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Paying handlers by Direct Debit

Clients pay handlers by Direct Debit through GoCardless, straight into the handler’s own GoCardless account. GuardPost never holds a handler’s pay: as an employment agency it isn’t allowed to, and it means a handler’s money can’t be held up by anybody in the middle. Each invoice is collected on its due date, without anybody having to chase it.

Being switched on. Until it is, clients pay handlers by bank transfer, to the details on the handler’s invoice. Nothing below changes how anybody is paid today.

For handlers

Connecting your own GoCardless account is part of being cleared for work: a client can't book you until it is connected and verified.

  1. 1Connect GoCardlessOn your Documents or Earnings page, press Connect GoCardless. It opens GoCardless's own page: sign up in your own name — as an individual or sole trader, or as your company if you have one — or log in if you already use GoCardless. Then allow GuardPost to connect.
  2. 2GoCardless checks your detailsLike a bank, GoCardless confirms who you are and where to pay you. Your page says where it is up to: connected and verified; being checked (usually a day or two); or that GoCardless needs something more from you — log in to GoCardless to see what.
  3. 3Get paidWhen a client books you, they set up a Direct Debit to you first. Each invoice is then collected from them on its due date into your GoCardless account, and GoCardless pays it into your bank. Your Earnings page follows each one: being collected, collected and on its way to your bank, then paid.

For clients

One Direct Debit to each handler you book, set up once, before the first booking with them.

  1. 1Set it up before you bookOn the job, where you would accept a handler, press Set up payment. It opens GoCardless's secure page, which names the handler as the one you are paying — not GuardPost. You enter your bank details there, with GoCardless, and come back to accept the booking.
  2. 2Each invoice, on its due dateEach of the handler's invoices is taken on its due date, and GoCardless emails you the amount and the date beforehand. The same Direct Debit is used for any later booking with that handler.
  3. 3Protected by the Direct Debit GuaranteeIf an amount is taken in error, your bank refunds it at once. You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time with your bank; anything already invoiced is then paid by bank transfer, and booking that handler again needs a new one.

GuardPost’s own fee for the introduction is a separate invoice, from GUARDPOST CONNECTIONS LTD, and is paid separately — see who pays whom.

If a payment fails

  • · Both the client and the handler are told, with the reason the bank gave.
  • · The client can’t book more work until it is paid — by transfer, or by the handler trying the Direct Debit again from their Earnings page.
  • · If a bank recalls a payment later under the Direct Debit Guarantee, the invoice is owed again and both are told.
  • · A single invoice under £1 or over £5,000 is paid by bank transfer instead — those are GoCardless’s limits for one payment.
  • · A Direct Debit needs a few working days’ notice, so cover booked for tonight is collected a few days after the work, not on the night.

Fees

  • · GuardPost takes nothing from a handler’s pay. Its fee is paid by the client, on its own invoice.
  • · GoCardless charges its own fee on each payment it collects. Who pays it on a handler’s payment is being agreed with GoCardless, and this page will say before any handler’s payment is collected.

Your details

  • · Bank details are entered on GoCardless’s pages and held by GoCardless. GuardPost never sees a full account number.
  • · Connecting gives GuardPost a key to the handler’s GoCardless account, kept encrypted, which it uses to set up and follow payments to that handler.
  • · A handler can disconnect GuardPost from their GoCardless account at any time. They can’t be booked again until they reconnect.
  • · More in the privacy policy. Questions: support@guardpost.uk.