Process SEPA direct debits

SEPA direct debit is the most common way for European clubs to collect membership fees. Instead of waiting for members to pay manually, you create a bank submission with all pending invoices and send it to your bank. This guide walks you through the entire collection cycle from start to finish.

Before you begin

Make sure you have completed the following prerequisites:

• Your club's SEPA creditor details are configured (creditor ID, IBAN, BIC) -- see Configure payment methods.
• At least one member has a SEPA direct debit payment method set up with a valid IBAN and mandate.
• Pending invoices exist that are ready for collection (status: pending).

Step 1: Create a bank submission

1. Navigate to Finance > SEPA Files from the sidebar.
2. Click "Create bank submission". Omoplata collects all pending invoices that are ready for SEPA collection.
3. You can then select or deselect individual invoices if certain debits should not be included in this batch. There is a separate "Retries" tab for debits that are being retried after a failed attempt.
4. All included invoices move from pending to waiting to send.
5. All related transactions are updated to waiting to send.

Step 2: Send bank submission to the bank

1. On the Finance > SEPA Files page, click the three dots (⋯) next to the bank submission.
2. Select "Send to bank".
3. Enter your security code when prompted. Omoplata connects to online banking.
4. Complete the TAN approval required by your bank.
5. After successful submission, the bank submission is automatically marked as uploaded. All related invoices move from waiting to send to sent to bank.

Step 3: Wait for bank processing

After sending, the bank processes the debits on the specified due date. During this time:

• The invoices remain in sent to bank status.
• Members see the pending charge on their bank statements (depending on when their bank processes it).
• Any returns for failed debits are generated by the bank.

Step 4: Invoices are marked as paid

Banks do not actively confirm that a debit was successful -- they only report failed payments. This is why Omoplata assumes the payment was successful 5 days after the due date and automatically marks the invoices as paid. When this happens:

• The bank submission status changes to processed.
• All related invoices are marked as paid.
• All related transactions are marked as completed.
• Payment records are created.

Should a chargeback occur at a later point (for example, due to a dispute by the account holder), Omoplata detects this on the next bank transaction fetch and automatically sets the already paid invoice back to pending retry.

Processing SEPA returns

When a SEPA debit fails (for example, due to insufficient funds, a closed account, or a mandate dispute), the failed transactions need to be processed in Omoplata.

1. Go to Finance > SEPA Files and fetch bank transactions. Omoplata connects to your bank and automatically reconciles the transactions.
2. Failed debits are automatically identified and the affected invoices are set to pending retry.
3. The affected member is automatically notified by email about the failed transaction -- based on the return reason from the bank. If the account is blocked, they are asked to contact the operator. In all cases, they are informed that a retry will occur in a few days and to ensure sufficient funds.
4. If a processing fee is configured in Settings > Billing, it is automatically added to the affected invoice.
5. The failed invoice appears in the separate "Retries" tab and can be resent to the bank at any time.

Retry collection

Failed invoices in pending retry status appear in the separate "Retries" tab and can be resent to the bank at any time. When you create your next batch, you will find these invoices there.

The retried invoice ID is suffixed with a counter (for example, INV-1000042-1) so you can track how many collection attempts have been made.

Deleting a bank submission

If you created a bank submission by mistake or need to cancel a batch before sending:

1. Find the bank submission on the Finance > SEPA Files page.
2. Click Delete.
3. All included invoices revert from waiting to send back to pending.
4. The invoices can be included in a future batch.

Statuses at a glance

What to do next

• Handle failed payments -- learn how to manage failed SEPA debits and the dunning process.
• Generate invoices -- understand how invoices are created before SEPA collection.
• Configure payment methods -- update your SEPA settings.

For the full reference on SEPA direct debit, see SEPA direct debit.