SEPA Direct Debit (white-label)

Specific information about the payment method SEPA Direct Debit (as white-label solution).

SEPA Direct Debit belongs to the payment method type of "Buy now, pay later" (BNPL). In summary, SEPA Direct Debit represents a payment method where the merchant or a payment provider debits the SEPA bank account of the customer after the delivery. The payment is therefore more convenient for the customer than open invoice (white-label) as there is no further action to be taken by the customer, but it leads to a debit even if the goods will be returned.

Using SEPA Direct Debit (white-label) as payment method, you will be able to monitor your outstanding receivables and dunning/collection rates in our reporting portal at any time.

Please note, this is page handles the white-label variant of SEPA Direct Debit. You may also be interested in SEPA Direct Debit as branded BNPL solution.

Payment

To enable SEPA payments, the merchant needs a SEPA-mandate. Common practice is to do that in a digital way, using an opt-in during the checkout. To generate a mandate you need a mandate-ID (that can be generated either in your system or by the Accounting as a Service when using our pre-build UI solution) as well as a creditor identification number which is issued by the crediting bank.

If you are going to use your own bank account, please make sure to ask your bank for this information. If you are going to use the collecting PSP model, an Riverty bank account will be used for the direct debit, and you don’t need to care about that.

In case a customer chooses to pay using direct debit as his payment method of choice, an initial risk scoring has to be done by Accounting as a Service or another risk provider. (For interface and integration details, please get in touch with us. More detailed description will follow soon). Therefore, the Accounting as a Service risk module performs the configured risk checks/scoring and returns a score and/or the decision according to your configured rules. Please note that you will be able to change those rules at any time to boost conversion or reduce risk. Our experts are happy to consult you and give you recommendations.

Once the check has been successfully passed, the goods or services can be shipped. In addition, the order will have to be created and invoiced in the accounting module of Accounting as a Service (following the use cases Create webshop order and Create invoice for webshop order). Please make sure to capture the IBAN of the customer, as you will have to provide the information to the accounting module when placing the order.

The invoice can be generated either by yourself or by Accounting as a Service.

Please note that due to the SEPA regulations, it is necessary to inform the customer before a debit takes place (“pre-notification”). Accounting as a Service provides the option to inform the customer within the invoice with a text, which shows the due date being used to trigger the direct debit. Please make sure to set the due date within the Accounting as a Service accounting API according to the SEPA regulations.

From the point of the invoice being generated and sent, Accounting as a Service will take care of all customer related payment processes and especially sending the direct debit instruction to your bank. Please note that you will need to approve all bank transactions at your bank.

Settlement

There is no common settlement process or file, but your bank credits the direct debits from the customer bank accounts to your bank account directly. The bank account statement is imported and reconciled in Accounting as a Service on a daily basis.

Refund

For refund handling, make use of Return webshop order to trigger the refund procedure as part of a return, or use Add goodwill to manage the creation of a goodwill. Please make sure to provide the bank details, which you have captured when your customer placed the order. Accounting as a Service checks the balance of the debtor and balances the return booking with possible open items. Remaining credit balances will be automatically refunded.

Chargeback

A customer may issue a return debit note at this bank without any reason or the bank my charge back a debit e.g. in case of insufficient funds. As the BNPL provider takes the risk, there is no further process to do neither on merchant side nor on Accounting as a Service side.

Please note that your bank will debit a return debit fee for each transaction. It is common practice to debit a fee to your debtor for a return debit note. The amount can be configured as part of your technical application and will be displayed on the dunning communication which Accounting as a Service will send out to the customer.

Accounting as a Service will in this case also take care payment matching, write-offs of underpayments according to your configurations, a dunning process, the transfer to a collection agency (either one of Riverty own agencies such as Paigo or Arvato Infoscore or another 3rd party provider), the handling of collection outcome including settlements and write-offs including tax correction. Please make sure to configure your dunning process when dealing with your technical application. We are happy to consult you with best practices if needed.

See also