GoCardless Usage Questions

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS John,

I can see that this is around a year old but the Topic Title suggests it's the best place to ask these questions.

On 1/22/2019 at 10:11 PM, WHMCS John said:

WHMCS supports storing one set of payment details; local credit card and tokenised storage (eg. Stripe and GoCardless) simultaneously. This means it would not be possible to pay invoices under a single client account both via credit card and GoCardless at the same time. However this is something we're looking to add later in the year: https://requests.whmcs.com/topic/multiple-credit-card-support_1

The above would suggest that this was introduced in v7.8 but the link to Pay Methods (https://docs.whmcs.com/Pay_Methods) states:

Quote

Please Note: At this time, it is not possible to set a different default Pay Method on a per service basis, although this functionality is planned to be delivered in a future update.

1. The first question I have is about the meaning of "per service": I have clients with multiple services within their account and maybe they want a Direct Debit setup on some of them but pay by Credit Card for others. Is this possible?

2. If that is possible, the next question is about onboarding clients: Their current default payment method would be credit card but how would they migrate to Direct Debit?

I guess that the next invoice generated would default to their existing payment method or could they change this when GoCardless was enabled? Or would I have to "invite them" using the GoCardless dashboard or just change their default payment method before then next invoice is generated.

The documentation is fairly basic and covers enabling the module with no real reference to anything else (https://docs.whmcs.com/GoCardless)

3. The last question (for today at least) is around only showing this as a payment method for recurring invoices generated AFTER the initial order has been taken and provisioned? i.e. I cannot see any of my clients placing an order for hosting and then waiting for around a week for it to be provisioned..... however, once they are up and running a Direct Debit may be ideal for them.

[WHMCS ChrisD]

 

 

 

1

7 hours ago, Vox said:

1. The first question I have is about the meaning of "per service": I have clients with multiple services within their account and maybe they want a Direct Debit setup on some of them but pay by Credit Card for others. Is this possible?

Per service, means per product e.g Hosting Account 1, Hosting Account 2 ect. On the product you can set a Payment Method, however it is still not possible to set a default pay method on a per service method please refer to https://docs.whmcs.com/Pay_Methods for more infromation.

 

 

 

1

7 hours ago, Vox said:

 2. If that is possible, the next question is about onboarding clients: Their current default payment method would be credit card but how would they migrate to Direct Debit?

 I guess that the next invoice generated would default to their existing payment method or could they change this when GoCardless was enabled? Or would I have to "invite them" using the GoCardless dashboard or just change their default payment method before then next invoice is generated.

The documentation is fairly basic and covers enabling the module with no real reference to anything else (https://docs.whmcs.com/GoCardless)

If you would like them to use GoCardless, you'd need to have them set up the mandate on the next available invoice, to do this they would navigate to the invoice, then change the payments method to GoCardless and follow the steps to setup the mandate.

7 hours ago, Vox said:

 3. The last question (for today at least) is around only showing this as a payment method for recurring invoices generated AFTER the initial order has been taken and provisioned? i.e. I cannot see any of my clients placing an order for hosting and then waiting for around a week for it to be provisioned..... however, once they are up and running a Direct Debit may be ideal for them.

Out of the box, there isn't a way to stop this you may be able to acheive this with a hook but this would require a customization

[WHMCS John]

Hi @Vox,

Further to Chris' suggestions:

1. Yes this is possible

A client can indeed only have one default payment method. But WHMCS can differentiate between a credit card and direct debit Pay Method, so will pick the appropriate one based upon the invoice's Payment Gateway.

 

3. Depending upon your product configuration Automation Settings, a service may not be automatically provisioned until the payment has cleared. In which case you could accept the order manually to provision it before payment has been received.

You could perhaps make a customisation to the checkout.tpl template to hide the GoCardless option from the Checkout page, so that a client would pay via an instant method upon signup, then follow the steps in #2 for renewals.

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS ChrisD and @WHMCS John,

Thanks for that.

So it would seem the only thing I have to manage is how I would "hide" the Direct Debit option if required.

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS ChrisD,

14 hours ago, WHMCS ChrisD said:

If you would like them to use GoCardless, you'd need to have them set up the mandate on the next available invoice, to do this they would navigate to the invoice, then change the payments method to GoCardless and follow the steps to setup the mandate.

I've now enabled GoCardless.

Any existing invoices for customers still only show the existing credit card payment button and their payment method is still showing on the invoice is credit card (with no option to change this).

There is no way I can see to change this logging in as a customer and having just generated an invoice the GoCardless option is not there. Just the clients default payment method - Credit Card.

Is there something else I need to enable?

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS ChrisD,

Found it.....

Settings > Invoices > Clients Choose Gateway: Tick to allow clients to choose the gateway they pay with

[WHMCS ChrisD]

Glad you managed to get it sorted @Vox 🙂

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS John,

On 3/19/2020 at 9:03 AM, WHMCS John said:

You could perhaps make a customisation to the checkout.tpl template to hide the GoCardless option from the Checkout page, so that a client would pay via an instant method upon signup, then follow the steps in #2 for renewals.

I would have thought that by "unticking" the box in Setup > Payment > Payment Gateways > Manage Existing Gateways > GoCardless > "Show on Order Form" would have had this exact effect.

However, "unticking" the box removes the gateway from both the order form and then also as a payment method on any invoices. Or am I mistaken? As I couldn't get it to work.

I really do not like modifying standard templates so have resorted to using a hook.

Now I am no coder (despite using WHMCS for over 10 years now......😣) so have modified the code provided by @bendrop and @brian! in this thread:

So here it is for anyone else. It seems to work for me but clearly I am not an expert so please test..........

<?php

function cart_remove_gocardless_gateway($vars)
{
    if ($vars['templatefile']=='viewcart'){

        // List of gateways to remove
        $disallowed = array('gocardless');

        $gateways = $vars['gateways'];
        
        foreach ($gateways as $k => $item) {
            if (in_array($item['sysname'],$disallowed)) {
                unset($gateways[$k]);
            }
        } 
        return array("gateways" => $gateways);
    }
}
add_hook("ClientAreaPageCart", 1, "cart_remove_gocardless_gateway");

 

 

[brian!]

3 minutes ago, Vox said:

However, "unticking" the box removes the gateway from both the order form and then also as a payment method on any invoices. Or am I mistaken? As I couldn't get it to work.

it would remove them from both... the docs imply that it's just the order form, but i'm pretty sure it's always been both.

12 minutes ago, Vox said:

So here it is for anyone else. It seems to work for me but clearly I am not an expert so please test..........

it looks fine to me, but i'm probably biased. 🙂

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS John,

As I said previously there is no real documentation or explanation for this module other than enable it so I've got a question about the workflow.

When I check the invoice in WHMCS that has been setup to pay by GoCardless I can see that a payment is pending and should have "cleared" by 6th April.

However, the GoCardless dashboard does not reflect any activity for the charge date of 6th April.

Is this normal process workflow and if so what do the different meanings in WHMCS and GoCardless mean? 

Please see the attached screenshots.

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS John,

Further to my response above I have had some confirmation from GoCardless about the charge date and when the payment should clear:

Quote

"It's always one business day after the customer's charge date, at around noon, when our system shows you what exactly happened to a payment."

Therefore with a charge date of 6th April we can expect to see the payment clear on 7th April. And as if by magic that happened shortly after I posted my previous response this morning.

It would be really useful to change to the wording/statement in WHMCS on the invoice regarding processing and clearing........ 

Further to this though I have another issue now. I actually had 2 invoices that were generated on 29th March which customers elected to pay by GoCardless and both had shown the message on them posted in the previous response i.e. "A payment is being processed that will clear on 06/04/20"

Now both invoices have been marked as paid and they both received the exact same messages in the Gateway Transaction Log (apart from ID and payment - clearly). Both received a "Payment Confirmed" message and a "Payments Confirmed" message.

However, both invoices now have a different status message as follows. Any ideas as to why one is still showing as "Payment Pending"?

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS John,

Just to update you on this process........ the "Payment Pending" message on the invoice above has now disappeared.

No transactions are visible in either the Gateway Log or Activity log. Is this a "timing" issue triggered by the automation cron?

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS John,

Any thoughts?

[WHMCS ChrisD]

@Vox Did the payment show as complete in GoCardless?  Just confirming if we get information about this back into the Gateway Log when GoCardless process the payment

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS ChrisD,

Yes.

Just to confirm the details in my post on 7th April..... both payments shown as confirmed in the GoCardless dashboard, both payments had identical transactions in the gateway log, both invoices marked as "paid", but one still had a GoCardless status of "Payment Pending" which eventually updated.

As you can see from the screenshots, the payment notifications were a minute apart, 11:12 and 11:13.

[Vox]

Hi @WHMCS ChrisD,

Seems to be a bit of sleepy topic this one...........

Just got another question on this, the "Direct Debit Payment Pending" email notifications are being generated when the credit card capture is run on the automated cron job as you would expect.

However, the status of the Invoice is "Unpaid" in both the status description in the email body and the attached PDF Invoice.

When you login, you can clearly see that the status of the Invoice is "Payment Pending".

Is this a "bug" I need to report or a "feature" I need to request?

[Vox]

Just for info.......

The "Payment Pending" status issues are being addressed "at some stage" (MODULE-7471) and the issue regarding the charge and clearance dates will also be addressed "at some stage" by NOT using the debit/credit card workflow. 😉

[Bertie]

58 minutes ago, Vox said:

Just for info.......

The "Payment Pending" status issues are being addressed "at some stage" (MODULE-7471) and the issue regarding the charge and clearance dates will also be addressed "at some stage" by NOT using the debit/credit card workflow. 😉

 

That's good to know but it needs to be sooner rather than later.

[Vox]

1 hour ago, Bertie said:

That's good to know but it needs to be sooner rather than later.

Yes, it's always good when an "Automated Billing System" manages to get the invoice status, charge and clearance dates correct! 😂

[MakarSima182]

hello, Nice to meet you.

I am a stranger on WHMCS

Please help me

I have to do follow tasks on WHMCS.

1. Select Product
2. Checkout
3. Complete Direct Debit (Go Cardless)
4. Take card payment
5. order complete

How can do it?

 Please let me know, thanks.

 

 

[Vox]

Hi @MakarSima182,

On 12/2/2020 at 10:56 AM, MakarSima182 said:

hello, Nice to meet you.

I am a stranger on WHMCS

Please help me

As I said in the reply to the DM that you sent me, please ask any questions on these Forums. That way it will help everyone, as you can virtually guarantee that another user will have the same question at some time and would benefit from the proposed suggestions or solutions.

From my understanding, what you wanted was the customer to setup a Direct Debit, but wanted to provision their services without waiting the seven days or so for the payment to be received.  @WHMCS John covered this earlier in this topic by suggesting that you could accept the order manually. It really comes down to how you much risk you are prepared to take in provisioning services before you have received payment.

On 3/19/2020 at 9:03 AM, WHMCS John said:

3. Depending upon your product configuration Automation Settings, a service may not be automatically provisioned until the payment has cleared. In which case you could accept the order manually to provision it before payment has been received.

 

[sol2010]

Hey @Vox

Thanks for documenting your journey with WHMCS GoCardless.

The documentation does seem to be rather vague (no surpirse there!) 

I have a simple question: Why on earth is there no option for customers in the Payment Methods section.....  When I navigate there, you'd expect something on Direct Debit, but nothing... I suppose one has to have it set up against an invoice first before it shows?

The WHMCS documentation really needs to be updates to provide info on how customers cna migrate from one payment to Direct Debit.....

 

 

[WHMCS John]

Hi @sol2010,

Clients can enter new payment details (credit card, bank accounts etc) when paying an invoice.

If you have the "Clients Choose Gateway" option enabled in General Settings > Invoices tab, they can pick any of the methods you offer, including Direct Debit to establish a new mandate.

Once set up, they will be available for management via the Payment Methods page.

[sol2010]

14 hours ago, WHMCS John said:

Hi @sol2010,

Clients can enter new payment details (credit card, bank accounts etc) when paying an invoice.

If you have the "Clients Choose Gateway" option enabled in General Settings > Invoices tab, they can pick any of the methods you offer, including Direct Debit to establish a new mandate.

Once set up, they will be available for management via the Payment Methods page.

Hi @WHMCS John nice to see you.  Yes that is all good - however,  if there is no "open" invoice, then there's no way for a customer to know that a Direct Debit option is available (other than our marketing it).  Unless they have already set up the Direct Debit in the invoice, currently nothing shows in the Payment Methods section, which is kind of illogical ....  I think the DD option should show in Payment Methods section regardless....  If it's not active, a simple tool tip or explanation text could advise that to set up the DD they should choose it in the next invoice....

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by sol2010

[WHMCS John]

Hi @sol2010,

Clients will also see the Direct Debit option for selection on the checkout stage of the shopping cart.

An amount is required by GoCardless in order to create the Direct Debit mandate: https://developer.gocardless.com/api-reference/#billing-requests-create-a-billing-request

This means it isn't possible for clients to create a mandate without a charge in advance via the Pay Methods page.