In one of our recent blogs we wrote about the range of payment arrangements that can be used by accounting and legal firms to enable their clients to pay their bills in a timely manner.  One of the increasingly popular methods involves recurring Direct Debits – for outstanding invoices, fixed fee arrangements and monthly software licence subscriptions (such as Xero).

Direct Debits are widely used within the Australian accounting industry however establishing such a facility in New Zealand has not been easy … until now!

FeeSynergy has done all the hard work to enable its client firms to take full advantage of a properly integrated and bank compliant Direct Debit facility.

So how does the FeeSynergy Direct Debit facility work?

The FeeSynergy Direct Debit facility is an optional module of the FeeSynergy Collect debtor management platform (Collect).  With this module, it is an easy 3 click process to set up a Direct Debit arrangement to automatically Direct Debit from the client’s nominated bank account or credit/debit card at the agreed interval – typically weekly or monthly.

The Direct Debit process in Collect enables the firm’s clients to:

• View the Direct Debit Authority (DDA) form
• Digitally complete and sign the DDA forms – no more waiting around for client to print, sign manually and scan back to the firm the Authority
• Retain a PDF copy of the signed forms – they are automatically emailed a copy of the signed form
• Automatically have deductions made from their nominated bank Account

Use Cases

• Fixed fee work – do you or have you ever wanted to charge your client for the years’ work and bill them a fixed amount each month.  Maybe consider using FeeSynergy’s Engagement letter module in conjunction with the new Direct Debit Module and do just that!

• Payment Arrangements – imagine assisting your client pay their amounts outstanding by getting them to repay your firm over the next X number of weeks.  Instead of waiting for the client to make those payments from their account why not get a Direct Debit Authority digitally signed by the client to enable you to do that automatically…. a far more efficient process!

• Xero and other Subscriptions – Subscriptions for software and services are becoming more and more common.  Imagine arranging these to be deducted from the clients account automatically.  The good news is now you can and its is so easy to do.

Integration

The Direct Debit function in FeeSynergy Collect is integrated with has been built with bank grade security and functionality

This capability enables the Collect system to automatically check to see if the scheduled instalments have been successful (99% are successful) and does not depend on manual checking of your bank accounts.  If a Direct Debit payment does fail, the Collect system will be alerted by the bank and a task will be created for the responsible team member to contact the client to arrange a redraw.

Direct Debit facility check list

There are a limited number of Direct Debit service providers in the New Zealand market. When researching the best fit for your firm you should consider the following:

• How much do they charge?  What may seem like small transaction fees soon add up! FeeSynergy’s Direct Debits are only cost $0.95 each!  Some providers charge $4 per transaction!

• Are the funds settled to your bank account within 3 business days?

• Can the client sign the Direct Debit Authority digitally or is it still a pdf document they need to sign and scan back to the firm?

• Is an automatic courtesy email sent to the client 2 days before the scheduled Direct Debit date to remind the client to ensure they have sufficient funds in their account to avoid payment dishonour?

• Whose name appears on the DDA client’s card or bank statement – it should only be your firm’s name

• Do they integrate with FeeSynergy Collect and your Practice Management system?

Direct Debit facilities are a fantastic addition to a firm’s range of payment options. The FeeSynergy integrated and automated Direct Debit solution ticks all the right boxes!