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Effortless Direct Debit Starts Here

Take control of your cash flow with Bottomline’s powerful Direct Debit solutions. Whether you're collecting fixed or variable payments, subscriptions, or one-off bills, our automated platform makes it simple, secure, and stress-free.

  • Automate collections with customisable payment plans and retry automation
  • Customise to your workflow and customer channels with hosted and API solutions
  • Reduce manual interaction and associated effort and risks
  • Increase data accuracy with account validation and bacs report integration

Let us take care of your payments – so you can grow your business.

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Supercharge Your Direct Debit Collections

Regardless of how long your business has (or hasn't) been collecting money via Direct Debit, we're here to help. 

Reduce Manual Processes

Remove manual effort and errors with the option to automate payer notification, collection submission, payer's account update and re-presenting failed collections.

Verify and Comply

Our Confirmation of Payee for Business* helps ensure you collect from the correct account holder. Not only helping Bacs scheme compliance but also reducing the risk and costs of misdirected and fraudulent Direct Debits.

Make New Sign-Ups Easy

Use our APIs or our brandable Direct Debit form to sign-up customers in your online journey, or within your call centre.  And with up-front account holder verification built in, it's easier for everyone.

Streamline Account Verification for your Direct Debit Collections

Although Direct Debit scheme rules clearly outline how to validate and verify customer details during onboarding, the data coverage of legacy solutions has made this a challenge for some businesses.

Bottomline has enhanced our Direct Debit Management (DDM) service to provide customers with the ability to access Confirmation of Payee (CoP) through the Bottomline CoP for Business service enabling verification of account holders at the point of capture or change.

  • Embeds account verification into your core Direct Debit workflow
  • Provides full visibility of the verification status of your customer’s accounts to help monitor your scheme compliance and identify risks to your business
  • Reduces costs associated with manually checking details
  • With our comprehensive user interface you can hit the ground running and manage your Direct Debit operations in one place
FEATURES

Configure our Direct Debit Management Solution to Suit You

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Automated Customer Notifications

Automate timely customer notifications via email or export for out-sourced distribution

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Integrated Bacs Report Updates

Automatically update amended bank details

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Scheme Compliant Payer Verification

Verify account holders across over 99% of UK bank accounts, plus address validation 

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Multi-channel Sign Up

Capture new mandates over the phone or on your website, whichever best suits you and your customer

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Alternative Collection for Failed Direct Debits

Our Receivables Automation solution gives you the option to generate payment links for one-off collections

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Secure Cloud Database

Store and secure sensitive customer data off your network

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Unlimited Users

Set up the users you need to manage your Direct Debit process

Integration Options

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Create, verify and retrieve mandate data via API allowing your business to smoothly integrate Direct Debit Management and Confirmation of Payee for Business into your workflows and your Direct Debit onboarding journey.

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Use our hosted webforms to provide an off-the-shelf customer facing webpage, allowing you to outsource capture, verification and management of your Direct Debit data.

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Post capture, our enhanced user interface allows your receivables team to manually add, update and verify your Direct Debit mandates.

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For low volume use cases our enhanced user interface provides a simple solution for managing all your Direct Debits.

Better Visibility and Control Over Your Cash Flow

Secure and Compliant with Industry-Leading Security

Cloud-Based Platform with Flexible Access and Ease of Use

No Service User Number? No Problem.

Our facilities-managed Direct Debit service caters to businesses that do not have a Service User Number (SUN) or prefer not to use theirs. This outsourced service grants indirect access to Bacs, enhancing cash management capabilities, reducing costs, and improving cash flow visibility.

Manage your Cashflow with Collection Forecasting

To run your business you need to know what cash is coming in. Our Direct Debit Management dashboard shows you, at a glance, what payments are on the horizon.

Bacs Scheme Compliance

For any business collecting payments by Direct Debit, there are a number of requirements, dictated by bacs, that need to be met on an on-going basis.  And the rules for change over time so it isn’t a case of “file and forget”.   

Whether it's Direct Debit Compliance, assistance with your AUDDIS Application Form or insights into Direct Debit scheme, we're here to support you.

Supporting Direct Debit Collections

A range of available options to help streamline and improve your Direct Debit management. 

Customer Notifications

Advance notice is one of the protections offered by the Direct Debit Guarantee. It means that you need to notify your customer when they’ve signed a Direct Debit mandate, if payment changes are made to the account, or if the payment date changes.

Bottomline Direct Debit Management automates the cycle of advanced notification and collection by email, according to your agreed notice period. We can also automate a paper-based ‘print & mail’ service if this suits your business.

Data Processing

If your collections data sits within multiple systems such as a CRM platform, Membership, Billing or ERP system, then you’ll need to bring this together to produce a single collection file. We can take the hard work out of this for by introducing automation.

PTX Data Processing will monitor for new files, extract the data from multiple platforms and reformat it into a single file so that you are ready to import this into your Direct Debit Management (DDM) platform.

Report Processing

If your business receives a high volume of AUDDIS, ADDACS or ARRUDS reports or has multiple Service User Numbers (SUN), then you’ll know how difficult it can be to stay to maintain an accurate database of customer bank details.

If you need to distribute these reports to internal stakeholders to review then our solution, PTX Report Processing, can help to automate this process. We can monitor for new Bacs reports, merge duplicate files, and distribute them to internal or external stakeholders.

Bottomline Technologies
TESTIMONIALS

What Our Customers Say

I would also thank you and your team for the smooth transition to the Bottomline Direct Debit collection service. Bottomline has enabled an improved process for setting up new instructions and amending existing direct debit payment programmes.

I am happy with the overall service I received, from the onboarding process to the continuous customer care from the Client Service team. Our collection process is fully automated, we are pleased with the end-to-end managed service. I would recommend the service—it is excellent.

NSL has been working with Bottomline for the last year. The transition to them was smooth, the upload of payments to be collected is straightforward, and collections and payments have been on time, every time. We would have no hesitation in recommending Bottomline to manage DD collections.

Bottomline honoured every promise and timescale that they made, and this was instrumental in our successfully completing the acquisition on time. Furthermore, their attention to detail and the ease with which they could be contacted during the process both reassured us and ensured that there were no mistakes. We would recommend Bottomline to any business looking for a Direct Debit collection solution.

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Direct Debit is provided by Bottomline Payment Services Ltd (Registered in England no: 3986072), who are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations for the provision of payment services with FCA registration number 616279 and whose registered office is at 1600 Arlington Business Park, Theale, Reading, RG7 4SA.

FAQs

Everything you need to know about Direct Debit to get started.

What is a Direct Debit provider?

Bottomline’s Direct Debit service is for any business looking to automate and streamline its recurring payment collections. Businesses of any size and in any industry can start collecting Direct Debits from their customers with us.

What are the benefits of using a Direct Debit provider?

By starting to collect Direct Debits from your customers, you can save money on card fees, avoid the hassle and cost of dealing with cash or cheques, and easily manage any late payments.

What type of payments are suited to Direct Debit?

Direct Debit is perfect for businesses that want to collect regular payments from customers—like a monthly subscription or charitable donation. It’s also suited for businesses with ongoing customer relationships where regular invoicing is required.

What is a SUN or (Bacs) Service User Number?

This is the unique identifier that all businesses use to collect Direct Debit payments from their customers. This number is stored to record each transaction and is used by banks to find the business name displayed on the bank statement of the Direct Debit payer.

Do we need our own SUN to start collecting Direct Debits?

No, you don’t. As a Direct Debit provider, Bottomline can arrange one for you as part of our service, so you can start collecting Direct Debits from your customers immediately.

Can I easily change Direct Debit providers?

Yes, you can easily change your Direct Debit payment provider. If you want to switch to Bottomline, simply use our contact form, and our team will guide you through the process.

Can I collect one-off payments from a Direct Debit provider?

Yes, Bottomline Direct Debit is designed specifically for both one-off and recurring payments.

How soon can I get access to the money that’s been collected?

You can access the money as soon as the Direct Debits have cleared—normally three days after collection.

Is there a charge if I want to change the amount of Direct Debits I collect?

There is no charge for changing the number of Direct Debits your business collects from your customers.

When can we recharge unpaid Direct Debits?

If you have an unpaid Direct Debit from a customer, you can easily recharge it. You can also contact the customer and arrange to change the collection date if that suits them better.

Can we have our company name on our customer’s bank statements?

Yes, of course. Depending on how many Direct Debits you wish to collect from your customers, Bottomline can arrange a SUN (Service User Number) and register it to your company, ensuring your company name will appear on your customer’s bank statements and all of your Bacs reports.

Do we need approval from our bank to start collecting Direct Debits?

No, you don’t. As a company regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Bottomline Payment Services can arrange your managed Direct Debit collection service for you directly so you can start collecting Direct Debits from your customers immediately.

Can I integrate Direct Debit payments into my existing systems/platforms?

Yes, you can. Simply use our APIs to automate your workflows and synchronise data across your ERP, CRM, finance and other systems.

Other Solutions

Explore more Receivables Automation ideas to help your business get paid. 

Cards

Accept card payments easily and ensure PCI compliance. Offer single, recurring, or card-on-file collections to suit your business and your customers.

Account Transfers

Collect single payments simply and cost-effectively, powered by Open Banking. As an alternative to Cards, Cheques, or manual Bank transfers. Receive low-cost, error-free instant payments directly into your bank account and provide your customers with a simple, secure method of payment.

Get In Touch

Speak to one of our experts today.