Integrating with GoCardless for online bank donations
In this article
About GoCardless
Completing the GoCardless integration
Adding accounts for fund-specific payouts to other bank accounts
Resetting the GoCardless integration
About GoCardless
GoCardless is a secure online payment service, which ChurchSuite uses to handle bank payments for online donations processed through Donate. Opening an account with GoCardless is free, with no monthly subscription or minimum spend. GoCardless deduct a small transaction fee from each transaction processed and you receive the 'net of fees' amount. You will only need a GoCardless Standard account (no monthly fee), not the Advanced or Pro accounts. While many Direct Debit payment providers impose a transaction limit of £800 per giver per month. GoCardless offers a standard limit of £5,000 per transaction, which can be lifted with some simple checks.
Please note that the GoCardless service is not available in all countries. Check their website for the latest list of supported countries. Note that it is also possible to accept recurring and one-off card donations through Stripe - a debit card donation is the same as a direct debit/ACH payment, with the donation paid from the same bank account. See our related support article for further information about Integrating Stripe for online card payments. For more information about GoCardless, click here.
GoCardless Pricing
Standard Pricing
Full details of the latest GoCardless standard pricing are found here. Direct Debit and Instant Bank Pay donations accepted through ChurchSuite Donate are subject to an additional 1% application fee (inclusive of VAT and capped at £2).
Charity & Non-Profit Pricing
Charities and non-profit organisations may be eligible for a 25% discount on the GoCardless standard-pricing fee element. For further information, GoCardless has produced an article on Charity and Non-Profit FAQs on their Customer Hub which you can find here.
In addition to the UK-based BACS Direct Debit system, ChurchSuite also supports the SEPA Direct Debit system used across the Eurozone. The payment provider for this is also GoCardless. For more information on countries and availability, click here.
Fees are correct as of 1st January 2024.
Completing the GoCardless integration
From your Account Settings, navigate to the Integrations section and click on the GoCardless integration.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the Integration. You'll need some basic information about your organisation to open an account with GoCardless. Click Add account to begin:
If new to GoCardless, follow the on-screen instructions to Sign Up for a new account or enter your GoCardless account login details to Connect an existing GoCardless account to ChurchSuite.
During the GoCardless account-opening process - if signing up - you'll be prompted to select your organisation's legal status. Full details of supported non-profit/charity statuses and instructions for opening an account for each status can be found here.
After completing the online account-opening form or connecting an existing account to ChurchSuite, you will be returned to the GoCardless integration page indicating that integration was successful. The integration is complete and you're now ready to begin accepting online donations. Note that GoCardless will carry out security and account verification processes before payouts to your bank account begin - log in to your GoCardless account for updates on the account verification progress.
Need multiple signatures?
For further information, see the GoCardless support page on multi-signatory mandates.
Changing your GoCardless payout bank account
To update your payout bank account details, log into your GoCardless account. From the account dashboard, navigate to Settings > Company info > Edit account details > Connect your bank account > Update and follow the on-screen instructions - if requested, be sure to select the GoCardless Standard (free) account.
Note: The process will take you through the verification of new bank account details. Once finished, verification with your bank may take several working days to complete, during which time you can continue to receive direct debit donations through Donate but payouts to your bank account will pause until verification is complete. Payouts will automatically resume once verification is complete.
Adding accounts for fund-specific payouts to other bank accounts
Through the Giving module, you can collect donations to any number of Funds. The Funds you add may be for unrestricted, restricted or designated purposes. We've produced a related support article about Managing funds in the Giving module. When a single GoCardless account is integrated, online donations for All funds are paid out to the bank account linked to that GoCardless account.
However, you can optionally integrate further GoCardless accounts linked to other bank accounts. Once integrated, you can choose which integrated GoCardless account donations for different Funds should be paid out to. For example, you may wish online donations for a Building Project Fund to be paid out to a different bank account than the online donations you receive for a Mission Fund. Here's how...
Head to the GoCardless integration located in the Integrations section of your Account Settings and click Add account.
Follow the steps described in the previous section of this article to Sign Up for a new GoCardless account or to Connect an existing GoCardless Account to ChurchSuite. During the GoCardless account opening process, you will be prompted to select your organisation's legal status. Full details of supported non-profit/charity statuses and instructions for opening an account for each status can be found here.
After completing the online account-opening process or connecting an existing account to ChurchSuite, you are returned to the GoCardless integration. Continue adding other accounts as necessary. Note the account Actions to change the Default account used for donations to Gving Funds not yet assigned to another account. Click Edit to make changes to a non-default account's fund assignments.
On the Edit pop-up, select the Funds to be linked to this GoCardless account and Save any changes made. Note that changes apply to new donations - donations made previously, any donations in progress, and existing pledges are locked to the GoCardless account against which they were first created. Those who have previously pledged donations for a fund paying out to a bank account that you want to change will need to cancel their current pledge and set up a new one so that donations to the fund payout to your organisation's preferred bank account.
In the example above, online donations for the Building Project fund will pay out to the non-default account and donations for all other funds will pay out to the default account. Remember, the payout bank details are managed within the respective GoCardless account settings, not within ChurchSuite.
Resetting the GoCardless integration
Should it become necessary - and typically, only if advised to do so by ChurchSuite Support - you can Reset the GoCardless integration. You should consider carefully the following consequences before taking this action:
- Payment requests for existing recurring donation pledges linked to the GoCardless account will continue to be collected from givers and paid out to your designated bank account but the donations will cease to be added to the Giving module
- 'Bank' will no longer show as a donation Method in Donate
- Givers will be unable to manage their pledge using the 'Manage giving' link found in My ChurchSuite and pledge confirmation emails
- Users will be unable to manage a giver's pledge from the Pledges tab of a giver's profile
- The Online Donations and Subscriptions report will no longer show live data from GoCardless
If the original GoCardless accounts are later reintegrated and pledges are still active in the GoCardless account, pledge donations will resume being collected from those givers and added to the Giving module.
To reset the integration, head to the Integrations section in your Account Settings and to the GoCardless page. From here, click Reset:
