Introduction
If you are already taking Membership Direct Debits but are not using GoCardless this is the guide for you! With CiviPlus and GoCardless donation direct debits are taken seamlessly so you never have to do another monthly payment run again!
We've split these steps into those that need to be taken on the GoCardless side and those that need to be done within CiviPlus.
As part of this process, you'll need to notify:
the customer
the organisation
the bank
For each customer you are moving, you will need their:
Name
Email
Address
Bank details
You'll also need the unique identifiers that connect individual member records with their respective mandate information in your CRM.
If you do not have your customer email addresses we would recommend that you contact them to try and obtain as many email addresses as you can. Alternatively GoCardless offers a pro account which will support both a paper and email process, but you will be responsible for the paper processes. You can contact them directly to discuss this with them.
Steps: With GoCardless
Firstly signup to GoCardless via your CiviPlus site (to ensure your GoCardless account is connected to your CiviPlus instance).
Then you'll need to inform GoCardless of your intention to switch provider. You can do this via the support request here. GoCardless will provide you with all the information you will need to make this change. Some useful articles on this can be found below:
You will need to fill in a "Bulk change deed" which will need to be signed by your previous provider. This is a legal agreement that transfers liability for indemnity claims from the old SUN owner to the new SUN owner. You will need to specify the date and time that your migration should take place which we would recommend to be after the date of your last planned payment run with your existing provider. This will also need to be your CiviPlus go live date.
You will also need to complete a "Notification of Change Form" which lets GoCardless know the details of your switch.
You will also need to inform your donors/members of the change in writing (can be email), using bank-approved wording. GoCardless can provide an example content for this, but donors/members don't need to opt-in or set up new mandates, as their original authorisation is sufficient.
On the day of the final migration you will need to have all your donors and mandates in the GoCardless system. In order to do this you will need to import a list of those donors and mandates, as well as a spreadsheet column with a suitable unique "identifier" that your CiviPlus site will be able to link a contact record to.
We would recommend that you firstly test this import in a GoCardless sandbox to make sure that your data doesn't have any errors or omissions.
To do so:
Create a 'Sandbox' GoCardless account here.
Once you've created this account, please contact GoCardless to let them know that you need to use the account to test mandate imports. Unfortunately they need to enable the "Migrate BACS mandates (GBP)" feature. Once done you will see 3 options under the "import" dropdown including a new one for "Migrate BACS mandates (GBP)". We'd recommend doing this for both your live account made at step 1 and also your sandbox account.
We have provided an import file for your use here: 🗳️GoCardless BACS DD Import Sheet
You will need to populate all the columns relating to your donors as well as one of 2 very important columns in order for your new CiviPlus site to be able to connect your contacts in CiviPlus correctly to your Customers in GoCardless. These are either the customer.metadata.external_id or customer.metadata.civicrm_contact_id columns.
If you are migrating from another CiviCRM site, we would recommend you populate the customer.metadata.civicrm_contact_id with the CiviCRM ID of the contact.
If you are migrating from another site you can populate the customer.metadata.external_id field instead with a unique identifier for the customer. Just note that you will need to import your donors into CiviPlus with the same ID so that CiviPlus can match them up.
Once you have populated the sheet, import it into GoCardless. Check if you have any issues and work to resolve them and make sure that the columns in 6.d above have imported correctly.
Once you have managed to import your sheet correctly, you are ready for the go live date. Just keep in mind that you'll need to update your sheet with any new Direct Debit donors and mandates who have signed up before the go live!
Steps: Within CiviPlus
The above steps will migrate your mandates to GoCardless, but we also need to migrate your memberships, payment plans and future invoices for this period into CiviPlus. As CiviPlus manages the future payments you don't need to create any subscriptions in GoCardless as long as the customers and mandates exist.
The steps for this are slightly different depending on whether you are migrating from an existing CiviCRM site or coming in from a completely different CRM or platform.
a) If migrating from another CiviCRM site using the CiviPlus migrator:
If migrating from another CiviCRM site using the CiviPlus migrator the steps are as follows:
Before you start ensure that your CiviPlus site is setup and connected to GoCardless correctly.
In advance of the final payment date you will need to prepare an import sheet with your members, membership payment plans and membership invoices on it.
Please find a sample sheet here 🗳️GoCardless Memberships CiviPlus Import Template for CiviCRM to CiviPlus Migrations
You may have a lot of this information already in your CiviCRM and you can easily export it. To do so you should be able to easily export such a sheet from CiviCRM by performing a contributions search >> export and selecting the relevant fields.
Make sure you populate the "contact_id" with the correct contact ID's that you exported at step 4.
Be sure to use the relevant existing membership ID in the import sheet.
Once populated you can import this into CiviPlus using the API CSV importer and using the "Entity to import" as "MembershipextrasImporter".
Note: For customers with a managed service if you would like to perform a test import please see details on how you can do this below.
CiviPlus will import the relevant data and setup the payment plans (known as recurring contributions in CiviPlus) as well as all the future payments. CiviPlus will then attempt the next payment on the relevant payment date.
b) If migrating from a completely different CRM or platform:
If migrating from a completely different CRM or platform site to CiviPlus the steps are as follows:
Before you start ensure that your CiviPlus site is setup and connected to GoCardless correctly.
In advance of the final payment date you will need to prepare an import sheet with your members, membership payment plans and membership invoices on it.
Please find a sample sheet here 🗳️GoCardless Memberships CiviPlus Import Template
You will need to export the relevant data from your existing CRM or platform and also add the relevant mandate reference IDs.
Once populated you can import this into CiviPlus using the API CSV importer and using the "Entity to import" as "MembershipextrasImporter".
Once it all works you're ready for go live! Keep in mind you'll need to add any new members to your import sheet before you perform your final import.
On the day of go live you'll need to first import your GoCardless data and then your CiviPlus data.
Note: For customers with a managed service if you would like to perform a test import please see details on how you can do this below.
When you perform the import, CiviPlus will import the relevant data, but will also create the relevant future payments in CiviPlus, hooking everything up and your next payments should be taken seamlessly! Great job!
A word about timing
With direct debits, timing your migration will be everything! GoCardless provide a handy guide on this page here: https://gocardless.com/direct-debit/transferring/
We have used their guide and added your CiviPlus migration steps below:
Before you start (4-6 weeks before)
We would suggest you have your new CiviPlus instance up and running, setup your GoCardless account connected to CiviPlus and get your relevant sandbox setup for testing.
Inform new and old SUN owners of the change. The sponsor banks for each SUN must then agree to the change.
3 weeks before
Complete and submit two forms to the sponsor bank of the new SUN owner:
The Bulk Change Deed transfers liability for indemnity claims to the new SUN owner.
The Notification of Change Form informs the new SUN owner's sponsor bank of the size and date of the change.
0-3 weeks before
Notify payers of the change in writing using bank-approved wording. An example letter to payers is available here.
Prepare your first draft of a GoCardless import file and CiviPlus import files ready for testing.
Test your import into GoCardless.
Test your import into CiviPlus.
CiviCRM Test import: For customers who have a managed migration
You may want to test importing your CiviPlus import file before doing it for real on your day of go live/switch.
For customers who have a managed migration with us please let us know when you are ready to test.
We can then setup a clone of your site in "non production mode". You can then connect this clone site to your "sandbox" GoCardless account and test the import of your file, without making messy copies of your data.
When you are ready simply submit a helpdesk ticket or basecamp message referencing this article and asking for a "clone site to be setup in non production mode".
2 working days before
Submit final payments under old SUN.
Update your GoCardless import file and CiviPlus import file. Feel free to do a final test import of each.
Change date
Process the change. Bulk changes are processed by cancelling the original mandates at the same time as creating new ones.
Perform your imports into your live GoCardless site and CiviPlus site.
3 working days after
Payments can be submitted using the new SUN from this day onwards.