Sometimes a customer tells you they've already paid you another way, or you spot a mistake, and you go to stop a direct debit, only to find you can't cancel or edit it.
This usually means the payment has already been Submitted. Here's what that means and what you can still do.
What you can do with a direct debit payment depends on its status, not on the date. Check the status in the Payments view first.
Status | What you can do |
Scheduled | Pause collection, void, or mark as paid. Amounts and dates are not editable in Adfin. If the invoice came from Xero or QuickBooks, change it there and the update syncs across. |
Submitted | Nothing can be changed. You can still cancel future retries. |
Why a Submitted payment can't be stopped
Ahead of the collection, Adfin sends the payment instruction to your customer's bank. At that point the payment moves to Submitted: the instruction is with the bank and on its way, so it cannot be recalled, cancelled or changed. Timings shift a little from invoice to invoice, so please go by the status rather than working it out from the collection date.
While a payment is Submitted, these options are unavailable:
Cancelling or voiding the payment
Editing the amount or the collection date
Pausing collection
Deleting the invoice
The payment stays Submitted until the bank confirms it. If it succeeds, it's marked as paid. If it fails, Adfin retries it automatically (see A direct debit payment failed).
The timeline for a direct debit collection
Here is how a collection flows, so you know what to expect:
2 working days before the due date, Adfin sends the payment instruction to your customer's bank and the payment moves to Submitted.
On the due date, the money is collected from your customer's account.
2 working days after that, the funds reach your bank account.
A couple of situations shift this timeline. If an invoice arrives with a due date less than three working days away, Adfin submits it at the next opportunity, so it reaches Submitted sooner. There is also a mid-afternoon cut-off, which means a payment can move from Scheduled to Submitted during the day. If you are ever unsure, the status shown in Adfin is the answer.
What you can do: cancel future retries
You can't stop this collection attempt, but you can stop Adfin retrying if it fails. On the payment, under 'More actions' click Cancel payment retries.
If this attempt succeeds, we'll mark the payment as paid. If it fails, we won't try again, and the payment stays unpaid so you can collect it another way.
Stopping a collection before it's Submitted
If the payment still shows as Scheduled, it has not been submitted yet. You can pause collection on the invoice or the customer to stop it going out, as well as edit its details. See How to pause reminders and collection.
If a payment has gone out that shouldn't have
If a Submitted payment shouldn't have been collected, let it complete, then refund your customer directly.
Cancelling the mandate as well
You don't need to wait for the in-flight payment before cancelling the mandate. Go to Customers, select the customer, and choose More actions then Cancel direct debit mandate. Adfin queues the cancellation and applies it once the current payment completes or fails. The in-flight payment itself still goes ahead; the queued cancellation only stops anything new being scheduled.