✓ Use SEPA Direct Debits to enable your customers to pay automatically
✓ Less admin for you
✓ Less admin for your customers
When you run your own business, it’s essential to keep track of unpaid invoices. Unfortunately, reminding your customers to pay on time is a time-consuming business. To avoid that extra work, use the SEPA Direct Debit to ensure that payments go automatically into your account on time.
Getting paid automatically by SEPA Direct Debit
SEPA Direct Debits enable you to automate payment collection. That’s useful when you have recurring payments (monthly or quarterly, for example). You can offer a SEPA Direct Debit to all your customers within the SEPA zone.
Getting started with SEPA Direct Debits
There are several steps to creating a SEPA Direct Debit. These are set out concisely in the step-by-step guide entitled ‘Getting started with SEPA Direct Debits’.
Setting up mandates
You have to offer a direct debit mandate just once per customer. It contains the agreement between you and your customer to collect the amount automatically. There are two kinds of mandate:
- The SEPA Core Direct Debit mandate for both individuals and businesses. You can find a specimen form on the website of the National Bank of Belgium. You don’t have to use this document, but it contains all the information you need and can be useful when drawing up your own mandates. It’s important to know that, under this mandate, your customer can claim a refund up to eight weeks after payment has been collected.
- With a SEPA B2B Direct Debit, the customer-debtor is always a business. Again, there is a specimen form that can help when it comes to drawing up your own mandates. It’s important to note that, under this mandate, the customer is not entitled to a refund.
By signing the mandate, your customers give you permission to have invoiced amounts transferred automatically to your account, which means they don’t have to attend to it themselves each time.
Your bank will process the payments on your initiative
You provide the bank with a XML file (‘collection file’) in which you stipulate the amount and execution date.
If you don't have the software for creating files in XML, we’ll be happy to help you get started with a handy app in KBC-Online for Business. Contact your branch to discuss the details.
Important to know
If you create the file with your own software, bear in mind that we can only process it if it meets certain criteria (see more details). In addition, KBC applies a number of specific checks.
What if the SEPA Direct Debit isn’t executed?
This can happen for several reasons. For example, your customer may not have sufficient funds in their account or there’s an error in the collection file. In such cases, you receive the reason for non-execution (also known as an ‘R-transaction’) in the form of a reason code. You can find more detailed information and the different reason codes in this document (currently only available in English).
If you have any questions
or if a particular reason code is not clear, you can use this handy Excel file to request more information.
