Collect Payments with SEPA Direct Debit

With your customer's consent, you can collect payments directly from the customer's bank account according to the SEPA format.

First, set up the export format of the bank file that instructs your bank to perform a direct debit. Then, set up the customer's payment method. Last, set up the direct-debit mandate that reflects your agreement with the customer to collect their payments in a certain agreement period.

To instruct the bank to transfer the payment amount from the customer's bank account to your company's account, you create a direct-debit collection entry, which holds information about bank accounts, the affected sales invoices, and the direct-debit mandate. You then export an XML file that is based on the collection entry, which you send to your bank for processing. Any payments that could not be processed will be communicated to you by your bank, and you must then manually reject the direct debit-collection entries in question.

You can set up standard customer sales codes with the direct-debit payment method and mandate information. You can then use the Create Standard Cust. Invoices batch job to generate multiple sales invoices with the direct-debit information prefilled. This is can be done manually or automatically, according to the payment due date.

When payments are successfully processed, as communicated by your bank, you can post the payment receipts either directly from the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page or by moving the payment lines to the journal where you post payment receipts, such as the Cash Receipt Journal page. Alternatively, depending on your cash management process, you can wait and just apply the payments as a part of bank reconciliation.

Note

To collect payments using SEPA Direct Debit, the currency on the sales invoice must be EURO.

Setting Up SEPA Direct Debit

From the Direct Debit Collections page, you can export instructions to your electronic bank to perform a direct debit collection from the customer's bank account to your bank account according to the SEPA Direct Debit format.

Note

The global version of Business Central supports the SEPA direct debit format only. Your country/region version may support other formats for electronic payment. See under Local Functionality in the table of contents.

To enable export of a bank file formats that are not supported out of the box in Business Central, you can set up a data exchange definition by using the data exchange framework. For more information, see Set Up Data Exchange Definitions.

Before you can process customer payments electronically by exporting direct debit instructions in the SEPA Direct Debit format, you must perform the following setup steps:

• Set up the export format of the bank file that instructs your bank to perform a direct debit collection from the customer's bank account to your bank account.
• Set up the customer's payment method.
• Set up the direct-debit mandate that reflects your agreement with the customer to collect their payments in a certain agreement period.

To set up your bank account for SEPA direct debit

1. Choose the icon, enter Bank Accounts, and then choose the related link.
2. Open the bank account that you want to use for direct debit.
3. On the General FastTab, in the SEPA Direct Debit Export Format field, choose the option for SEPA direct debit.

To set up the customer's payment method for SEPA direct debit

1. Choose the icon, enter Payment Methods, and then choose the related link.

2. Choose the New action.

3. Set up a payment method. Fill in the direct debit-specific fields as described in the following table.

   Field	Description
   Direct Debit	Specify if the payment method is for SEPA direct debit collection.
   Direct Debit Pmt. Terms Code	Specify the payment terms, such as DON'T PAY, that are displayed on sales invoices that are paid with SEPA direct debit to indicate to the customer that the payment will be collected automatically. Alternatively, leave the field empty.

   Note

   Do not enter a value in the Bal. Account No. field.

4. Choose the OK button to close the Payment Methods page.

5. Choose the icon, enter Customers, and then choose the related link.

6. Open the customer card for the customer that you want to set up for SEPA direct debit collection.

7. Choose the Payment Method Code field, and then select the payment method code that you specified in step 3.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for all customers that you want to set up for SEPA direct debit collection.

To set up the direct-debit mandate that represents the customer agreement

1. Choose the icon, enter Customers, and then choose the related link.

2. Open the card for the customer that you want to set up for SEPA direct debits.

3. Choose the Bank Accounts action.

4. On the Customer Bank Account List page, select the customer bank account that will use direct debits, and then choose the Direct Debit Mandates action.

5. On the SEPA Direct Debit Mandates page, fill in the fields as described in the following table.

   Field	Description
   Customer Bank Account Code	Specifies the bank account from which direct-debit payments are collected. This field is filled automatically.
   Valid From	Specify the date when the direct-debit mandate starts.
   Valid To	Specify the date when the direct-debit mandate ends.
   Date of Signature	Specify the date when the customer signed the direct-debit mandate.
   Sequence Type	Specify if the agreement covers multiple (Recurring) or a single (One Off) direct debit collection.
   Expected Number of Debits	Specify how many direct debit collections you expect to make. This field is only relevant if you selected Recurring in the Sequence Type field.
   Debit Counter	Specifies how many direct debit collections have been made using this direct-debit mandate. This field is automatically updated.
   Blocked	Specify that direct debit collections cannot be made using this direct-debit mandate.

6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for all customers that you want to set up for SEPA direct debits.

The direct-debit mandate is automatically inserted in the Direct Debit Mandate ID field when you create a sales invoice for the customer that you selected in step 2. For more information, see Create Recurring Sales and Purchase Lines.

Creating SEPA Direct Debit Collection Entries and Export to a Bank File

To instruct the bank to transfer the payment amount from the customer's bank account to your company's account, you create a direct-debit collection, which holds information about the customer's bank account, the affected sales invoices, and the direct-debit mandate. From the resulting direct-debit collection entry, you then export an XML file that you send or upload to your electronic bank for processing. Any payments that could not be processed by the bank will be communicated to you by your bank, and you must then manually reject the direct debit-collection entries in question.

Note

To collect payments using SEPA Direct Debit, the currency on the sales invoice must be EURO.

To create a direct-debit collection

1. Choose the icon, enter Direct Debit Collections, and then choose the related link.

2. On the Direct Debit Collections page, choose the Create Direct Debit Collection action.

3. On the Create Direct Debit Collection page, fill in the fields as described in the following table.

   Field	Description
   From Due Date	Specify the earliest payment due date on sales invoices that you want to create a direct-debit collection for.
   To Due Date	Specify the latest payment due date on sales invoices that you want to create a direct-debit collection for.
   Partner Type	Specify if the direct-debit collection is made for customers of type Company or Person.
   Only Customers With Valid Mandate	Specify if a direct-debit collection is created for customers who have a valid direct-debit mandate. Note: A direct-debit collection is created even if the Direct Debit Mandate ID field is not filled on the sales invoice.
   Only Invoices With Valid Mandate	Specify if a direct-debit collection is only created for sales invoices if a valid direct-debit mandate is selected in the Direct Debit Mandate ID field on the sales invoice.
   Bank Account No.	Specify which of your company's bank accounts the collected payment will be transferred to from the customer's bank account.
   Bank Account Name	Specifies the name of the bank account that you select in the Bank Account No. field. This field is filled automatically.

4. Choose the OK button.

A direct-debit collection is added to the Direct Debit Collections page, and one or more direct-debit collection entries are created.

To export a direct-debit collection entry to a bank file

1. On the Direct Debit Collections page, choose the Direct Debit Collect. Entries action.

2. On the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page, select the entry that you want to export, and then choose the Create Direct Debit File action.

3. Save the export file to the location from where you send or upload it to your electronic bank.

   On the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page, the Direct Debit Collection Status field is changed to File Created. On the SEPA Direct Debit Mandates page, the Debit Counter field is updated with one count.

If the exported file cannot be processed, for example because the customer is insolvent, you can reject the direct-debit collection entry. If the exported file is successfully processed by the bank, the due payments of the involved sales invoices are automatically collected from the involved customers. In that case you can close the collection.

To reject a direct-debit collection entry

• On the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page, select the entry that was not successfully processed, and then choose the Reject Entry action.

  The value in the Status field on the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page is changed to Rejected.

To close a direct-debit collection

• On the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page, select the entry that was successfully processed, and then choose the Close Collection action.

  The related direct-debit collection is closed.

You can now proceed to post receipts of payment for the involved sales invoices. You can do this as you typically post payment receipts, such as on the Payment Registration page, or you can post the related payment receipts directly from the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page. For more information, see Collect Payments with SEPA Direct Debit.

Posting SEPA Direct Debit Payment Receipts

When a direct debit collection is successfully processed by your bank, you can proceed to post receipt of the payment for the involved sales invoices. For more information, see Create SEPA Direct Debit Collection Entries and Export to a Bank File.

You can post the payment receipt directly from the Direct Debit Collections page or the Direct Debit Collect. Entries page. Alternatively, you can relay the work to another user by preparing the related journal lines.

To post a direct-debit payment receipt from the Direct Debit Collections page

1. Choose the icon, enter Direct Debit Collections, and then choose the related link.

2. Select a line for a direct debit collection that has been exported to a bank file and successfully processed by the bank.

3. Choose the Post Payment Receipts action.

4. On the Post Direct Debit Collection page, fill in the fields as described in the following table.

   Field	Description
   Direct Debit Collection No.	Specify the direct debit collection that you want to post payment receipt for.
   General Journal Template	Specify which general journal template to use for posting the payment receipt, such as the template for cash receipts.
   General Journal Batch Name	Specify which general journal batch to use for posting the payment receipt.
   Create Journal Only	Select this check box if you do not want to post the payment receipt when you choose the OK button. The payment receipt will be prepared in the specified journal and will not be posted until someone posts the journal lines in question.

5. Choose the OK button.

See Also

Managing Receivables
Service Management

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