Direct Debit Payments

Direct debit reduces manual work and recurring billing costs. Electronic funds transfer (EFT) is a general banking system that reduces the cost of paperwork and postage and enables your organisation to automatically process credit card and direct debit payments from a donor’s account.

Direct debit details you can view from the gift record:

  • Reference number — Any number your organisation tracks for direct debit gifts .

  • Reference date — Any date your organisation tracks for direct debit gifts, such as when you receive the payment from the bank.

  • Received — Whether you received the payment from the bank.

  • Payment configuration — The payment configuration that was used to process the direct debit payment, which includes gateway information, access credentials, and fraud protection options. For more information, see Payment Configuration Troubleshooting.

    Note: For recurring gifts, this is the payment configuration used to process its future installments.

  • Transaction ID — The unique identifier assigned to a transaction processed through Blackbaud Payment Services.

When you add or amend a gift by direct debit in web view, Blackbaud Merchant Services creates a direct debit request (DDR). Depending on the scenario, the DDR is handled differently:

  • If a donor gives through an online donation form, the DDR link appears on the confirmation page and in the confirmation email. You can also find it on the payment (one-time gifts) or on the recurring gift or pledge record.

  • If you add a direct debit donation, the DDR is automatically emailed to the donor. You can find it on the payment (one-time gifts) or on the recurring gift or pledge record.

  • If you update bank account information, a new DDR is automatically generated and emailed to the donor. The latest DDR appears on the gift record, and earlier DDRs remain available in the mandate history.

  • If you change only the amount or schedule, a new DDR isn’t required.

For more information, see Direct debit mandates.

Direct Debit Processing Status Management

Direct debit processing status updates let you see whether a direct debit gift is pending approval, approved, or declined, along with the reason for a decline when applicable. This helps you understand payment status at a glance and respond more efficiently to issues such as insufficient funds.

How Direct Debit Statuses Work

Direct debit gifts move through the following statuses automatically:

  • Pending — The payment is being processed.

  • Approved — The payment is approved.

  • Declined — The donor’s bank declined the payment, such as for insufficient funds.

View the Status on a Gift Record

  • Open a direct debit gift record.

  • In Payment Information, review the Transaction status field.

  • If available, select the direct debit mandate link to view details.

Review Declined Direct Debit Gifts

  • From Gift Management, Needs attention, view declined direct debit gifts.

  • Select a gift to see the decline reason and open the gift record.

  • Follow your existing reconciliation process in database view.

  • Once resolved, mark the gift as reviewed in web view.

Note: You can only make adjustments in database view at this time.