Introduction
With direct debit, the customer signs a mandate once, and after that each new invoice is collected from their bank account without them doing anything. RentVisie does not collect the money itself. It hands each new invoice to one of two outside payment services, Twikey or Mollie, and they collect it. You work with direct debit in three places. The customer's Mandates tab shows Valid mandate, a Send (new) mandate invite button and a list of the customer's mandates. The Twikey Connector screen holds the company's Twikey settings. The Twikey Error Log lists the invoices that could not be collected.
You would be here because:
- A business customer on a lease wants their monthly invoices collected automatically.
- You need to send a new customer the form to sign their mandate.
- An invoice for a customer with a signed mandate is still unpaid.
- A Twikey errors banner has appeared on the Financials screen.
- You are checking which of your regular customers have a signed mandate.
Words used on these screens
| The screen says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Mandate | The customer's signed permission for you to take money from their bank account |
| Twikey | An outside direct-debit service. It sends the mandate form and collects the invoices |
| Mollie | An outside online-payment service. It can also collect from a customer who has a mandate with Mollie |
| SEPA | The European direct-debit system both services use. Your company's lists call the failed-debit log SEPA Error logs |
| B2B / Core | The two kinds of SEPA mandate. B2B is for businesses and Core is for private customers |
| Max amount | The collection ceiling. It is the largest invoice the mandate may be used for |
This page covers mandates, how an invoice gets collected, and what to do when a collection fails. To record a payment by hand, see Record a payment a customer has made.
How to use
Configuration
A company administrator does the set-up. You need a Twikey account and your Twikey contract template number before you start. RentVisie support also has to connect Twikey to the app, so that Twikey can tell the app when a mandate is signed or an invoice is paid. If that link is missing, mandates stay on Sent even after the customer signs.
- From the main menu open Admin, then Settings, then click the Integrations tile (it has a chain-link icon). The screen is headed Integrations, with the integrations in cards under headings such as Payments.
- On the Twikey card, under Payments, turn the switch on. It saves at once and opens the Twikey Connector screen; the first time, the app creates a new empty connector. Once the switch is on, the card's Settings button opens the same screen later.
- Fill in the fields and press Save:
| Field | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Yes | Set it to No to stop handing invoices to Twikey. Mandate invites still go out. The Twikey switch on Integrations sets this too |
| API Base Url | Empty | The Twikey web address that Twikey gives you |
| API Token | Empty | Your secret key from Twikey |
| Default contract template | 0 | The number of your Twikey contract template, in whole numbers. The template decides the mandate scheme (see below) |
| Authorization, Authorization expires at | Filled in by the app | Read-only. Press (re-)Auth at the top to log in to Twikey again now |
- Choose the mandate scheme through the template. Whether a mandate is B2B or Core is decided by the contract template you set up in Twikey, not by anything in RentVisie. There is one template for the whole company, so every invite uses the same scheme. If you need both kinds, ask RentVisie support.
To switch Twikey off, turn the Twikey switch off on Integrations. That sets Active to No at once; turning it on again sets it back to Yes.
Mollie as a second collector. On the same Integrations screen, click Settings on the Mollie card (turn its switch on first). On the Mollie Connector (OAuth) screen, set both is active and enable recurring to yes. enable recurring starts on no. The customer must also be linked to Mollie. On their Other tab this shows as a Mollie customer id, or a Sync to Mollie link if they are not linked yet. Mollie mandates are created in Mollie itself. The app only asks Mollie whether a valid one exists and does not list them anywhere.
Before you start: any staff account can see a customer's Mandates tab and send an invite. Only a company administrator can open a mandate to change its Max amount, open the error log, or see the Twikey errors banner. The customer needs a full address and an email address. For the invite to carry their bank account, the Iban must be filled in on their Financial tab. See Set a customer's payment and invoicing terms. Direct debit only works when your company's currency is the euro: mandate invites and collections are refused otherwise.
Using direct debit
From the main menu open Customers, then click the Customers tile. Click the customer's row and open the Mandates tab.
- Read Valid mandate. Yes means at least one mandate on the list is Signed.
- Invite the customer to sign. Click Send (new) mandate invite. There is no confirmation. Twikey emails the customer a Dutch-language form, and a new row appears straight away with Mandate status Sent. If the customer has no address, you get Customer address is required. If Twikey has not been set up, or your company does not work in euros, you get Please set up a valid mandate integration first. SEPA mandates are only available for EUR companies.
- Wait for the customer to sign. When Twikey reports the signature, the row turns green and reads Signed, and MaxAmount shows the ceiling the customer agreed to. A mandate the customer or bank withdraws turns red and reads Cancelled.
- To change a mandate, a company administrator clicks the row or the pencil icon at its end. Max amount and Mandate status can be changed; press Save. Nothing is sent to Twikey.
- To remove a mandate, a company administrator clicks the bin icon at the end of the row. The app asks Delete mandate number? This only removes it from RentVisie; the mandate is not cancelled in Twikey. Click Delete. Cancel the mandate in Twikey if it should stop there too.
From here nothing more needs doing. Each new invoice for this customer is collected on its own, as described below.
Read the error log. From the main menu open Financials and click the SEPA Error logs tile. If there are errors, a banner headed Twikey errors at the top also reads We have identified errors in the Twikey syncs: with a count, and its Twikey errors button opens the same list. Both open the screen headed Twikey Error Log. Its columns are Twikey error type, Date, Customer name, Invoice number and Booking number. At the end of each row are a pencil icon, which opens the row, and a bin icon, which deletes it at once.
Log an error by hand. Click the orange Log manual error button above the list. Fill in Customer name, Invoice number, Booking number, Date and Message. Choose a Twikey error type: Invoice or MandateFunds (not enough room on the mandate). Pick your own company in Company, then press Save. If you leave Company empty, the row does not show in your list.
Key details
When a debit is triggered. Every time an invoice is saved, the app checks whether it can be collected. This happens when the invoice is created by a booking or a lease run, and again when someone changes it. An invoice is handed to Twikey only once. After that, later changes do not send it again.
Some invoices are never collected. Credit notes, invoices with a total of zero, and invoices to a funder or broker are never handed to Twikey or Mollie; see Invoice and credit a funded booking.
Invoices older than a day are never collected. The check skips any invoice created more than 24 hours ago. So a mandate signed today does not pick up last week's open invoices, and neither does saving them again. Collect those with a payment request or a bank transfer instead.
Which provider is tried first, and which mandate wins. Skim the table once.
| Check, in order | If it passes | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Twikey is set up and Active | Go on | Try Mollie |
| The customer has a Signed mandate | Use it. Sent and Cancelled rows are ignored. With more than one Signed mandate, the app takes the one with the highest Max amount | Try Mollie |
| The invoice total, including VAT (value-added tax), is at or below that Max amount | Hand the invoice to Twikey. Done | Add an error row, then try Mollie |
| Mollie has is active and enable recurring set to yes, the customer is linked, and Mollie holds a valid mandate | Mollie collects the invoice | Nothing is collected. The invoice waits for a normal payment |
The collection ceiling, worked through. A customer's signed mandate has a Max amount of €1,500.00. A lease invoice of €1,452.00 including VAT is handed to Twikey. An invoice of exactly €1,500.00 is also handed over. An invoice of €1,500.01 is not. The Twikey Error Log gets a row with the customer name and invoice number but no message, and the app tries Mollie. If the customer signed without a limit, MaxAmount shows 9999999999. Each time Twikey sends news about a mandate, it resets Max amount to the value Twikey holds. So change the limit in Twikey too, or your change will be overwritten.
When the money arrives. Twikey is given the invoice's due date and collects from there. When Twikey reports the invoice paid, the app records the payment on the invoice with the method DirectDebit and the reference B2B-sepa, and the invoice shows as paid. Until then it stays open like any other unpaid invoice. For Mollie collections, see Take a card or online payment.
The invoice itself mentions direct debit. When the customer's mandate covers the invoice total, the invoice document is set up for payment by direct debit rather than by bank transfer.
On the Booking details screen the Overview tab shows SEPA mandate in its financial card: Active, up to the mandate's ceiling, or No active SEPA. See Find your way around the Booking details screen.
What to do next: work through the Twikey Error Log first. Each row there is an invoice nobody is going to collect. Then chase any invoices older than a day that were issued before the mandate was signed.
Q&A
Why is an invoice still unpaid when the customer has a signed mandate? The app may have tried to hand it to Twikey and failed, for example because Twikey could not be reached. The failure adds a row to the Twikey Error Log, and the message holds Twikey's reply. But the invoice still counts as handed to Twikey, so the app never tries again and does not try Mollie either. Nothing on the invoice screen shows this. Look up the invoice number in SEPA Error logs. If it is there, collect the invoice another way, with a payment request or by adding it in Twikey. When the money is in, record the payment.
Why does an invoice show as paid when the money was later returned by the bank? The app records the payment when Twikey reports the invoice paid. It is not told about a later reversal. Check the reversal in Twikey, then correct the payment on the invoice. See Record a payment a customer has made.
Why was an invoice not collected, with no error, even though the mandate is signed? It was created more than a day before the mandate was signed, or before Twikey was set up. Only fresh invoices are collected. Send a payment request.
Why does the mandate still say Sent after the customer signed? The app hears about signatures only from Twikey. If Twikey is not connected back to the app, the status never changes. Ask RentVisie support to check the connection.
Why is there a Sent row with no mandate number? Twikey did not accept the invite, so the row will never be signed. Check the customer's email address, address and Iban, then click Send (new) mandate invite again.
Why is the error type empty on most rows? Rows the app adds itself carry no type and no booking number. Only rows logged by hand have a type. A row with no message means the invoice was above the mandate's Max amount.
Why does the Twikey errors count stay high after I fixed the problem? The count covers every row in the log. It falls only when you delete rows with the bin icon.
I deleted a mandate in RentVisie. Why does Twikey still collect for it? Deleting removes the mandate from RentVisie only; it is not cancelled in Twikey. Cancel it in Twikey itself.
Why was an invoice to a funder or broker not collected? Funder and broker invoices are never collected by direct debit. Collect them another way and record the payment, see Record a payment a customer has made.
Why can't I change the mandate scheme on the mandate? The scheme comes from your Twikey contract template, as described under Configuration. A new mandate shows B2B in the app whatever it really is, so check the scheme in Twikey itself.
I don't see the Twikey errors banner or cannot open the error log. Both are for company administrators only. Ask one to check the log for you.
Related pages:
- Set how a lease is billed, for the monthly lease invoices most mandates pay.
- Check your daily overview, for where failed debits do and do not appear.
- Set a customer's payment and invoicing terms, for the Iban.
- Fix a payment that is missing, doubled or not in the accounts, for Mollie payments that went wrong.