GoCardless

Accept direct debit payments through GoCardless. Particularly popular in the UK and EU for services that bill on a recurring basis — but works equally well for one-off bookings.

When to use GoCardless

• Your customers prefer direct debit over card.
• You bill recurring (weekly, monthly, quarterly).
• You want lower transaction fees than cards.
• You want the safety of bank-level payment authorisation.

What you need

• A GoCardless account — gocardless.com.
• Access token + webhook secret from the GoCardless dashboard.

Where to find it

Advik Booking → Settings → Payments → GoCardless.

Setup — 10 minutes

1. Create a GoCardless account
   Sign up at gocardless.com and complete the verification (usually < 1 business day).
2. Open the GoCardless dashboard
   Go to Developers → API access. Click Create access token — pick sandbox for testing or live for production.
3. Paste the access token
   In the Advik Booking GoCardless settings, paste the access token. Set the environment to match (Sandbox / Live).
4. Set up the webhook
   The plugin shows a webhook URL. In the GoCardless dashboard, go to Developers → Webhooks → Add endpoint. Paste the URL and subscribe to: payments, refunds, mandates, subscriptions. Copy the Webhook secret and paste it into the plugin.
5. Test a booking
   Open your booking page, complete a flow, and pick GoCardless at the Payment step. You'll be redirected to the GoCardless test environment to authorise the payment. Use test bank details from the GoCardless sandbox docs.
6. Go live
   Toggle the environment to Live, swap to your live access token, and re-test with a real bank account (small amount).

Charge type

Direct debit timing

GoCardless takes 3–5 business days to settle. Until settlement, the booking status is pending. After the webhook fires, it becomes confirmed.

For deposit-only models, the remaining balance is collected out-of-band (cash, card reader, bank transfer) and recorded via the Mark as paid in full action in the booking admin.

Refunds

GoCardless refunds take 5–10 business days to reach the customer's bank. From the booking admin, click Refund and the refund is initiated via the GoCardless API.

Field reference