Yes. Some platforms send the invoice, collect by direct debit or card, chase what's unpaid and reconcile it to your accounts in one place, and Adfin is one of them. Plenty of products that call themselves all-in-one cover part of that and pass the rest to a partner, so it's worth checking four things before you sign up.
In this article
The short version
- Yes: some platforms handle invoices, direct debit, cards, chasing and reconciliation in one place.
- Test any all-in-one claim on four things: invoices, collection, chasing and reconciliation.
- Accounting software usually passes collection to a provider; payment providers usually don't chase.
- Ask whose name customers see on statements and who holds the mandate.
- Adfin works alongside Xero or QuickBooks and covers all four.
Four tests for an all-in-one claim
"All-in-one" is on almost every payments website, so it doesn't tell you much on its own. Four questions do, and you can answer each from a vendor's own pages or a demo:
- Does it handle the invoice? That can mean creating it, or importing it from your accounting software, as long as the payment request goes out with the right amount and reference without you retyping anything.
- Does it collect the money itself, by direct debit and card, or does a named partner do one of those?
- Does it chase what's unpaid, on more than email, and on a schedule you control?
- Does every payment reconcile back to the right invoice in your accounts, including part payments and payments with a wrong or missing reference?
A product that passes all four lets you run getting paid from one place. One that passes two or three can still be useful, but you'll be filling the gap yourself.
Where most setups split the job
Most businesses end up with three kinds of tool, each covering a different part.
Accounting software raises the invoice and records the payment, but doesn't usually collect it. Xero, for example, lets customers pay invoices by card or direct debit through GoCardless or Stripe, and sends email reminders, but the collection itself runs through those providers.
Payment providers collect, but chasing is limited or left to you. GoCardless collects by direct debit and bank payment, and doesn't take cards, send reminders or add late fees. Stripe takes cards and direct debit and takes its fees out of each payout before paying you. Adding cards to GoCardless, or chasing by SMS and WhatsApp to either of them, means another supplier.
Credit control tools chase but mostly don't collect. They read your invoices from your accounting software and send reminders with a payment link, but most don't run their own direct debit, so a customer on a mandate is still collected somewhere else.
Each tool can do its own part well. The extra work comes where they meet: a failed direct debit that the chasing tool doesn't hear about, a card payment that lands in a different payout from the direct debits, two sets of fees and two sets of records to reconcile at month end.
Questions to ask before you move
When a platform resells part of the job, your customer usually notices before you do, on their bank statement or when something goes wrong. Ask:
- Whose name will my customers see on their bank statement?
- Who holds the direct debit mandate, and whose terms govern it?
- If a collection fails or a mandate is cancelled, who is told, and what happens next?
- Whose support team do I call when a payment goes wrong?
- Is there a minimum term or exit fee, and how would I move my mandates if I left?
And ask about moving in. If you already collect by direct debit, check whether your existing mandates can be transferred without customers signing again. Through the Bacs bulk change process they can, though each provider sets its own minimum number of mandates for it.
How Adfin covers it
Adfin works alongside Xero or QuickBooks rather than replacing them, and takes care of getting paid:
- Invoices: import them from Xero or QuickBooks, upload PDFs, CSVs or spreadsheets, or create them in your own branding.
- Collection: direct debit, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank and bank transfer, with payment links sent by email, SMS or WhatsApp. Customers can pay part of an invoice or spread it over instalments.
- Chasing: unlimited reminders over email, SMS and WhatsApp, sent from your own email domain on the schedule you set. Customers who haven't signed their direct debit mandate are chased to sign it, and offered another way to pay in the meantime.
- Reconciliation: every payment is matched to its invoice, including part payments and missing references, with two-way sync to Xero and QuickBooks.
Because one system holds the invoice, the mandate and the reminders, a failed direct debit doesn't drop through a gap. Adfin retries it for free and, if it still doesn't go through, asks the customer to pay another way. Its Customer Agents choose the timing and channel of each follow-up for each customer within rules you approve, and can add statutory late fees to overdue business invoices or offer an instalment plan where you've allowed it.
Pricing is per successful payment: 1% + 20p, with the percentage capped at £4 on direct debit and bank payments. There's no monthly fee, no contract and no charge for failed payments, and payouts arrive in full every weekday with the fee invoiced separately. Accountancy practices using Socket can have the direct debit mandate signed with the proposal.
Adfin works in sterling only, so if you invoice in other currencies you'd keep a separate provider for those.
Common questions
Can one platform do invoicing, direct debit and card payments? Yes. Adfin handles invoices, collects by direct debit, card and bank payment, chases what's unpaid and reconciles to Xero or QuickBooks in one place.
Does Xero collect direct debit itself? No. Xero offers direct debit through GoCardless or Stripe, so a separate provider collects the payment.
Does GoCardless take card payments? No. GoCardless collects by direct debit and bank payment only, so card payments need another provider.
Do I have to replace my accounting software to use an all-in-one payments platform? No. Adfin works alongside Xero or QuickBooks, importing invoices and syncing payments back in both directions.
How can I tell if a platform resells its payments? Ask whose name your customers will see on their bank statement and who holds the direct debit mandate. A named partner in either answer means part of the job is done elsewhere.
Will my customers need to sign a new direct debit mandate if I move? Not if your mandates move through the Bacs bulk change process. Adfin uses it for 10 or more mandates; with fewer, customers sign a new mandate online.
Sources
- Xero - Online invoice payments (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.xero.com/uk/campaign/online-invoice-payments/
- GoCardless - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://gocardless.com/pricing/
- Stripe - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://stripe.com/gb/pricing
- Adfin - Accept payments (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/accept-payments
- Adfin - Credit control (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/credit-control
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
