Moving your direct debit mandates to Adfin is a managed process. You kick it off, get your data ready, and we handle the transfer with your old provider end to end. This guide walks through every step, so if you're ever unsure where you are in the process or what happens next, you can find your step below.
This guide (bulk migration) is for 50+ mandates. If you are looking to move less than 50 mandates, please read switch to Adfin direct debit (self-serve).
The two dates that matter
Everything in a migration revolves around two dates, which you'll agree with your Adfin contact at the start:
Change date: the day your mandates move out of your old provider and appear in your Adfin account.
Mandate activation date (3 working days after your change date): the day your migrated mandates become active and Adfin can start collecting.
There's also a cut-off about a week before your change date, after which your old provider stops capturing new mandates. This can vary, so we recommend onboarding net new clients to Adfin rather than your old provider during the migration period.
The short gap between the change date and the activation date is a Bacs scheme requirement. Plan your billing runs around it: you can collect with your old provider up to one working day before the change date, and with Adfin from the activation date onwards.
Step 1: Kick things off
Email your Adfin sales contact with:
Who your current provider is. If you're with GoCardless, please include the email address of an admin user on your GoCardless account.
Roughly how many mandates you'll be migrating.
Your preferred change date.
When choosing your change date:
It must fall on a working day and be at least five weeks away (a Bacs scheme requirement).
We recommend a quieter collection period, as there's a short window around the change date where you can't submit new collections.
We support migrations away from most providers, including GoCardless, London & Zurich and AccessPay. Ignition does not currently support mandate migration; if you're looking to move from Ignition, email us and we'll talk you through your options.
Step 2: We set up the transfer
Once your change date is confirmed, we manage the migration with your old provider on your behalf:
We submit the bulk change request. You'll be copied on the communications, but there's nothing you need to do.
We arrange the signing of the Bulk Change Deed and Notification of Change forms between the relevant parties. You don't need to sign or review these; they transfer liability for failed payments from your old provider to us.
Around one week before your change date, your old provider securely shares your mandate data with us.
Step 3: Tidy up your mandates with your old provider
Before your data is shared with us, clean up your mandate list so only the mandates you still want come across:
Cancel and delete mandates for clients you no longer work with.
Cancel and delete duplicate mandates (for example, where a client has two mandates but only uses one).
Check that company names match the names in Xero or QuickBooks. This makes automatic matching much more reliable.
Step 4: Connect your accounting software and import your customers
If you use Xero or QuickBooks, connect it to Adfin and import your customers at least one week before the change date. We match your incoming mandates against your imported customers, so this step directly determines how cleanly your migration lands.
Connect your account: Xero guide / QuickBooks guide.
Import all of your customers. This matters: we can only match a migrated mandate to a customer that exists in Adfin. Xero contacts that aren't marked as customers need to be added to a contact group before they can be imported.
Spot-check 10 to 20 imported customers in Adfin to confirm their email, customer name and reference fields look right. These are the fields we use for matching.
Step 5: Brief your team and give your customers a heads-up
Tell your finance team (and anyone who raises invoices) about the change date and the 3-working-day activation window, so billing runs can be planned around it.
On the change date itself, we'll email your customers about the switch on your behalf. This is a Bacs scheme requirement; the email goes out in your branding from [email protected], and your customers don't need to do anything.
Optionally (and it's good practice), send your customers a more personal heads-up before the change date. Here's a template you can use.
Invoicing during the migration period: before your change date, don't issue invoices through Adfin for existing customers who are being migrated. Keep collecting through your existing provider right up to the change date, then issue and collect through Adfin from there (collections start from the mandate activation date). New customers who aren't part of the migration are different: you can issue and collect for them through Adfin straight away.
Outstanding invoices that are still unpaid when you migrate can also be collected by Adfin. To collect an existing unpaid invoice through Adfin, update its branding theme (Xero) or term (QuickBooks) to Adfin in your accounting platform after the change date, or let automatic invoice migration handle it for you (see Step 8).
If your invoicing pattern is more technical or complicated, get in touch via the live chat and we'll get you sorted. We have a few ways of handling the more complex scenarios, and we can talk you through the steps and arrange a process that works for you.
Step 6: On your change date, check your mandates have arrived
On the change date (typically late afternoon), your mandates appear in your Adfin account and are removed from your old provider. Log in and confirm they're there.
One thing to be aware of: not every mandate always makes it across. This is usually down to incomplete details or bad data on the mandate, which means the banks can't match it during the transfer. It's worth comparing what's arrived in Adfin against your old provider's mandate list, and flagging anything missing to your Adfin contact.
We automatically run a matching process to link each migrated mandate to your existing Adfin customers. Every migrated mandate is tagged so it's easy to track:
'DD Mig - Existing Customer': the mandate matched an existing customer and has been assigned to them.
'DD Mig - New Customer': we couldn't make a one-to-one match, so we created a new customer for the mandate. A common reason is the mandate being in a person's own name rather than their business name. These new customers are also pushed to your accounting software, so you may see new contacts appear in Xero or QuickBooks.
Step 7: Merge customers before your activation date
This is the one post-migration job with a hard deadline: complete all your customer merges before the mandate activation date (3 working days after the change date), so every mandate is sitting on the correct customer when it activates.
Filter your Customers view on the 'DD Mig - New Customer' tag. These customers may not be linked to an existing Xero or QuickBooks record, and are the most likely to need merging.
Action the 'Merge suggestions' shown in the Adfin sidebar. These are likely matches we've already identified for you.
For anything the suggestions don't catch, you can merge an unmatched mandate into the correct customer yourself. Here's the guide to merging customers. You'll be able to choose which parts of each record to keep (for example, the Xero link from one and the mandate from the other).
Step 8: On your activation date, check your invoices
If you've opted in to automatic invoice migration, your repeating invoices in Xero or QuickBooks are updated on the mandate activation date to be collected by Adfin. It's optional, and you'll need to turn it on in your integration configuration settings before your activation date.
It doesn't always catch everything, so spot-check a few repeating invoices on this date to confirm they've updated before your next billing run.
If a repeating invoice has been missed, update its branding theme (Xero) or Term (QuickBooks) to 'Adfin Auto Collect' manually.
If you have standalone payment schedules that aren't tied to an invoice (for example, GoCardless 'Subscriptions'), you will need to recreate these manually in Adfin.
Step 9: Wrap up
Export any historic data you want to keep from your old provider. GoCardless closes your account 5 working days after the change date, so don't leave this too late.
Run a small test billing batch (or watch your first scheduled run) and confirm collections are coming through Adfin as expected.
If anything looks off at any point, contact your Adfin sales contact or reach us via live chat and we'll get you back on track.
Common questions
What happens if a customer has duplicate mandates?
Only one mandate will be linked to the customer. The other will trigger the creation of a new customer, which you'd then need to merge or archive. This is why we recommend cancelling and deleting duplicate mandates with your old provider before the change date (Step 3).