record.
Customers who have already been sent the link will have an option to send reminder, sending a unique reminder email.

Sync with Xero

❖  Hover over ‘sync’ in the top right to see the date of last sync from Xero

❖  Click on the pop up to run a sync with Xero

NB: Sync now updates based on status changes which have occurred since the last sync. However, when a Xero contact becomes a customer (i.e. an invoice is raised against the contact) Xero does not change the associated time stamp so this change will not be reflected until the next full update which takes place at 12pm and 12am each day.

Manually add a customer

You can manually invite a customer to set up a Direct Debit mandate. Using this method will send the customer a generic link, which means that when they complete the mandate you will need to match the customer to their Xero record. For existing customers it’s easier to use the unique links in ‘actions’ on the customer record.

The link available here is particularly useful if you would like a generic sign up form on your website, for example.

❖  Click on ‘add customers’ in the top right of the Customers page

❖  Copy the link

❖  Send the link to your customer to invite them set up a mandate

❖  Once the mandate is set up, the customer will appear in your customer dashboard where you can see their status

See more information about a customer in Xero

Click on any customer who is linked to Xero to view their customer information within your Xero dashboard.

The Invoices Tab

Navigate to the invoices tab by hovering over the blue menu bar on the left.

Sync status / Hover to see when invoices were last synced with Xero. Click on the pop up to sync and update.
Invoice reference / This is the individual payment identity given within Xero
Customer / The customer that will charged from each invoice
Status / Indicates where the payment is in the banking system (e.g. pending, paid out). If the payment has not been processed yet you have the option to Collect Now.
Invoice date / When Automated payments are switched on, the Invoice Date is the day in which we will send the payment through to GoCardless, to be charged on the Due Date.
Due Date / The day the payment leaves the customer’s bank account (if this falls on a non-working day the payment will be taken on the next working day). NB: When selecting the Due Date in Xero bare in mind weekends & Public/Bank Holidays.
Amount / The total invoice amount

Toggle between pending, scheduled and paid invoices

❖  The invoice view can show scheduled, pending and paid invoices. Click on the drop down at the top of the page to toggle between these views.

❖  Use the search box to search for a particular invoice.

Manually process payments

If a customer has an active mandate but you do not have automatic payment collection turned on, you can manually collect payments from the Invoice tab in two ways.

Collect Now

❖  Change your view to ‘pending’ invoices

❖  Click on Collect Now

❖  The payment will be deducted from the customer's bank account in 4 working days

NB: You must click this before 4pm to start the process the same day. If you hit Collect Now after 4pm GoCardless will still be sent the details but the payment will not be created until the following working day.

Process payments in bulk

❖  Tick boxes to select the payments you wish to process (or select all at the top of the column)

❖  Click ‘Bulk Action’ in the top right hand corner

❖  Choose from Collect Now’ or ‘Collect on Due Date’ to choose when to take the payment. (Collect now will take the payment from the customer in 4 working days, as above)

Tip: You can search for an individual invoice using the search bar on the top left hand side of the page.

Cancel a payment

You can cancel a payment from the invoices page up until 4pm the day after submission.

❖  Click on the actions button (right hand side) next to the payment you wish to cancel NB: This button will only appear for payments you are able to cancel

❖  Select ‘Cancel Payment’

Once a payment has been submitted to the banking system you can no longer 'Cancel' and a refund would have to be processed once the payment has been received by GoCardless.

Refund a customer

You are not currently able to refund a customer through GoCardless for Xero. Please do this outside of the GoCardless for Xero platform.