Sage doesn't collect money itself. Its invoice payments feature connects to Stripe and PayPal for cards and to GoCardless for direct debit, adds a pay now button to your invoices and matches the payments back. If you want chasing, card payments and direct debit from one provider, you'll be running a separate payment platform alongside Sage, and it's worth checking how payments get back into your books before you choose.
In this article
The short version
- Sage doesn't collect money itself: Stripe and PayPal handle cards, GoCardless handles direct debit
- GoCardless in Sage collects and reconciles, but doesn't take cards or chase
- Sage's built-in reminders go by email only
- Adfin doesn't integrate with Sage; you can upload invoices but must record payments in Sage yourself
- Xero and QuickBooks both sync both ways with Adfin
What Sage offers for getting paid
Sage sells several accounting products, and the payment options differ between them, so start by checking which one you're on.
For Sage Accounting and Sage 50 Accounts, the route is Sage's invoice payments feature. Once it's switched on, your invoices carry a pay now button and your customer can pay online. The providers behind it are Stripe and PayPal for card payments and GoCardless for direct debit, and Sage matches the payments to your invoices and accounts for the provider's fees. Sage 50's pages also mention automatic payment reminders, and in Sage Accounting you can set up automatic reminders that Sage's assistant drafts for you to review and send.
For Sage 200 and Sage Intacct, which are aimed at larger businesses, ask Sage or your reseller which payment connections apply to your version before you plan around them.
On cost, Sage itself doesn't charge per transaction. You pay the provider's fees on top of your Sage subscription, and Sage says extra charges may apply for using the payment providers.
Direct debit in Sage through GoCardless
Direct debit in Sage means GoCardless. You connect a GoCardless account, your customer signs a mandate once, and each invoice is collected automatically and reconciled in Sage. In Sage 50, you can set the charge date at account level, either on the invoice due date or up to 30 days before it.
That covers the collection. Around it, there are gaps worth knowing before you move customers across:
- GoCardless's fee applies to every collection you submit, successful or not.
- It takes its fees out before paying you, so each payout is a net lump sum covering several invoices.
- It doesn't take card payments, so a customer who wants to pay a one-off invoice by card needs Stripe or PayPal as well.
- It doesn't chase customers who haven't signed a mandate or whose payment failed.
- Showing your own business name on customers' bank statements costs £50 a month.
None of that stops it working. It does mean that a Sage setup with direct debit, cards and chasing beyond email tends to involve two or three separate providers, each with its own fees and payouts to reconcile.
What Sage leaves to you
Sage's built-in reminders go by email. They'll nudge a customer who has forgotten, but they won't switch to SMS or WhatsApp, adapt to how a particular customer tends to pay, or follow up a mandate your customer hasn't signed. Chasing a customer who has gone quiet is still a job for someone in your team.
Failed direct debits are another job left to you. When a collection bounces, someone has to notice, decide whether to retry, and ask the customer for another way to pay.
A separate payment platform alongside Sage
Some businesses keep Sage as the ledger and run collection and chasing in a separate payment platform. If you do, check first how payments will get back into Sage, because that's the part that creates work.
Adfin doesn't integrate with Sage. Its two-way sync is with Xero and QuickBooks. You can still use Adfin alongside Sage by uploading invoices as PDFs or CSV and Excel exports, and Adfin will collect them by direct debit, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank or bank transfer, chase overdue invoices by email, SMS or WhatsApp, and retry failed direct debits for free. But without a sync, the payments have to be recorded in Sage by your team, usually from the bank feed. Adfin pays out gross every weekday with its fee invoiced separately, so each payout matches the payments behind it, which makes that matching easier.
Whether that trade is worth it depends on your volumes. For a handful of invoices a month, Sage's own route may be enough. If chasing and failed payments are taking real time, a platform with AI-led chasing can take that off your team, and if you're already thinking of moving ledger, Xero and QuickBooks both connect to Adfin directly.
Common questions
Does Sage collect payments itself? No. Sage connects to Stripe and PayPal for cards and GoCardless for direct debit, and those providers collect the money.
Can I take direct debit in Sage 50? Yes, through GoCardless. Your customer signs a mandate once, and each invoice is collected and reconciled in Sage 50 automatically.
Does Sage chase unpaid invoices? Sage can send automatic email reminders. Following up unsigned mandates and failed direct debits, or chasing by SMS and WhatsApp, needs another tool or someone in your team.
Does Adfin integrate with Sage? No. Adfin syncs both ways with Xero and QuickBooks. You can upload invoices from Sage into Adfin, but payments then need recording in Sage yourself.
What does it cost to take payments in Sage? Sage doesn't charge per transaction. You pay the provider's fees, such as GoCardless for direct debit or Stripe for cards, on top of your Sage subscription.
Can I take card payments and direct debit on the same Sage invoice? Only by connecting two providers, because GoCardless doesn't take cards. Stripe or PayPal handles the card side.
Sources
- Sage - Integrated payment solutions (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.sage.com/en-gb/integrated-payment-solutions/
- Sage - Sage 50 Accounts invoice payments (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.sage.com/en-gb/products/sage-50-accounts/features/invoice-payments/
- GoCardless Support Centre - GoCardless for Sage FAQs (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.gocardless.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115005481429-GoCardless-for-Sage-FAQs
- GoCardless - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://gocardless.com/pricing/
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
