Recording a debit-order batch against many invoices
How a provider that collects by debit order through its bank records one batch credit against many subscriber invoices, and handles unpaid returns.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Telecoms businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
On the first working day of the month, a provider's bank or debit-order bureau collects from hundreds of subscriber accounts. A few days later, the bank statement shows one large credit with a batch reference. Somewhere in the bureau's portal is a report listing which subscribers paid, which were unpaid, and the fees. The receivables ledger, meanwhile, still shows every one of those subscribers as owing this month's invoice.
Turning that one bank line into hundreds of correctly allocated receipts is a monthly job most finance teams in subscription businesses know well. Done carelessly, it double-counts money or leaves paid subscribers receiving overdue reminders. This article sets out a routine that keeps the bank and the subscriber accounts in agreement.
Achekam runs no debit orders: your bank or bureau does
Start with what Achekam does not do. It never charges a business's customer automatically: there are no saved cards and no debit orders. Debit-order collection stays with your bank or bureau, under the mandates your subscribers signed with you.
That is not unusual. In South Africa, debit orders come in different types, each authorised in its own way, and the Payments Association of South Africa explains the three types, DebiCheck, Registered Mandate and EFT debit orders, and what happens with unauthorised debits, on its debit orders page. Nigerian and Kenyan providers collecting by direct debit work through their own bank's mandate scheme. Whatever the scheme, Achekam's job starts when the money reaches your account.
The batch on the statement and the bureau's report
For each collection run, you need two documents:
- The bank statement, showing the batch credit and, separately or netted off, any fees.
- The bureau's or bank's collection report, listing each subscriber debited, the amount and whether it was paid or returned unpaid.
Download both as soon as the run settles. Check that the report's total of successful collections, less any fees deducted, equals the batch credit on the statement. If it does not, stop and ask the bureau before you record anything. Everything that follows assumes the two agree.
Make sure your subscriber references in the bureau's system match the customer names or account numbers in Achekam. A mismatch here is how receipts end up on the wrong account.
Recording each subscriber's receipt
Work from the collection report. For each subscriber shown as paid, record a customer payment in receivables against their invoice for the month, dated on the collection date. A business records payments against one invoice or spread across a customer's invoices, a part payment leaves an invoice part-paid, and any extra is held on the customer's account.
Keep the batch reference and the report together with the month's records, so the set of receipts can be traced back to the run later. Allocate each receipt to the invoice the debit order was for, normally the current month's, unless your terms say a debit order clears the oldest balance first.
This step is not optional. Matching a bank receipt to a customer invoice does not record the payment on the invoice; it must also be recorded in receivables. If you skip it, the invoices stay open, and credit control, which e-mails overdue reminders once a day in new workspaces, may remind subscribers who have already paid.
Matching the batch line on the bank statement
Import the bank statement as PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 or CAMT.053; each import is checked so that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance. Bank lines are matched by suggestion and a person accepts each match.
The batch line is one credit standing for many receipts. Match it against the receipts you recorded where the suggestions allow. Where they do not, explain the line in the reconciliation with the batch reference and a note pointing to the bureau's report: a reconciliation completes only with no difference left or with every leftover line explained.
What you must not do is accept a suggested journal for the batch. A bank line not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal, and that suggestion is for money recorded nowhere else. Here, the money is already recorded as receipts, so a journal would count it twice. Bureau fees are different: they are not in the books yet, so a suggested journal to bank charges is correct for them.
The same principle applies to any single payment covering several invoices, as one client payment covering several invoices explains, and bank feeds and statement imports covers the import side.
Unpaid returns and reversing a receipt
Some debit orders come back unpaid days after the run: insufficient funds, a closed account, a disputed debit. They usually appear on the bank statement as individual debits, or as a second batch of returns.
For each return, reverse the subscriber's receipt; administrators can refund or reverse a receipt. The invoice then shows as unpaid again, credit control picks it up, and the subscriber's balance moves back into the age analysis, where receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days. Match the returned debit on the bank statement to the reversal.
Contact the subscriber the same week. A returned debit order is often the first sign of arrears, and the fix is often as simple as new bank details.
A collection-day checklist
- Download the bank statement and the bureau's collection report.
- Check that successful collections, less fees, equal the batch credit.
- Record a receipt per paid subscriber, dated on the collection date.
- Match or explain the batch line; post fees by suggested journal.
- Reverse the receipt for every return, and contact the subscriber.
- Check the age analysis for paid subscribers still showing as overdue.
If you collect without debit orders at all, memberships without debit orders shows another way. Either way, run the checklist on the next collection day and keep the bureau's report with the month's records.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
