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Don't schedule GoCardless payment if GoCardless not selected as payment option on invoice (GoCardless for Xero)

I don't know if this should go down as a feature request or a bug.

Most of our clients are set up through "GoCardless for Xero" in order to automate payments. This works great for regular, scheduled payments. However, when I need to create one-off invoices for clients who are set up in our GoCardless for Xero there's no way to send the invoice to the client without automatically scheduling the payment in GoCardless. This is not ideal because sometimes I want to send the invoice to the client so they can give the go ahead before I actually schedule the payment.

I've been recommended by support to use Quotes for instances like this. But this isn't suitable since it's not a quote. It's a finalised figure the client will pay based on the work that's been carried out. It also adds an unnecessary extra step. I've also been recommended to "try" creating an invoice branding theme that has all payment options turned off. I tried this and it doens't work. Payments are still scheduled automatically upon invoice approval.

All I want to do is let the client see the invoice before triggering the payment.

What I expect to happen:
1. I create an invoice.
2. I deselect all payment options (Stripe and GoCardless).
3. I send invoice email to client. No payments are scheduled.
4. Client gives the go ahead.
5. I then edit the invoice and add GoCardless as a payment option. This triggers the payment and it is then scheduled for the due date of the invoice in GoCardless.

What actually happens:
1. I create an invoice.
2. I deselect all payment options (Stripe and GoCardless).
3. I send invoice email to client.
4. A payment is automatically scheduled in GoCardless for the due date of the invoice.
5. I rush to email client and apologise for scheduling to take their money without telling them how much the invoice will be.

I would like for this not to happen. If no payment gateway is selected, it's logical that a payment should not be scheduled. It's super confusing that no matter what you do the payment is scheduled in GoCardless. What other options are there for showing the client the invoice before triggering the payment?

If you "Approve and Email", it schedules the payment.
If you "Approve and Get Link" so you can send the link manually in a regular email, it schedules the payment.
If you "Approve and print PDF" so you can send a PDF manually in an email, it schedules the payment.

This feels like an oversight that could lead to lots of communication breakdowns. The UI simply doesn't makes sense - if payment options are not selected, don't try to force a payment. I hope this is something that will be considered a logical fix.

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Xavier Wing Hing shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
not planned  ·  AdminKelly Munro (Community Manager, Xero) responded  · 

Thanks for raising this here, Xavier. 


Checking in with our payments team I can confirm that this is working as designed, with no intentions to change this behaviour - The GoCardless for Xero integration is intended to auto schedule the payment of invoices generated from repeating invoice templates in Xero.


Appreciate there are scenarios where you may not want to apply auto scheduling and we'd recommend touching base with GoCardless who can advise about managing which invoice payments are collected via the GoCardless for Xero integration.

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  • Bee Hesketh commented  ·   ·  Report

    Not quite the same issue, but I'm also frustrated with the GoCardless integration. Most of our customers pay a recurring monthly invoice. We are using the original GoCardless integration. But because we also send one-off invoices which aren't to be paid by direct debit, we are unable to setup automated payments. Something which would really streamline payments for us. Very frustrating that the integration hasn't been properly thought about.

  • Tim Rutter commented  ·   ·  Report

    Only way arround this problem to to create another 'Brand' in 'Invoice Settings'

  • Greg Cunnington commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi,

    You need to move over to the Gocardless in Xero integration.

    Once that is setup you can manually change each invoice to either auto collect or one off payment which sits in the system as normal, but offers the client a way to pay invoice via GC if they wish.

    You can also choose the default setting for all new created invoices to be either auto or one off

    Hope this helps

  • Mike Eggleston commented  ·   ·  Report

    It seems that Go Cardless then is only good for recurring payments and there is no good option for customers that pay ACH but the charges are not recurring. Not sure why this payment option could not just function the same as the credit card payment function. Other payment systems that use ACH have this functionality.