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 taba) 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 taba) Manually process payments b) Collect now c) Process in bulk d) Cancellations and refunds

5. Automating paymentsa) Automate and edit email notifications to customers b) Automate payment collection

6. Matching customers

7. Xero Paymentsa) Branding themes b) Add a pay now button to your invoices

8. Reconciliation

9. Manage your teama) 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 helpdesk@directli.co.uk 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 TabNavigate to the customers tab by hovering over the blue menu bar on the left.

See the mandate status of a customerSee whether customers are linked to XeroManage customers using ‘Actions’ Sync with XeroManually add customersSee 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.

Settings

Automating PaymentsNavigate to the the automating payments page by selecting ‘Xero Automation’ in the settings drop-down menu (top right on all screens) NB: Hit 'Save Changes' before going back to the Dashboard Homepage

Choose whether new customers are emailed automatically

In order to collect payments via Direct Debit a customer must set up a mandate. You

can choose to enable GoCardless for Xero to send these emails on your behalf.

If turned on, new customers added to Xero will be emailed automatically requesting

a mandate. NB: emails sent once per day, not immediately.

Edit the mandate request email sent to all new customers

The default email is personalised with the company name in the email title and body

and with the customer name in the body. Edit the copy and send a test from here.

Choose whether to automate payments

If you turn this function on, every time you create a new invoice in Xero the customer

will automatically be charged on the stated due date.

If this function is off, you can still manually sync from Xero to process invoices

individually or in bulk from the invoices page.

Matching CustomersNavigate to the the matching customers page by clicking on ‘match customers’ on the main homepage/ dashboard (you can get here by clicking on the GoCardless logo at any time)

If a customer has an active mandate but has not been linked to a Xero ID they need to be manually linked to enable automatic reconciliation and payments to be taken.

If you signed up to GoCardless for Xero as an existing GoCardless customer with pre-existing customer mandates then the system will automatically match mandates to your Xero customers. You only need to match customers who aren’t matched automatically.

Link a mandate to the correct Xero ID

❖ Start typing the customer’s name or email address into the search bar. ❖ Select the correct record and click ‘Match’❖ The record will then disappear from your screen

Managing parent companies / multiple entities with the same name

If you are not sure which entity an unmatched record relates to you can hover over the bank account column to see bank and mandate ID records. This should enable you to see which Xero customer you need to link to.

Xero PaymentsNavigate here by clicking on settings in the top right of any screen and selecting ‘Xero Payments’

Branding themes

Use this page to easily manage payment services with your Xero branding themes.

❖ Enable ‘Pay Invoice Online’ to add a ‘Pay Now’ button to online invoices❖ Enable ‘Automated Payments’ to take payments from customers automatically

Add a pay now button on your invoices

Invoices sent from Xero often include a link to view and pay the invoice online. You can add this feature to invoices with GoCardless for Xero, so that customers can approve payments for each individual invoice, or enable future invoices to be paid automatically.

The Pay Invoice Online option is enabled on a per Branding Theme basis. When you enable the Pay Invoice Online option all invoices associated with this Branding Theme will have a Pay Now button.

When a Customer views their online invoice, a 'Pay by Direct Debit' button will show.

Customers can pay online and choose whether to:

❖ Require approval on each individual invoice, or❖ Enable automatic payments for all future invoices

If automatic payments are not enabled, customers will be prompted to allow future invoices to be paid automatically whenever they receive an invoice.

Reconciliation Navigate to the the reconciliation page by selecting ‘Xero Reconciliation’ in the Settings drop-down menu (top right on all screens).

Here you can decide which bank accounts your payments are paid out to and how GoCardless fees will appear in your accounts.

Where your money gets paid out to

This is the bank account in Xero where your funds will be transferred to. During the setup process you selected an account, which you can change here. NB: This is different from the account you have set up in GoCardless, it is your Xero account.

The interim reconciliation Direct Debit account

To enable the reconciliation process to work effectively we set up a Direct Debit Clearing Account in Xero. This is a holding account before GoCardless fees are deducted. See below for more info.

NB: The account that monies are paid into cannot be the same as your reconciliation account. If the same account is used, payments will not be reconciled properly.

Why do I have two accounts?

GoCardless charges fee on all successful transactions, which is taken from the payouts you receive from your customers. This means that the net amount received against any individual invoice is not equal to the total amount due on each invoice, and the fees GoCardless have taken need to be recorded on your accounts. Using a clearing account enables both to be reconciled.

We post a payment for the full invoice amount into the clearing account. Then on the day you receive payouts from GoCardless (which could include multiple payouts from customers) we will:

1. Post GoCardless fees against your nominated fee account 2. Transfer the payout (net of fees) into your current account

This ensures that your clearing account has all the correct transactions and reconciling your current account is as simple as marketing one transaction against each transfer, instead of having to mark multiple individual invoices and fees.

Figurative Example

Image shows the Direct Debit bank account

In this example we have received two invoice payments. One for £900.00 and one for £70.00. The total fees for the payout were £2.70 that have been allocated to our Bank Fees account and into our Current Account we have received £967.30.

On your Current Account reconciliation page, once your bank feeds have imported, your receipt from GoCardless should auto match for reconciliation against the transfer we created from the Direct Debit account.

Image shows the Reconcile screen of your Current Account

The only part of the reconciliation process that we cannot yet automate, is the final reconciliation of the transfer out of the Direct Debit account. When viewing the Direct Debit Account Transactions page, you will see the transfer as unreconciled.

Image shows the unreconciled transfer transaction in the Direct Debit account

In order to reconcile this, you must click into the transaction, and then click Options (top right of the transaction details) and then choose 'Mark as Reconciled'.

Image shows the Mark as Reconciled option within the Options menu.

GoCardless Fees

Choose how you would like GoCardless fees to be posted on your Profit & Loss

This is automatically set to 404 - Bank Fees. You can use the dropdown menu to

change this if you would prefer an alternative code.

Manage your team

Manage who can access the dashboard

See who your current users are, including email address and when they last logged in. Add and remove users from this screen.

Invite your accountant

Click on ‘Invite your Accountant’ to enable them to manage your dashboard for you without sharing your login details. When set up, they will then appear in ‘Authorised Partners’

NB: To manage an account on your behalf, an accountant must be approved as a Partner. If an accountant has a GoCardless for Xero account, but only as a merchant, they will need to be approved by the Directli admin. Your accountant can email helpdesk@directli.co.uk to get this set up.

The accountant dashboard

The accountant dashboard has the same features as the standard dashboard.

Click on the blue menu bar to see customer accounts you manage and toggle between them.

User settings

Update your password, email address and company name

NB: Each subsection has it’s own save password link, you must save at each stage.