For a UK accountancy practice, the payment providers worth comparing in 2026 are Adfin, GoCardless, Stripe and QuickBooks Payments. A practice needs more than a low rate: direct debit for monthly fees, a card or bank option for one-off work, the mandate signed when the client signs the engagement letter, and chasing for the fee notes that still go unpaid. Adfin covers all four, with two-way sync to Xero and QuickBooks.
In this article
The short version
- Adfin, GoCardless, Stripe and QuickBooks Payments are the main options for a UK practice.
- On Adfin, a £250 monthly fee costs £2.70 to collect and any fee note from £400 to £2,000 costs £4.20.
- Adfin integrates with Socket, so clients can sign the mandate with the proposal and engagement letter.
- QuickBooks Payments' Pay by Bank is a one-off payment, not a recurring direct debit.
- With 10 or more mandates, Adfin moves them across and clients don't re-sign.
What a practice needs from a payment provider
Most practices bill a mix of monthly fees, quarterly or annual fee notes and one-off work such as a tax investigation or a company formation, so no single payment method suits every client. Before you put your client base on a platform, it's worth checking five things.
- What a fee note costs to collect: a percentage with a cap keeps larger fee notes cheap when clients pay by bank, while card payments, especially on business cards, cost more.
- When the mandate gets signed: if the direct debit request goes out separately from the engagement letter, some clients are likely to put it off, and their fee notes end up being chased by hand.
- What happens to unpaid fee notes: a provider that only collects leaves your team chasing every client who isn't on a mandate.
- How it fits your ledger: payments should match to fee notes in Xero or QuickBooks without anyone unpicking a payout that has had fees taken off.
- What you're committing to: look for minimum terms and notice periods, and check how your existing mandates would move across.
The four providers compared
| Provider | Recurring direct debit | Cards | Chasing included | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adfin | Yes | Yes | Yes, by email, SMS and WhatsApp | 1% + 20p, percentage capped at £4 on bank payments and direct debit |
| GoCardless | Yes | No | No | 1% + 20p on Standard, capped at £4 |
| Stripe | Yes, Bacs | Yes | Reminder emails with Stripe Invoicing | 1.5% + 20p on standard UK cards; Bacs 1%, capped at £4 |
| QuickBooks Payments | No, Pay by Bank is a one-off payment | Yes | QuickBooks' invoice reminder emails | Pay by Bank 1% plus VAT, capped at £4; cards 1.2% + 20p |
Adfin
Adfin collects fees by direct debit, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank and bank transfer, and chases what's left unpaid. It charges 1% + 20p per successful payment, with the percentage capped at £4 on direct debit and bank payments. A £250 monthly fee costs £2.70 to collect, and every fee note between £400 and £2,000 costs the same £4.20. Direct debit amounts above £2,000 pick up an extra 0.3%, and premium cards, including business Visa and Mastercard and Amex, cost 2% + 20p. You won't pay a monthly fee or sign a contract, and failed collections cost nothing.
Fee notes reconcile automatically through two-way sync with Xero and QuickBooks, including part payments, and Adfin is an approved Xero payment partner. Unpaid fee notes are chased by email, SMS and WhatsApp from your own email domain and on your timetable, and Adfin's Customer Agents can offer an instalment plan or send a statement when a client goes quiet, within rules you approve. Payouts land every weekday at the full amount, and Adfin sends its own invoice for fees. Statements show Adfin's name by default; showing your practice name instead is £36 a month and has to be chosen at setup. Adfin collects in sterling only.
GoCardless
GoCardless takes payments straight from clients' bank accounts. The Standard plan is 1% + 20p, capped at £4, with 0.3% more on direct debits above £2,000. There are no card payments, so you'd need a second provider for any client who'd like to pay a one-off fee by card, and your unpaid fee notes aren't chased. The transaction fee is charged per submitted payment and deducted from your payout. Putting your practice name on statements is a £50 monthly add-on, and Success+ retries need the Advanced (1.25% + 20p) or Pro (1.4% + 20p) plan. Overseas clients can pay in other currencies.
Stripe
Stripe takes cards, wallets, pay by bank and Bacs direct debit, priced product by product. Standard UK cards cost 1.5% + 20p and premium cards, which include business cards, 2.8% + 20p. Its Bacs direct debit costs 1% (minimum 20p, maximum £4). Fee notes sent through Stripe Invoicing carry another 0.4% per paid invoice on the Starter plan, so a £1,200 quarterly fee paid by Bacs costs £4 plus £4.80. Fees are taken out of your payouts. Stripe is designed for businesses with developers, and for practices with clients paying in several currencies.
QuickBooks Payments
If you bill from QuickBooks, QuickBooks Payments adds a pay button to your invoices. Pay by Bank costs 1% plus VAT, capped at £4, and Pay by Card 1.2% + 20p excluding VAT, and it isn't available on QuickBooks Sole Trader. Pay by Bank is a one-off open banking payment, so there's no mandate collecting next month's fee automatically, and following up relies on QuickBooks' own invoice reminder emails. It suits you if you bill entirely from QuickBooks and don't need recurring collection.
If you bill from Xero, card and direct debit payments on your invoices run through a connected payment provider, so the choice is between providers like these.
How to get the mandate signed at engagement
Direct debit tends to work best when clients sign the mandate at the moment they agree your fee. When the request follows as a separate email a week later, the client has moved on to their own work, and fee notes that should have collected themselves get chased instead.
Adfin integrates with the proposal tool Socket, so the client signs the direct debit mandate in the same approval as the proposal and engagement letter, and it also integrates with Engager.app and Sodium. The fee is agreed, the mandate is in place and collections are set up from one client interaction. You don't need your own Service User Number or a bank direct debit facility to collect.
Moving clients who already pay by direct debit through another provider doesn't mean new paperwork for them. If you have 10 or more mandates, Adfin brings them over through the Bacs bulk change process. If you have fewer than 10, clients sign a new Adfin mandate.
How to choose
If you want fee collection, chasing and reconciliation in one place, with the mandate signed at engagement, start with Adfin. Monthly fees are collected by direct debit, one-off work can be paid by card or bank from the same link, and anything unpaid is chased without your team writing the emails.
Overseas clients paying in other currencies may be better served by GoCardless or Stripe, since Adfin collects in sterling only.
It's also worth pricing up what sits outside each quote. A provider without cards means a second processor for one-off work, a provider without chasing means someone in the practice following up fee notes, and net payouts mean time spent matching them back.
Common questions
Can QuickBooks collect fees by direct debit? QuickBooks Payments' Pay by Bank is a one-off open banking payment, not a direct debit mandate, so the client pays each fee themselves. For recurring collection you'd connect a direct debit provider such as Adfin to QuickBooks.
Can a client sign the direct debit mandate with the engagement letter? Yes, if your proposal software integrates with your payment provider. The client then approves the engagement terms and signs the mandate in one step.
What does it cost to collect a £1,200 quarterly fee? On Adfin, £4.20 by direct debit or bank payment, because the percentage is capped at £4. On a standard card it's £12.20.
Will clients see my practice name on their bank statement? On Adfin, clients see Adfin's name unless you choose your practice name when you set up, at £36 a month. GoCardless charges £50 a month for the same.
Do my clients have to re-sign if I move from another direct debit provider? Not if you have 10 or more mandates. Adfin moves them through the Bacs bulk change process; with fewer than 10, clients sign a new Adfin mandate.
Does Adfin work with Xero? Yes. Adfin is an approved Xero payment partner with two-way sync to Xero and QuickBooks, and it matches payments to fee notes, including part payments.
Sources
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
- Adfin - Accountants and bookkeepers (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/for/accountants-and-bookkeepers
- GoCardless - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://gocardless.com/pricing/
- GoCardless Support Centre - Pricing & Fees (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/21721571804188-Pricing-Fees
- Stripe - Pricing (UK) (accurate as of October 2026) https://stripe.com/gb/pricing
- Intuit QuickBooks - QuickBooks Payments (UK) (accurate as of October 2026) https://quickbooks.intuit.com/uk/payments/
