Our accountant customers have been asking us for more advice and knowhow on direct debit, so they can confidently recommend the right solutions to their clients.

This feedback is common and because of this, we’re launching a formal Accountants Program in the UK and Australia to help our 3000+ accountant partners become officially certified as GoCardless for Xero advisors. Inspired by Xero’s own partner program, we have built in a similar certification process, range of educational resources and support from a dedicated team of account managers.

The program will give our partners the confidence to advise their customers about direct debit. As part of the program they will receive support and online resources to make these conversations easier and add more value to their client relationships, as well as giving them access to exclusive discounts that they can refer to their clients.

“The apps that we can best recommend are those we use ourselves. GoCardless is an integral part of our processes, and because it’s so good we promote it to our clients as well. It’s definitely in our arsenal of useful solutions that we recommend to clients.” - Sharon Pocock, Kinder Pocock

Our accountant partners will take part in online training and will need to pass a test before becoming accredited. They’ll also have access to a toolkit of resources to help them better advise and prepare clients, including email templates and FAQs.

In September our first accountant partners joined the program and in this article, you can hear from Ryan Pearcy from Scrutton Bland, about how accreditation is benefitting his firm.

Ultimately, we hope the program will help Xero advisors make more of an impact on their clients’ businesses, reducing aged debts and debtor days, as well as the time they spend chasing payments; managing the books for those businesses then becomes less admin heavy too.

“It can become difficult if your clients have too much choice. The client wants business software that is easy to use, is in the cloud and available to them anywhere. If you offer them too many similar products, a business owner won’t necessarily know which one is the best for them – they come to you for that guidance.” - Richard Suswain, Tyrrell & Company

Scrutton Bland are the first accountancy firm to join the GoCardless Accountants Program in the UK

Ryan Pearcy, Director, Scrutton Bland, says:

“We are building a software package for our SMB clients to give them the tools they need to help their business run more efficiently in the cloud. This has in it a lot of elements, payments being one of them.

We have been talking to the GoCardless team for a long time, so when the program came up, it made perfect sense join and get accredited. It’s integrations with cloud accounting software like Xero, make it easier for our clients to manage their accounts. Referring clients to GoCardless adds extra value to the service we provide and offers them real benefits in terms of efficiency, cost saving and cash flow.”

How to Become a Certified GoCardless Partner

1. Register for our live online training sessions
We run regular webinar-based training for our Accountants Program on how GoCardless works and the best ways to recommend it to your clients.

2. Complete your certification
Our online training is followed by a quick, online certification test.

3. Receive  your certification badge, access to our supporting materials and your referral code
Along with official certification and access to our online resources, certified accountants are also given a unique link they share with their clients. This gives an exclusive discount of 3 months of free fees to new GoCardless users.

4. Get started
Our team of specialists are on-hand and ready to help with materials, support and,of course, lots of advice.