Everything in a migration revolves around two dates:
Change date – the day your mandates move out of your old provider and appear in your Adfin account.
Mandate activation date – the day your migrated mandates become active and Adfin can start collecting (3 working days after your 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 (3 working days) after the change date where you can't submit new collections.
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.
There's also a cut-off about 4 working days before your change date, after which Adfin won't capture any new mandates created with your old provider. This can vary, so we recommend onboarding net new clients to Adfin rather than your old provider during the migration period – as soon as your migration is confirmed.
Standard process
Propose a change date 3 working days after the current invoice cycle's due date, and before the next run of invoices is issued.
Sequence:
Your old provider collects the final cycle on the old mandates.
Mandates switch to Adfin.
Adfin collects the next cycle.
Deviations are possible, but this is the cleanest path. On the change date, Adfin will send an email to each of your customers letting them know the direct debit provider has changed – no action is required from them.
Worked examples
🟢 Simple billing cycle
🟢 Simple billing cycle
Situation: Invoices issued on the 1st of the month, 14-day terms.
Suggested change date: ~16th of the month.
Invoices due on the 14th → +2 working days = 16th.
Plenty of buffer before the next invoice run on the 1st of the following month.
🟡 Overlapping cycle
🟡 Overlapping cycle
Situation: Invoices issued on the 1st of the month, 31-day terms → due the last day of the same month.
The problem: Cycle 1 is due on the last day of the month; Cycle 2 issues the very next day. There's no clean window between cycles, and once the old mandate is cancelled no further collections can run on it.
Suggested change date: ~3rd of the month.
Sequence (May - June example):
Old provider collects May invoice on 31 May.
June invoices issue on 1 Jun on the old mandates.
Mandates switch on 3 Jun.
Import June invoices into Adfin.
Adfin collects June invoices on 30 Jun.
💡 A member of the Customer Success team will be on hand to support you with the migration.
🔴 Complex billing cycle
🔴 Complex billing cycle
Situation: Two invoice types running in parallel.
Type | Invoice created | Issue date | Terms |
Fixed monthly fees | 1st of month (for prior month) | 25th of previous month | 30 days |
Timesheet-based | 1st of month (for prior month) | Last working day of previous month | 30 days |
Suggested change date: mid-month.
Worked example – June cycle:
Type | Invoice created | Issue date | Due date |
Fixed monthly fees | 1 Jun | 25 May | 24 Jun |
Timesheet-based | 1 Jun | 29 May | 28 Jun |
If mandates migrate to Adfin ~mid-June, that leaves ~2 weeks to:
Match customers
Sort branding / themes
Import the relevant invoices
…ready for end-of-June collection.
💡 A member of the Customer Success team will be on hand to support you with the migration.
Timeline (complex cycle example):
Date | Event |
25 May | Fixed-fee invoices issued (old mandate) |
29 May | Timesheet invoices issued (old mandate) |
1 Jun | Invoices created in system |
15 Jun | ⚡ Mandates migrate to Adfin |
15 Jun → | Import invoices into Adfin ('no distribution') |
15 Jun → | Customer matching, branding, imports |
24 Jun | Fixed-fee due (collected by Adfin) |
28 Jun | Timesheet due (collected by Adfin) |
FAQs
1. How do I handle failed collections during migration
If a collection fails on your old provider after the mandate has been cancelled with them, the old provider can't run the retry. Recovery path:
Reimport the affected invoices into Adfin.
Adfin runs the retry collection immediately.
2. I'm switching providers on a future change date. What happens to invoices that are due before the change date but already submitted to the old provider?
They'll be collected by the old provider without issue, provided they were submitted before the change date.
The rule: payments only need to be in 'submitted' status before the change date – not collected, not settled, just submitted. So you can have invoices due with the old provider right up until the change date itself.
The upshot: if you're wondering whether to delay invoicing, pause collections, or worry about in-flight payments around a migration, the answer is no – anything submitted before the change date will run its course on the old provider as normal.