Direct Debit with GoCardless

Before you start

This guide is for the person who runs FirmPulse at your firm. It covers connecting your firm's own GoCardless account, pairing the mandates you already have, setting up Direct Debit for a client, and what happens to the money and the paperwork afterwards.

Two roles matter most. Only an admin can connect or disconnect GoCardless, and only an admin can save changes in Settings, Invoicing and Settings, Practice profile, such as the fee for a failed collection and whether your firm accepts bank transfers. An admin or a manager can pair mandates, set up a Direct Debit, take and retry collections, set up or stop a monthly schedule, send invoices, waive fees and record payments. Staff can raise and edit a draft invoice, but not send it or record a payment. Staff can see a client's Direct Debit details on the Billing tab, read only: the mandate, the monthly schedule and the collections with their amounts, marked Staff (read only), with no buttons and without the link a client is sent to authorise or to pay. A view-only user does not see them: the Billing tab tells them that only staff, managers and admins can see them.

1. Connect your GoCardless account

In FirmPulse, open Settings, then Connected services, and press Manage on the GoCardless row. That opens the GoCardless page.

If your firm already has a GoCardless account

Press Connect GoCardless. Your browser goes to GoCardless, where you sign in and allow FirmPulse to work with your account. FirmPulse asks for read and write access, because it creates mandates and takes payments on your behalf.

If your firm does not have a GoCardless account yet

Under the Connect GoCardless button, choose Create one. You land on GoCardless's sign-up form with details from FirmPulse filled in: the email address you sign in to FirmPulse with, your name (leaving out a title such as Mr or Dr at the start, the first word as your first name and the rest as your surname), your firm's name and the country, United Kingdom. The firm's name is the legal (registered) name from Settings, Practice profile, when one has been entered. Check every field and correct anything that is wrong before you continue.

Finish within the hour, in the same browser

You have up to an hour to finish at GoCardless, including confirming your email address if GoCardless asks you to. The hour starts when you press the button, and you need to finish in the same browser. You can leave the page open as long as you like before pressing it.

If FirmPulse signs you out while you are at GoCardless, which it does after 20 minutes without a click, key press, scroll or touch on any open FirmPulse app screen, you are not sent back to the beginning: FirmPulse asks you to sign in and then carries on connecting where you left off, as long as you sign back in to the same firm and do not take too long over it, because GoCardless's authorisation is single use and short lived. If it has run out, the GoCardless page says so and you press Connect GoCardless again. Opening Settings, Connected services or a client record in another tab while you are away does not affect the connection you started. Pressing Connect GoCardless again does: the newer press is the one that counts, and the older attempt then reads "That didn't complete".

When you come back

FirmPulse opens the GoCardless page again and tells you how it went:

• "GoCardless is connected." Your account is linked, and FirmPulse checks your verification straight away.
• "You didn't finish connecting." You stopped on GoCardless's screen, and nothing has changed.
• "Only an admin can connect GoCardless." The person who came back is not an admin in FirmPulse.
• "That GoCardless account is already connected to another FirmPulse firm." One GoCardless account can be connected to only one firm on FirmPulse.
• "That didn't complete." GoCardless wasn't connected. Something interrupted the round trip, most often more than an hour passing between pressing the button and finishing at GoCardless. Press Connect GoCardless again.
• "The GoCardless link expired while you were signing in. Press Connect again." Signing back in took longer than GoCardless's authorisation lasts. Nothing is wrong; press the button again.
• "Set up two-factor sign-in when FirmPulse asks you to, then press Connect again." You came back without two-factor sign-in, which every GoCardless action needs. FirmPulse shows you its set-up screen; do that, then press the button again.
• "GoCardless isn't finished being set up on this deployment, so the connection couldn't be completed." The problem is on our side, not yours. Email support@firmpulse.co.uk.

Once you are connected, the GoCardless page shows the GoCardless account it is connected to, by its name or, where GoCardless gives no name, its email address, with its organisation ID, the date it was connected and who connected it, and FirmPulse's app fee. Once GoCardless has reported your verification, a Verification panel under it says where it stands, as section 2 describes, and when FirmPulse last checked it. On Settings, Connected services, the GoCardless row says the same of who connected it and when, and when FirmPulse last checked your verification with GoCardless.

2. Verification, and why payouts wait

GoCardless verifies your firm before your account can collect anything or be paid out. Until it has, no Direct Debit can be set up through FirmPulse, nothing can be collected, and no money reaches your bank account.

Once GoCardless has reported a status, the panel shows it:

• "Verified by GoCardless." Payouts reach your bank account normally.
• "GoCardless is reviewing your account." Nothing can be set up or collected, and no money reaches your bank, until the review finishes. There is nothing for you to do.
• "GoCardless needs more information before your account can collect anything or be paid out." Press Finish verification in GoCardless. It opens your own GoCardless dashboard in a new tab, where you complete the checks.

Verification can go backwards after it has been granted, so FirmPulse keeps checking. It reads the status as soon as you connect, and again when an admin or a manager opens Settings, Connected services or a client record, once the last successful check is six hours old.

Where FirmPulse takes an app fee from a collection, the collection's row on the client's Billing tab shows it. That fee is FirmPulse's, not GoCardless's.

3. Match the mandates you already have

If your firm already collects by Direct Debit in pounds through GoCardless, you can pair your existing mandates with your clients in FirmPulse. For a mandate that is Active or Being set up, pairing it lets you collect through FirmPulse without your client setting up a new Direct Debit.

Once you are connected, admins and managers see an Existing mandates button on the GoCardless page, which opens the Existing mandates page, with Sync now at its top. Before you sync, it lists only the mandates FirmPulse has already heard about from GoCardless, such as ones set up through FirmPulse, and until you press Sync now they show No name and No email. Sync now reads the mandates and customers in your GoCardless account, adds any that are missing, and fills in each payer's name and email and each mandate's reference and earliest collection date. Press it again whenever you want to pick those up afresh.

During a sync, FirmPulse pairs a mandate on its own only when the match is certain: the mandate was set up through FirmPulse, or the payer's email address is the Email on exactly one client record that is not archived. An email address held only on one of a client's contacts does not count, and if your client list cannot be read, the sync pairs nothing and says so. A sync never overwrites a pairing that already exists. Afterwards it tells you how many mandates it synced and how many it matched automatically. That count includes mandates that cannot take money now, such as cancelled, failed, expired or suspended ones, which the list leaves out unless they are paired.

When a client pays by their bank app, through a pay by bank link or through Pay now by bank, and set up a Direct Debit, GoCardless also records a one-off mandate on Faster Payments for that one payment. It is not a Direct Debit mandate, so Existing mandates does not list it: its payment shows on the invoice it paid. FirmPulse never pairs one with a client, a sync never pairs one, nothing is ever collected on it, and it is not shown on the client's Billing tab. Until GoCardless has told FirmPulse what such a mandate is, one can show for a while with No name: Pair asks GoCardless first and refuses it, and it leaves the list once GoCardless says its payment has been taken, or when you press Sync now. A mandate on a scheme that is not a Direct Debit scheme is listed as Not a Direct Debit mandate, with its scheme, and cannot be paired either.

How mandates are sorted

• Linked: already paired with a client. The Client column names the client and, under it, how the pairing was made: Matched on email, Matched on name, Paired by hand or Created in FirmPulse. A suggestion you confirmed reads Paired by hand, and a mandate FirmPulse itself set up reads Created in FirmPulse.
• Auto-matched: a certain email match that is not paired yet, for example because you added the client after the last sync.
• Probable: the payer's name is close to a client's name, narrowed by postcode where there is one. Check it before you confirm.
• Unresolved: nothing matched, or more than one client matched equally well. Where there are possible clients, the row says how many.

Archived clients are never suggested or offered.

What each button does

• Confirm pairs the mandate with the suggested client.
• Pair opens a client search under the row. No client is chosen for you, and Pair stays greyed until you choose one. Choose the client, then press the Pair with button that names them. Nothing is saved until you do.
• Skip sets the mandate aside in FirmPulse. It does not cancel anything at GoCardless. Skipping a linked mandate asks you first, because it removes the pairing.
• Unskip brings a skipped mandate back into the groups. It does not restore a pairing that skipping removed, so confirm or pair it again.

Skipped mandates are hidden until you press Show skipped, whose label says how many there are. A skipped mandate that can no longer take money stays hidden even then. Skipping is a decision FirmPulse keeps: a later Sync now will not pair a skipped mandate with a client, however certain the match, and the only way back is Unskip.

When the list is partial

"This list is partial" means FirmPulse holds more than 2,000 mandates, so the screen looks only at the first 2,000 in payer-name order, with mandates that have no payer name last. A warning that your client list could not be read in full means the suggestions may be incomplete, so check each one before confirming. If the mandates cannot be read at all, the page says so and offers Try again. It never shows a failed read as an empty list.

The same limit applies to a client's Billing tab: in a firm holding more than 2,000 mandates, a paired mandate past it may not show there, so check the client in your GoCardless dashboard before you set up another.

Pairing a mandate that is already Active does not start a monthly schedule. FirmPulse sets one up only when GoCardless next reports the mandate as live, for example if it is reinstated. Otherwise you can set one up by hand, as section 6 describes.

4. Set up a Direct Debit for a client

Open the client's record and choose the Billing tab. The Direct Debit mandate section is at the top, with the client's invoices below it. Once GoCardless is connected, the Services & fees tab also shows a one-line Direct Debit summary with a Set one up or Manage button that brings you here. If GoCardless is not connected, the Billing tab says so and links to Settings.

When no mandate is paired with the client and no authorisation link is waiting, you have two choices:

• Set up Direct Debit creates an authorisation for the mandate only, so that you can collect future payments. Nothing is collected with it.
• Raise an invoice to collect opens Raise an invoice in place of the Billing tab, with Send with a Direct Debit request chosen under Collect by, so the client gets the invoice and the link to set up the Direct Debit together, as section 7 describes.

While GoCardless has not verified your account

Until GoCardless has verified your firm's account, as section 2 describes, FirmPulse refuses every request that would set up a Direct Debit or collect money, so the Billing tab does not offer the buttons that make one: Set up Direct Debit, Change bank account, Raise an invoice to collect, Set one up by hand, Start a schedule and Retry. In their place, admins and managers see one line saying why, under Take a payment, in the same words FirmPulse uses when it refuses a request, for example "GoCardless is still reviewing your account, so nothing can be collected until that finishes: Settings, Connected services, GoCardless."

The buttons for what already exists stay: Send to, Resend and Copy link on a link that is already waiting, Change and Stop on a schedule, and Cancel and Refund on a collection. While your account is not verified, FirmPulse asks GoCardless afresh each time an admin or a manager opens Settings, Connected services or a client's Billing tab, rather than once every six hours, so the buttons come back the next time one of them is opened after GoCardless has verified it.

Set up Direct Debit creates a secure GoCardless link for your client. Until they have used it, the top of the section shows that you are waiting for them to authorise, and the date the link works until. FirmPulse does not act on that date: until GoCardless reports the request used, cancelled or failed, the waiting row stays after the date passes, with its Send to or Resend button and Copy link, and Set up Direct Debit stays hidden.

Sending the link

Press the Send to button, which names an email address, to email the link, or press Copy link to send it yourself. You can resend it. The email goes from your own Microsoft 365 mailbox if you have connected one in Settings, Email senders and mailboxes, under Your mailbox. Otherwise it goes from your firm's mailbox, if your firm has switched on Send practice mail from the firm mailbox, or from your firm's verified sending address. If none of these can send it, you see "The email could not be sent. Copy the link and send it yourself."

After sending, the section shows the address the link went to. The Send to button names that address before you press it: the client's primary contact when they have an email address, then any other contact with one, and only then the client record's address. If none of them has an email address, the Send to button is unavailable, so copy the link instead.

When an engagement letter is signed

When a client with an accepted quote signs their engagement letter, by e-signature or when you record a signed paper letter, FirmPulse raises the authorisation for you and tries to email it. It asks for the mandate alone, the authority to collect future payments: nothing is collected with it, and the email names no amount to be taken now. When your firm has switched on Invoice at signing in Settings, Invoicing, FirmPulse raises the invoice for the upfront fee when the letter is signed, and the request goes with that invoice. If the email cannot be sent, the link waits on the Billing tab marked Not sent yet, so send or copy it from there.

FirmPulse raises nothing if GoCardless is not connected, if the client already has a working mandate, if a link is already waiting (even one past its date), or, for an e-signed letter, if the letter's quote is not linked to a client record. It raises nothing either while GoCardless has not verified your firm's account, and then it adds a line to the client's Activity tab saying the Direct Debit request was not raised and why, and that nothing has been sent to the client. When the quote has an upfront fee, FirmPulse adds a line to the client's Activity tab saying the first payment was not requested with the Direct Debit, so raise an invoice for it.

GoCardless sets a different ceiling for each way the money moves. A Direct Debit collects up to £5,000 in a single payment, which is the ceiling on a collection from a live mandate, on a monthly schedule and on a catch-up. A bank payment, which is Instant Bank Pay over Faster Payments, goes up to £25,000 in a single payment, and your client's own bank may set a lower limit than that.

Your firm can ask GoCardless to raise either ceiling from your own GoCardless dashboard: Settings, Company Settings, Request Increase, and GoCardless reviews each request.

After the client has authorised

The section shows the mandate's status, its Reference, its Mandate ID and its Earliest collection. FirmPulse fills in the reference and the date only when Sync now is pressed on the Existing mandates page, so for a mandate set up through a FirmPulse link both show a dash until then, and the date is only as recent as the last sync. The status is one of these:

• Being set up: the client has authorised, and Bacs is activating it. Collections scheduled now still go out.
• Waiting on the client: the client has started but not finished authorising.
• Active: collections go out on this mandate.
• Suspended by the payer: no collections go out until it is reinstated. FirmPulse shows this status only after Sync now is pressed on the Existing mandates screen, so until then the mandate can still show as Active.
• Replaced: a newer mandate has taken its place. When GoCardless names the newer mandate, FirmPulse pairs it with the same client, and the replaced mandate stays paired too.
• Cancelled, Failed, Expired or Blocked: the mandate can no longer be used. It stays paired with the client, because its collections stand, and the Billing tab shows it as history beside the controls for setting up a new one. So to collect again, set up a new Direct Debit from the client's Billing tab; there is no need to skip or unpair the old mandate first.

Changing a client's bank account

A mandate belongs to one bank account. When a client wants to pay from another, press Change bank account beside their mandate, which is offered while it is Active or Being set up. It asks first: "Change bank account?". Send the link raises a link for the client to authorise their new bank account and emails it to them, in the email a new Direct Debit's link goes in; when nobody on the client has an email address, copy the link from the tab and send it yourself. Nothing changes on the current mandate meanwhile, and collections carry on from it. Until the client has used the link, it waits under the mandate with its Send to or Resend button, Copy link and Cancel, which stops the link working. Once the client has authorised the new account the section says so, and once its mandate is active FirmPulse moves every monthly schedule onto it and cancels the old mandate, which is then listed under Previous mandates. A one-off collection from the old account that has not gone to the bank by then is cancelled with it, as section 7 describes.

5. What your client sees

When the link is emailed from FirmPulse, your client receives an email from your firm asking them to set up a Direct Debit. Unless your firm has changed the wording in Settings, Automated emails, it says that they will need their bank details to hand, that every collection is protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee, and that they will always be told in advance, in writing, before any payment is taken. The one FirmPulse sends by itself when an engagement letter is signed, with Invoice at signing switched off, also says how much will then be collected each month, when the accepted quote has a monthly fee. An invoice sent with a Direct Debit request goes in an email of its own, with the invoice attached, as section 9 describes.

The button in the email opens a FirmPulse page first, which shows "One moment." while it asks GoCardless for its page and then sends the client straight on to it. When there is nothing left to do, it says so instead, under your firm's name: for example "This invoice is paid", "This invoice is withdrawn", "This request is cancelled" or "Your Direct Debit is already set up".

On GoCardless's own secure page the client enters their bank details and confirms. This is a GoCardless page, not a FirmPulse page. It opens with the details FirmPulse holds already filled in, so the client checks them rather than typing them: a name from the client's primary contact, or another contact, or the client record itself for an individual; an email address from the client record, or else the primary contact; the company name for a company, LLP or partnership; and the address the client's invoices are billed to, never a home address. A detail FirmPulse does not hold, or that is not valid, is left for the client to fill in, and if FirmPulse cannot read the client's details at all, the page opens empty.

When they finish setting up a Direct Debit, whether from Set up Direct Debit or from an invoice sent with a Direct Debit request, they land on a page headed "Thank you, that's all done". It names your firm, says their bank details have gone to your firm's payment provider, GoCardless, and explains what happens next: GoCardless emails them a confirmation, their bank then sets up the mandate, and they will be told in advance, in writing, before any payment is collected. It shows no amount and offers no bank details, except that a client already on a monthly schedule, such as one changing bank account, also sees the monthly amount. After Pay now by bank, and set up a Direct Debit, the page also shows the amount they approved paying now.

After paying an invoice by a pay by bank link, which sets up no Direct Debit, the page says instead that they have approved a payment to your firm through its payment provider, GoCardless, shows the amount, and says that GoCardless will email them to confirm the payment. It says nothing about a mandate and offers no bank details.

A link FirmPulse sends by itself when an engagement letter is signed, with Invoice at signing switched off, lands on the same page without your firm's name: it says their bank details have been submitted to GoCardless, says the same about what happens next, and asks them to contact their accountant if anything looks wrong.

A client who stops part way through GoCardless's page and closes it has set nothing up. GoCardless sends a client to a page headed "Nothing has been set up" only when its own page cannot take them any further, and that page tells them that no Direct Debit was created and no payment was taken.

6. The monthly schedule from the accepted quote

When a client's mandate goes live and the client has an accepted quote, FirmPulse sets up their monthly collection for you. The amount is the quote's monthly fee including VAT. Once the client has authorised, and until the mandate goes live, the Monthly schedule section on the Billing tab says the monthly collection will be set up automatically from the quote, so do not start one by hand. When FirmPulse will not set one up, or did not, the section says so, with the reason when it has one, and a Set one up by hand button.

The monthly collections start about a month after the client's first Direct Debit collection in FirmPulse or, if there is none, about a month after FirmPulse hears that the mandate went live, and then fall on that day each month. A payment made by bank, through a pay by bank link or Pay now by bank, and set up a Direct Debit, does not count. For a client with collections on an earlier mandate, the day comes from the earliest of them, so check the day and the next on date shown for the schedule under Monthly schedule. The 29th, 30th and 31st become the 28th.

When the yearly fee including VAT does not split into twelve whole pennies, the monthly amount is rounded down and the pence left over go on the first monthly collection, which FirmPulse takes as a separate collection a month before the schedule itself starts. For example, a yearly fee of £700 including VAT is collected as £58.33 a month, with 4p more on the first collection.

FirmPulse does not set the schedule up for you when the quote has a promotional discount, when it is an older quote without a monthly figure including VAT, or when the monthly fee including VAT, or the first collection with any pence left over, is under £1 or over £5,000. It sets up one schedule from each accepted quote for each client. If you press Stop, or the schedule is cancelled or finishes at GoCardless, FirmPulse does not set up another from that quote while the mandate it ran on can still be used, so set the next one up by hand. Once that mandate has died, by being cancelled, failing, expiring or being blocked, a new mandate for the client gets a new schedule from the same quote. Pairing a mandate that is already Active does not set one up either, as section 3 explains. It does not set one up while the client has a schedule set up by hand that has not been stopped or finished, a paused one included, and Monthly schedule then says no monthly collection was set up from the quote because a schedule was set up by hand.

If the schedule cannot be set up, for example because GoCardless refuses it, FirmPulse sets up no schedule and says so on the client's Activity tab, in one line naming the collection from the quote that was not set up, with a short reason in brackets. Monthly schedule then lists no schedule, and says no monthly collection was set up because GoCardless refused it, with the same reason in brackets. Where the quote had pence left over and the separate first collection had already been taken, the same line says so, with that collection's amount and date, and that collection still goes out. Check the reason, and if you still want to collect the monthly fee, set a schedule up by hand as described below.

Setting a schedule up by hand

If the Monthly schedule section shows Set one up by hand, press it first. Enter the monthly amount, between £1 and £5,000, choose a day from 1 to 28 or the last day of the month, and press Start a schedule.

While GoCardless has not verified your firm's account, neither Set one up by hand nor the Start a schedule form is offered, and the Billing tab says why instead, as section 4 describes.

A schedule set up by hand is listed under Monthly schedule as Set up by hand. Its collections appear in the Collections list and each raises an invoice, as section 9 describes. If you set one up by hand for a client whose accepted quote FirmPulse can schedule, FirmPulse does not set up its own when the mandate goes live, so the schedule set up by hand is the one that collects.

A schedule is not a recurring invoice

A monthly schedule, whether FirmPulse set it up from the accepted quote or you set it up by hand, is a GoCardless subscription: GoCardless collects the monthly amount on the schedule's day each month, and FirmPulse raises an invoice from each collection, as section 9 describes. It is not a recurring invoice, which is an invoice raised for you on a cycle and then collected. FirmPulse does not raise recurring invoices.

Changing or stopping a schedule

An active schedule has two buttons, Change and Stop. Nothing is sent to GoCardless until you press Save after Change. Every saved change sends the day of the month, even when you changed only the amount. If you see "That collection could not be made." after pressing Save, FirmPulse has not recorded a change, so check the schedule in your GoCardless dashboard before you try again.

Stop asks first: "Stop this schedule?". Press Keep it to leave the schedule running, or Stop the schedule to cancel it at GoCardless straight away. A collection that has already been scheduled still goes out. If it is listed in the Collections list as Scheduled or Waiting on the client, you can cancel it there, as section 10 describes. A schedule cancelled, finished, paused, resumed or amended in your GoCardless dashboard shows the same on the client's Billing tab, including a changed amount. Section 11 covers the one time this does not happen: while you are disconnected.

7. One-off collections

A one-off collection starts from an invoice. When the client's mandate is Active or Being set up, the Direct Debit section of their Billing tab offers Raise an invoice to collect under Take a payment, which opens Raise an invoice with Direct Debit chosen under Collect by. When the client has no mandate, Raise an invoice to collect stands beside Set up Direct Debit, and it opens with Send with a Direct Debit request chosen instead. Raise an invoice takes the place of the Billing tab until you save the invoice or press Cancel. Add the lines, then press Save and send, or Save as draft and send it later. Preview shows the invoice, and what the email will say, before anything is saved. Nothing is emailed or collected until you confirm.

Collect by

On Raise an invoice, and when you send a draft invoice, Collect by offers each way of paying that can work for your firm and that client:

• Direct Debit, when the client's mandate is Active or Being set up and the invoice is £5,000 or less. FirmPulse asks GoCardless for the payment first, without choosing a date, so GoCardless sets the earliest day it can collect, after any weekend or bank holiday. That day goes on the invoice as its due date, and the invoice is then emailed to the client saying how much will be collected and on which day. GoCardless also sends the client its own notice of the payment, as it always does.
• Send with a Direct Debit request, when the client has no mandate and the invoice is £5,000 or less. The invoice is emailed with a link to set up a Direct Debit, and FirmPulse collects the invoice by that Direct Debit on its due date, or once the mandate is live if that is later.
• Pay now by bank, and set up a Direct Debit, when the client has no mandate and the invoice is £5,000 or less. One link lets the client pay the invoice straight away from their bank and set up the Direct Debit for the fees that follow.
• Pay by bank transfer, and set up a Direct Debit, when the client has no mandate and the invoice is under £1, the least a Direct Debit can collect. The client pays the invoice by bank transfer, and the link sets up the Direct Debit for the fees that follow.
• Pay by bank link, when the invoice is £25,000 or less. The invoice is emailed with a link to pay it from the client's own bank, with no Direct Debit.
• Bank transfer. The invoice is emailed as it always has been.

A Direct Debit collects between £1 and £5,000, and a pay by bank link between £1 and £25,000. An invoice over £5,000 and up to £25,000 is offered two ways of paying only, Pay by bank link and Bank transfer: Direct Debit and the three ways that set up a Direct Debit are not offered for it, on Raise an invoice, when you send it, or on its own buttons once it has been sent. An invoice over £25,000, the most one pay by bank link can take, is offered Bank transfer alone, in the same three places. If Collect by holds Direct Debit or a Direct Debit request when the total goes over £5,000, for example because Raise an invoice to collect opened it with one chosen, Collect by shows the £5,000 limit and changes to Pay by bank link, or to Bank transfer for an invoice over £25,000, and the invoice is sent that way; bring the total back to £5,000 or less and the way chosen is offered again. If Collect by holds Pay by bank link when the total goes over £25,000, Collect by shows the £25,000 limit and changes to Bank transfer, and the invoice is sent that way; bring the total back to £25,000 or less and Pay by bank link is offered again. For any other amount a way cannot take, Collect by shows the limit and that way cannot be sent. To set up a Direct Debit for a client whose invoice is over £5,000, for the fees that follow, use Set up Direct Debit in the Direct Debit section of their Billing tab, as section 4 describes.

If the email cannot be sent after GoCardless has created the payment, FirmPulse cancels the payment, the invoice stays a draft with its own due date, and FirmPulse says so and adds a line to the client's Activity tab. GoCardless may already have told the client about that payment. If the payment cannot be cancelled either, FirmPulse says that too, and the draft keeps the day it will be collected as its due date: cancel the collection in the Collections list, or send the invoice, which then tells the client it will be collected by Direct Debit on that day. If GoCardless did not answer when the collection was asked for, pressing Collect by Direct Debit again finds any payment GoCardless made then. If that payment is for a different amount, because the draft was edited in between, FirmPulse cancels it before collecting the new total. If it cannot be cancelled, nothing new is collected: while GoCardless can still stop it, FirmPulse tells you to cancel it in the Collections list, and once it has gone to the bank, FirmPulse says so and tells you to edit the draft to that payment's amount and raise a new invoice for any difference. A draft cannot be edited while GoCardless will retry a failed collection of it, or while a link that asks for its total is waiting; while a collection for it stands, its total can only be changed to that collection's amount. If GoCardless confirms a collection for a draft that was never sent, FirmPulse marks the invoice Paid and says, on the invoice and on the client's Activity tab, that the client has not had a copy.

An invoice you have already sent

An invoice that has been sent and is not paid has its own buttons in the Invoices section: Collect by Direct Debit when the client has a mandate, Send with a Direct Debit request when they have none, and Send a pay by bank link. An invoice over £5,000 and up to £25,000 has Send a pay by bank link alone of these, and an invoice over £25,000 has none of them. Each asks you first. None is offered while the invoice is being collected, while GoCardless will retry a failed collection of it, or while another payment action for it is being made, and the row says which. While a link for an invoice is waiting, only the same kind of link is offered again, and it sends the link already raised rather than a second one; that is also how a draft whose link email failed is sent. Collect by Direct Debit keeps the due date printed on the invoice and is never collected before that date. When the due date is later than the earliest day GoCardless can collect, it is collected on the due date, or on the next working day when the due date falls at a weekend or on a bank holiday; otherwise it is collected on the earliest day GoCardless can. Before you confirm, FirmPulse asks GoCardless and shows the day it will be collected, and if that day has changed by the time you confirm, nothing is collected, and FirmPulse shows the new day or asks you to press Collect by Direct Debit again to see it. Once GoCardless has accepted the collection, FirmPulse emails the client from your firm, as well as GoCardless's own notice: how much will be collected for the invoice and on which day, with the invoice attached. If that email cannot be sent, the collection still stands, FirmPulse says so when you press it, and the line on the client's Activity tab says the email did not go. Once it is being collected, a line on the client's Activity tab names the day and whether the client was emailed. An invoice due more than 365 days ahead cannot be collected by Direct Debit yet, or sent with a Direct Debit request. Send with a Direct Debit request and Send a pay by bank link email the invoice again with the link. A draft invoice keeps its own buttons.

Only an admin or a manager can send an invoice or collect it. If GoCardless takes a collection that FirmPulse cannot record, the invoice says "Collected, but not recorded here yet" with GoCardless's payment reference, so do not collect it again.

When a client changes bank account, a one-off collection from the old account that has not gone to the bank is cancelled with the old mandate and is not moved. Its invoice stays unpaid and owed, the line on the client's Activity tab names it, and you collect it again with Collect by Direct Debit once the new account is live.

While GoCardless has not verified your firm's account, Raise an invoice to collect is not offered, invoices are sent by bank transfer only, and the Billing tab says why instead, as section 4 describes.

The Collections list

The Collections list on the client's Billing tab shows the collections FirmPulse made or recorded, newest first, with their amount, date and status: Waiting on the client, Scheduled, With the bank, Collected, Paid out, Failed, Cancelled or Charged back. These are one-off collections, payments made by bank, with a pay by bank link or with Pay now by bank, and set up a Direct Debit, and collections from a monthly schedule, whether FirmPulse set it up from the accepted quote or you set it up by hand. Collections made in your GoCardless dashboard appear there too once FirmPulse knows which client they are from, as section 9 describes.

A payment made by bank shows Date to be confirmed by GoCardless in place of a date, and keeps showing it after the money arrives. The list shows a client's latest 100 collections, and a status changes when GoCardless tells FirmPulse that the money has moved.

8. When a collection fails, fails late or is charged back

A failed collection

The collection shows Failed. If GoCardless has said it will try again, the row reads GoCardless will retry. Otherwise a Retry button appears, and a failed collection can be retried up to three times. A retried collection of an invoice that has been sent is never taken before the invoice's due date either. FirmPulse never retries a collection on its own, and the Collections list does not show why a collection failed, so look that up in your GoCardless dashboard. The invoice for that collection stays unpaid until GoCardless confirms the money. While GoCardless has not verified your firm's account, Retry is not offered, as section 4 describes.

You can charge a fee for a failed collection: an admin sets it in Settings, Invoicing, under Fee for a failed collection. Each time a collection in the Collections list fails before GoCardless has confirmed it, the fee is added once for that failure, so a retried collection that fails again adds another. A late failure or a chargeback adds no fee, and nor does a collection made in your GoCardless dashboard. The fee waits under Not yet billed on the client's Billing tab, where you can waive it.

Unbilled fees go on their own draft invoice, ready for you to send, the next time GoCardless creates one of these for that client: a one-off collection, a payment made with Pay now by bank, and set up a Direct Debit, a payment by a pay by bank link, or a collection from a monthly schedule, whether FirmPulse set it up from the accepted quote or you set it up by hand.

A late failure or a chargeback

Sometimes money that was collected is taken back later: a late failure, or a chargeback when the client asks their bank for the money back. The collection shows Failed or Charged back, and the invoice FirmPulse had marked paid goes back to unpaid: Sent if it had been emailed, or back to a draft, shown as Draft or Send failed, if it never went out. A line is added to the client's activity, for example "Payment of £288.00 failed after collection: refer_to_payer", ending with GoCardless's cause code when GoCardless gives one. A chargeback's line uses the same words.

An invoice you recorded as paid by bank transfer stays paid. An invoice marked paid with the plain Paid button goes back to unpaid, because FirmPulse cannot tell that apart from a Direct Debit payment.

If a chargeback is withdrawn, the collection goes back to Collected or Paid out, and its invoice goes back to Paid. When GoCardless settles a chargeback, FirmPulse leaves the invoice as it is, so an invoice you have since marked paid stays paid.

Keeping track

FirmPulse does not email you when any of this happens. Check the Collections list on the client's Billing tab for Failed or Charged back. A line is added to the client's activity when a failed-collection fee is added and when a FirmPulse invoice goes back to unpaid. The outstanding total on the Invoicing page goes up when an invoice goes back to unpaid, and a fee is not counted there until it is on its own draft invoice.

9. Invoices and reconciliation

No collection has more than one invoice. Which comes first depends on the kind of collection. A one-off collection starts from its invoice: you raise the invoice and FirmPulse collects it, as section 7 describes, so the invoice exists before the money moves. When you send a draft by Direct Debit, its due date is the day GoCardless collects it; an invoice already sent keeps the due date printed on it. A payment made by bank, with a pay by bank link or with Pay now by bank, and set up a Direct Debit, pays the invoice it was sent with, including the invoice FirmPulse raises at signing when your firm has switched on Invoice at signing, and raises no invoice of its own. A collection from a monthly schedule comes first, and FirmPulse raises the invoice from the payment.

FirmPulse raises an invoice automatically for each monthly collection from a schedule it set up from the client's accepted quote. The first monthly collection that carries the pence left over from rounding gets one too, with those pence on a line of their own. A monthly collection from a schedule set up by hand gets one too, with one line: Monthly fees and the month, such as Monthly fees, October 2026.

A payment made in your GoCardless dashboard is not invoiced by itself. FirmPulse lists it on the Invoicing page under Needs attention, for admins and managers, and nothing is invoiced or emailed until one of you chooses what to do with it. Each shows its amount, its date, its GoCardless payment ID and the client it was taken from, when FirmPulse knows that from the client's mandate or from a schedule set up by hand. One that is an instalment of an instalment schedule set up in GoCardless says so, and one with any of its money refunded shows how much. A payment another app made on your GoCardless account is listed the same way. So are the earlier payments made in your GoCardless dashboard that GoCardless told FirmPulse about, and nothing is sent to anyone for them unless you choose to email an invoice.

For a payment with a client, press one of three buttons. Raise an invoice: choose the VAT treatment and the wording, check the invoice date and the amounts, and choose whether the invoice is emailed to the client, which is not the default for a payment made more than a day ago; then press Raise the invoice. The invoice is for exactly what was paid, dated the day you raise it, and marked Paid by the payment once GoCardless has collected it. Pays an existing invoice: choose one of the client's sent, unpaid invoices, and the payment pays it once GoCardless has collected it. An invoice that is being collected, that GoCardless will retry a failed collection of, or that has a payment link waiting is not offered. A payment for less than the invoice leaves it unpaid and marked part paid, and one for more marks it paid and over paid, each with a line on the client's Activity tab. An invoice already part paid by another payment is not offered for the rest: record the rest on it by hand, then mark the payment as already invoiced elsewhere. Already invoiced elsewhere: press it, then Take it off the list. A payment refunded in full cannot be invoiced. For a payment with no client, press Match to a client, find and choose the client, then press the button that names them: FirmPulse pairs its mandate with that client when it is a Direct Debit mandate, and the payment stays on the list with the client named, still not invoiced. When FirmPulse does not yet know what the mandate is, it asks GoCardless first, and if GoCardless cannot say, nothing is matched and you can try again. A bank payment's one-off mandate is never paired, and FirmPulse says so when the payment is matched. A payment on a mandate you set aside on Existing mandates cannot be matched until you bring the mandate back there, and one not in pounds is listed with its currency and cannot be invoiced. For one that is not a client's, press Not a client payment, then Take it off the list. An admin can see the payments taken off the list or attached to an invoice, press Bring back to list one again, or press Detach to undo an attach, which puts the invoice back to unpaid unless it was also paid another way while the payment was attached to it. A payment FirmPulse could not read from GoCardless is listed under Could not be read from GoCardless, by its GoCardless payment ID.

A monthly collection's invoice is dated on the charge date, adds up to exactly what was collected including VAT, and is emailed to the client when GoCardless creates the payment. For a collection from a schedule set up by hand, the amount is taken to include VAT at 20% when your firm is VAT registered, so its invoice shows the amount before VAT and the VAT on it separately. When your firm is not VAT registered, as set in Settings, Invoicing, no collection's invoice carries VAT. If the email fails, the invoice stays a draft marked Send failed, with a Send button. If the client has no email address, or the invoice PDF cannot be produced, it stays a plain Draft with a Send button.

Unless your firm has changed the wording in Settings, Automated emails, the ordinary invoice email names the invoice number and the total. When you send a draft by Direct Debit from Collect by, it also says how much will be collected and on which day; an invoice raised from a payment, such as a monthly collection's, gets the ordinary email, except one you raise under Needs attention, whose email says instead that the payment was received, or that GoCardless is collecting it, and on which day, unless the payment has since failed. The emails that send an invoice with a Direct Debit request or a payment link name its total too. When you collect an invoice already sent by Direct Debit, the client's email says how much will be collected for that invoice and on which day, and has the invoice attached; its wording is Invoice being collected by Direct Debit in Settings, Automated emails, and it must keep the amount, the invoice number and the day.

FirmPulse will not start a collection for an invoice, retry one, or send a payment link for it while another collection for it is live, while GoCardless will retry a failed collection of it, or while a payment link of another kind for it is waiting, and it does none of these once the invoice is paid or voided. Retry is not offered, and is refused, in each of those cases. Only one of these actions runs for an invoice at a time: a second press at the same moment is refused, and can be made again once the first has finished. A collection that was cancelled, or failed and will not be retried, leaves the invoice it was made from unpaid and owed, and it can be collected again. An invoice whose collection was charged back by the client's bank is not collected by Direct Debit again: send the client a pay by bank link, or ask them to pay by bank transfer. FirmPulse marks an invoice Paid automatically only when GoCardless confirms the collection, never earlier, and puts it back to unpaid if the money is later taken back, unless you recorded it as paid by bank transfer. A collection confirmed for less than an invoice's total leaves it unpaid and marked part paid, with the amount still owed on the client's Activity tab; one for more marks it paid and over paid. If a collection is confirmed for an invoice already marked paid another way, FirmPulse marks it paid twice and says on the client's Activity tab which payments paid it, so you can refund one from the Collections list.

Recording a bank transfer

If a client pays an invoice by bank transfer instead, press Bank transfer on the invoice in the client's Invoices section, enter the date the payment arrived, and press Record it. If the Direct Debit collection for that invoice has not gone to the bank yet, FirmPulse tries to cancel it. If it already has, the invoice is still marked paid and a note says what that means for the collection: nothing to refund if it failed and GoCardless will not retry it, or was charged back; if GoCardless will still retry it, the retry may still take the money, so stop it in your GoCardless dashboard or refund the client if it is taken; refund it in GoCardless if it was collected, and refund it in GoCardless only if it is collected when it was merely submitted. If the cancel does not go through for any other reason, the note tells you to check the collection in GoCardless. The Bank transfer button appears on Draft and Sent invoices when your firm accepts payment by bank transfer in Settings, Invoicing, and your bank details are held.

Reconciliation

The Invoicing page lists your 200 most recent invoices, newest first, with outstanding and paid totals for the invoices it shows.

A collection that has been paid out says so on the client's Billing tab, with the date and the payout it went out in, so you can match one credit on your bank statement to the collections inside it. FirmPulse has no payouts screen of its own and does not show GoCardless's own fees, so use your GoCardless dashboard for those. FirmPulse does not send client invoices or collections to Xero or any other accounts software.

10. Refunds and cancellations

A collection that has been collected or paid out has a Refund button on the client's Billing tab. Press it and type the amount, with a reason if you want to give one, and FirmPulse asks GoCardless for the refund and lists it under the collection. GoCardless only makes refunds for an account that has them enabled, which you do in your own GoCardless dashboard under Settings, then Account settings, then Refunds. If GoCardless refuses, FirmPulse shows you its answer in GoCardless's own words and nothing is refunded. Refunding does not change the invoice behind the collection. On the client's Billing tab, a collection in the Collections list that is Scheduled or Waiting on the client has a Cancel button. It asks first, then GoCardless will not take the collection, and a draft or sent invoice raised for it is voided; an invoice already paid stays paid. A collection already With the bank cannot be cancelled, and a collection made in your GoCardless dashboard that is not matched to a client is not listed, so cancel that one in your GoCardless dashboard before it goes to the bank. FirmPulse also tries to cancel the collection behind an invoice you record as paid by bank transfer, but only before it has gone to the bank, as section 9 describes.

A refund made in GoCardless does not change the invoice in FirmPulse, which stays Paid. You cannot edit a paid invoice or mark it unpaid yourself: you can void it, and raise a new invoice in the client's Invoices section for anything the client still owes.

FirmPulse also cannot cancel a mandate. Do that in your GoCardless dashboard too. When a mandate is cancelled, by you, by the client or by their bank, FirmPulse updates its status.

To stop a monthly schedule, press Stop on the client's Billing tab, as section 6 describes.

11. Disconnecting GoCardless

An admin can press Disconnect on the GoCardless page, or on the GoCardless row in Settings, Connected services. It takes effect at once, with no confirmation step. FirmPulse asks GoCardless to withdraw its access and forgets the connection. If GoCardless cannot be reached, FirmPulse still forgets the connection, so you can also remove FirmPulse's access from your GoCardless dashboard.

Disconnecting does not cancel any mandate, schedule or collection at GoCardless. FirmPulse keeps its records of them, but until you connect again the Direct Debit section on every client's Billing tab shows only a note that GoCardless isn't connected, with a link to Settings. Invoices and the client's activity stay visible.

While you are disconnected, FirmPulse cannot start or change collections, does not send a Direct Debit authorisation when an engagement letter is signed, and stops receiving updates from GoCardless. Updates sent in that time are not caught up when you reconnect: a collection that is confirmed, fails, is charged back or is paid out while you are disconnected keeps its old status in FirmPulse, and so does its invoice, until GoCardless sends a later update about that collection. A chargeback missed this way never puts the invoice back to unpaid. After you reconnect, Sync now refreshes mandates but not collections.

Before you disconnect, press Stop on each monthly schedule you want to end, on the client's Billing tab. A collection that is already scheduled still goes out, as section 6 explains.

If FirmPulse's access is removed from your GoCardless dashboard, the GoCardless page says that the connection was switched off and tells you why. Under that, it offers the same Connect GoCardless button a firm that has never connected sees, so an admin can reconnect from there without asking us. Connecting again clears the switched-off state.

Getting help

If something in this guide does not match what you see in FirmPulse, or you need a hand, email support@firmpulse.co.uk.