Foreword
Prior to any generation of Direct Debit processes, the organisation is required to have spoken to their BACS liaison officer from their sponsoring bank. Please note that Direct Debit authorisation from BACS is a time-consuming process and it is advised that BACS accreditation is obtained before any direct debit training is conducted by a GANTNER consultant.
An organisation requires the following information before any transmission is sent to BACS:
A BACS approved SUN ‘Service User Number’ (Historically known as an OIN)
A BACS certified Direct Debit Instruction (DDI) document
AUDDIS accreditation is beneficial not required
Bacstel-IP transmission software. The BACS file generated is a BACS standard layout (Ensure your transmission software has any appropriate templates associated. Please ask your consultant for a layout file if required)
The capability to access Paymentservices.bacs.co.uk, and the ability to extract and save AUDDIS, ARUDD, & ADDACS reports in an .XML format.
The ability to save files in an appropriate location that ReCreateX can communicate with.
The Organisations preferred collection date(s) of Direct Debits
A proposed AUDDIS cut-off date.
Will an appropriate pro rata fee be applicable at POS?
Approved application process (Is on-line Paperless Direct Debit required?)
Operational considerations pertaining to Holds / Freeze of Direct Debit
Operational processes for dealing with rejections
Appropriate procedures for dealing with manual cancellations
BACS: Bankers' Automated Clearing Services
AUDDIS: Automatic Direct Debit Information Service
ARUDD: Automatic Rejection of Unpaid Direct Debit
ADDACS: Automatic Direct Debit Amendment and Cancellation Service
AUDDIS Migration
AUDDIS (Automated Direct Debit Instruction Service) enables organisations to setup new Direct Debit Instructions (DDI) at their customers’ bank electronically instead of in paper format. Prior to AUDDIS an organisation may have been posting DDI’s to BACS as per their SUN requirements. If an organisation currently posts DDI and apply to BACS for AUDDIS status, they must go through a migration process.
Once the customer has applied for AUDDIS, he will be issued a migration date (this may take some time dependant on bank). Until the migration date, any new DDI’s should still be sent to the bank as per usual.
Currently there are two working codes associated to AUDDIS:
0N – a new instruction
0C – cancellation of an instruction
There is a third code associated to AUDDIS which will only be requested through the migration process.
0S – A migration from paper to electronic format.
Warnung
Once the migration date is reached the organisation MUST supply an AUDDIS 0S file.
BACS require a line per member to whom they have a paper direct debit instruction lodged.
Process to generate AUDDIS 0S file
Generate a backup of the production database.
Restore the backup into a test environment.
SQL Work**Reset the AUDDIS value within the test database and run AUDDIS**.
This will generate a full AUDDIS file with everybody as a 0N in the AUDDIS text file.
Run a find&replace and replace the 0N with a 0S. This will be the migration file for transmission to BACS.
BACS will match the details on the transmission file to the paper DDI’s they hold.
Warnung
Whilst this processing is going ahead no AUDDIS transmissions should be sent to BACS. And no new DD members should be added to the database. This is due to the potential of errors between the migration file and the lodged paper instructions.
As the database has already been backed up, if there is a requirement for any business to still add customer details and accept pro-rata payments, it is possible to manipulate the test environment, and still allow the organisation to accept new DD customers.
Once BACS have verified the data the organisation will be given a live date. On this date all new members (those without a lodged DDI) should be included as 0N’s and transmitted to BACS. All subsequent transmissions will be handled as per normal.