Yes. Your clients are businesses, and a business can sign a direct debit mandate just as a consumer can, so you can collect invoices from them on the due date. It suits repeat temp clients best, because one mandate covers every weekly invoice even when the amount changes. For large one-off perm fees, check your payment limits first, and bank transfer is often the simpler route.
In this article
The short version
- Yes, business clients can sign a direct debit mandate.
- It suits repeat temp clients because one mandate covers weekly invoices that vary in amount.
- Perm fees may exceed default payment limits, and direct debits over £2,000 carry an extra 0.3%.
- Sign the mandate alongside your terms of business.
- A client can cancel via its bank, but the contract and unpaid invoices stand.
Which recruitment clients suit direct debit?
Direct debit is rare in recruitment, largely because perm fees are one-off invoices. Temp and contract work looks different. A client you supply every week gets an invoice every week, each for a different number of hours, and your workers are paid whether or not that invoice has been settled.
Those clients are the natural fit. Once the mandate is in place, each invoice is collected on its due date, for that invoice's amount, without the client's accounts team having to schedule a transfer. You can see what's coming in and when, which makes payroll week easier to plan.
Not every client will agree. Some larger businesses only pay suppliers in their own scheduled payment runs and may decline a mandate as a matter of policy. It's usually better to offer direct debit than to make it a condition of working together, and to give the clients who say no an easy alternative, such as a payment link on every invoice or a bank transfer to details that are theirs alone.
What about perm fees?
You can collect a perm fee by direct debit, but check your payment limits before you plan on it. On Adfin the default direct debit limit for a company is £5,000 per payment. Many perm fees are larger than that, so a £7,500 fee wouldn't be offered by direct debit until the limit is raised. Limits can be changed, so treat the default as a setting to review and not a guarantee that any amount will go through.
Cost matters too. The standard fee is 1% + 20p with the percentage capped at £4, and direct debits over £2,000 carry an extra 0.3%. A bank transfer of the same £7,500 fee costs £4.20 at most, which is why many agencies send perm invoices for bank transfer and keep direct debit for clients they invoice regularly.
How the mandate fits with your terms of business
Ask for the mandate at the same time the client signs your terms. The commercial conversation is already happening, and it's easier to agree how you'll be paid before the first invoice than after the third late one.
A short checklist for setting it up:
- Add a line to your terms saying repeat invoices are collected by direct debit on the due date.
- Send the mandate with the terms, so the client completes both together, online.
- Make sure the signer has authority over the company bank account, usually someone in finance rather than the hiring manager.
- Tell the client they'll get notice of each amount and date before every collection.
That notice is a rule of the scheme. The Bacs default is 10 working days unless another period is agreed. Adfin gives clients at least three working days' notice of each payment date and amount. Collected money is paid out to you within three working days of the collection date, in full, with fees invoiced separately. A mandate isn't tied to a fixed amount or date, so the same one covers this week's £860 and next week's £1,420.
You don't need your own Service User Number or a direct debit facility from your bank either, because collections run under your provider's.
What happens if a client cancels or disputes a collection
A client can cancel a mandate at any time by contacting its bank. Cancelling stops future collections, but it doesn't end your contract or cancel what they owe, so the open invoices still need paying by another route.
A failed collection, say because the account was short that day, is retried at no charge before the client is asked for another payment method. If a client queries an invoice, say a timesheet they think is wrong, pause collection for that client while you sort it out, and restart once the amount is agreed. Adfin lets you pause collection for one client without affecting anyone else, and its Customer Agents can follow up on anything outstanding over email, SMS or WhatsApp within the rules you approve.
Common questions
Do businesses sign the same direct debit mandate as consumers? Yes, it's the same Direct Debit Instruction. A business signs it for its own company bank account, through someone with authority over that account.
Can the amount change every week? Yes. Each collection under the same mandate uses the amount on that week's invoice, and the client gets notice of the amount and date first.
How much notice do clients need before a collection? The Bacs default is 10 working days unless a different period is agreed, and many providers agree a shorter period of two or three working days.
Can I collect a £10,000 perm fee by direct debit? Only if your direct debit limit is set high enough, and the default for companies is lower. An extra 0.3% also applies to direct debits over £2,000.
What if a client cancels the mandate? Future collections stop, but the contract and any unpaid invoices stand. Ask them to pay by another method and agree whether they'll set up a new mandate.
Do I need a Service User Number to take direct debit? Not if you collect through a payment provider that runs collections under its own facility. You only need your own if you set up direct debit directly with your bank.
Sources
- Bacs - Frequently asked questions (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.bacs.co.uk/resources/faqs/
- Adfin - Getting started with direct debits (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.adfin.com/en/articles/10192945-getting-started-with-direct-debits
- Adfin - Managing payment limits for each payment method (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.adfin.com/en/articles/10840569-managing-payment-limits-for-each-payment-method
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
