For the first time, accountants and SMBs can collect payments in and from Australia via Xero, thanks to GoCardless’ integration with the Australian BECS Direct Debit system.

For Australian businesses, that means the chance to automate invoice payments within Xero, so there’s no need to switch systems or spend hours of time on manual reconciliation. With the new integration, payments are automatically reconciled with the relevant invoices marked as paid and the GoCardless fee posted as an expense. Xero users also benefit from added features like error prevention (say goodbye to double entries), as well as low, transparent fees – 1%, capped at A$3.50, £2 or EUR2.

Life after GoCardless is sweet for Aussie chocolate wholesaler

Chocolate wholesaler Mörk Chocolate is now using GoCardless in the UK, Europe – and Australia to collect variable payments from its stockists. It started collecting with GoCardless in Europe in 2014 and now all 150 of its European customers pay by GoCardless. It will now be rolling out the payment method for its 450 Australian customers.

“GoCardless has showed us just how much time can be saved on payments admin,” says Co-Founder Kiril Shaginov, “– as well as improving our cash flow. We first used it in the UK and we jumped at the chance to introduce it to our customers here. It allows us to spend more time building relationships with our customers, rather than focusing on the accounts.”

While Kiril and team reviewed other Direct Debit systems for their Australian market, they found that these didn’t integrate as well with Xero. “GoCardless is Xero’s global preferred Direct Debit provider and it shows – the integration is really seamless and intuitive; your accounts are always accurate and up to date without you having to do anything, and automatic reconciliation is a huge time-saver.”

GoCardless & Xero: A strong partnership

The venture into Australia has strengthened GoCardless’ partnership with Xero, with them becoming Xero’s global preferred payments provider for Direct Debit.

In the words of Edward Berks, EMEA Director, Fintech & Ecosystem at Xero, “Xero and GoCardless share a similar goal: to streamline admin and give businesses more time back to focus on growth. GoCardless for Xero is one of our fastest growing apps in the UK and we’re delighted to be able to offer this best-in-class solution for taking Direct Debit payments to our subscribers in Australia, and soon to our users in the rest of the world.”

Named Xero’s UK App Partner of the Year in 2017, GoCardless now have 8,500 users connected to Xero. This partnership enables GoCardless to offer additional integration features, such as automatic reconciliation of payments with Xero accounts, saving users hours of time.

A 2018 survey of 736 SMEs taking Direct Debit payments through GoCardless for Xero, 84% said they spent less time chasing invoices and 74% spent less time on reconciliation; while 80% said their cash flow had improved and 78% said their business’ average debtor days had reduced

GoCardless CEO & Founder, Hiroki Takeuchi commented: “Our partnership with Xero in the UK has allowed us to bring our automatic payment solution into the billing workflows of thousands of small businesses, solving their cash flow challenges and taking away the pain of payment reconciliation. We’re thrilled to be taking our partnership to the next level as Xero’s global preferred payment solution for Direct Debit, and look forward to bringing our solution to Xero accountants and their small business customers around the world, starting with Australia."