The GoCardless integration lets your customers pay you directly from their bank account. It powers two payment types in Commusoft: automatic recurring payments for contracts, and one-off payments your customer makes in the self-service portals. This article explains how each one works, so you can pick the right setup for your business.

GoCardless handles bank-to-bank payments in Commusoft through two separate mechanisms. They are set up in different places and solve different problems, so it helps to know which one you need before you start.

This mechanism collects recurring contract payments automatically. Your customer approves a mandate once, and Commusoft then collects each contract invoice from their bank account.

To use it, you need a plan that includes Contracts and the GoCardless integration connected. Your contract template also needs its payment option set to bank payment. See How to take contract payments by Direct Debit, ACH, PAD, or card for the full setup.

This mechanism handles single payments your customer makes themselves. They open an invoice or statement in one of the self-service portals, choose to pay by bank, and approve that one payment. Nothing recurring is set up. How the payment is taken depends on your region.

UK customers paying in GBP use Pay by Bank, a GoCardless feature for instant bank-to-bank payments. Your customer approves the single payment and it is confirmed almost immediately. No mandate is involved.

US and Canadian customers pay by ACH or PAD. These schemes need an authorization before money can move, so Commusoft initiates a mandate to take that single payment. Your customer either sets up a new mandate or uses one they have already approved, then confirms the payment.

The payment shows as pending in the portal until GoCardless collects it. Once GoCardless pays out, Commusoft records the payment and the portal shows it as successful. A pending payment is normal, because ACH and PAD payments are not instant.

Bank payments sit alongside card payments in the portal. If you also use the Stripe integration, you can limit card payments above a set amount, so larger invoices are paid by bank instead. See Invoice portal settings to configure this.

A mandate is your customer's authorization to collect payments from their bank account. Mandates apply to every contract payment, and to one-off portal payments in the US and Canada. Pay by Bank payments in the UK do not use them.

When you set up a contract with bank payment, Commusoft emails your customer a mandate approval request. The contract stays in Pending mandate approval status until they complete it. The approval link expires 7 days after it is sent. Once your customer approves it, the mandate becomes active within a couple of working days.

You can reuse a customer's active mandate for future contracts, so they do not need to approve a new one each time. If your customer already has a mandate in GoCardless from before you used Commusoft, you can import it using its mandate reference. Commusoft then manages the payments, and GoCardless cancels any subscriptions it holds.

Bank payments are not instant, so allow for processing time when planning your cash flow. Pay by Bank is the exception, as those payments are confirmed almost immediately.

These timings apply to one-off portal payments taken by ACH or PAD as well as to contract payments.

GoCardless generates a reference for every payment. You can search this reference in the GoCardless platform to trace an individual payment.

If a payment fails, Commusoft does not retry it automatically. Send your customer a portal link so they can pay that invoice manually, then check the mandate is still active for future collections.