How customers can establish a Direct Debit authority (Ezidebit)
If you are using direct debit through First Class via our Ezidebit integration it's important to know how customers can establish a direct debit authority.
Below are the available options for establishing a direct debit authorisation for a customer:
1. Send an established direct debit link
2. Via the established direct debit feature in the customer portal
3. Manually entering a token (use if the customer already exists in Ezidebit but does not have a token connection in First Class)
4. By filling out the EDDR form during the online booking process (only valid if you are using online bookings with direct debit as an available payment type for online bookings)
We explore each of these methods below.
1. How to send the link for parents to Establish Direct Debit
Here are steps on how you can send an email link for parents to establish their direct debit accounts.
Step 1 - In the parent profile modal, click the button “Establish Direct Debit”
Step 2 - Click “Yes” to proceed.
Step 3 - It will prompt notification that it was sent successfully.
Once the customer has completed the EDDR form, they will show as YES in the direct debit column in the list sections of First Class.
You can also see if a customer is direct debit-ready when they have a payment token and contract reference in their customer/parent profile.
2. Using the established direct debit feature within the customer portal
In the customer portal, within the My Payments section, when enabled, there is a button that says establish direct debit.
This allows the customer to fill in the EDDR form and establish a direct debit token.
It's important to note that filling out this form does not schedule any payment instalments. It's simply setting the customer up as direct debit ready so a schedule can then be created for a specific invoice/s.
This feature is turned off as a default. If you would like it turned on, then go into your account settings in the profile section of your admin account.
When the field disable pre-established direct debit authority is set to no, then this button will display in your customer portal.
3. Manually key in an existing token
To manually key in an existing Ezidebit token follow the steps below
1. Open the customer/parent profile
2. Go into Ezidebit a copy the payment token on their record.
The contract ID needs to be pasted into the payment token field within the customer's First Class profile.
The client contract reference needs to be pasted into the client contract reference field.
Once these have been saved on the customer profile, the customer's Ezidebit account will be successfully linked with First Class and the customer will be ready to have payment scheduled.
4. Completing an EDDR during an initial enrolment via online bookings
A customer can set up a direct debit authority when first enrolling if they have online bookings enabled.
This is covered comprehensively in our article below below
FAQ
How can we confirm who has been set up for direct debit?
When someone complete a direct debit authorisation, you should receive an email confirming the application.
In First Class, you can see if a customer is enabled for direct debit, you can look at the direct debit column in the list section.
Eg. Go to the active students list, the far right column says Direct Debit. If this column says YES. The customer is enabled for direct debit.
NOTE: Being authroised or enabled for direct debit is not the same as setting up a direct debit schedule/arrangement. This simply means the customer is ready to enter into a direct debit arrangement/schedule because they now have a debit authorisation with the billing provider.
To create a schedule you can use the Create schedule feature found within the payments menu.
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