--- title: "Managing direct debits" description: "See, track and cancel your customers' direct debit agreements in the Direct debits area—request new ones, follow scheduled and failed debits, and download the signed agreement." lastModified: "2026-06-13" lang: "en" wordCount: 1075 url: https://qualyhq.com/training/payments/managing-direct-debits --- ## Site navigation - [For schools](/international-education/for-schools.md) — For international education schools - [For agents](/international-education/for-education-agents.md) — For international education agents - [Explore](/training.md) — Watch videos on how to use Qualy - [About](/about.md) — Learn about Qualy's mission and values - [Pricing](/pricing) - [5-min demo](/demo.md) - [Login](https://dashboard.qualyhq.com) # Managing direct debits > Everything that happens after a customer authorises automatic payments. ## At a glance - **Intended for:** Everyone - **Available in:** All plans - **Reading time:** 4 minutes - **Last updated:** 31st May 2026 ## Quick summary The Direct debits area lists every customer with an active direct debit agreement and lets you manage it. You can request a new direct debit (share a link or QR code, and choose whether it covers all future payments or splits one payment into instalments), follow scheduled, retrying, failed and successful debits, open a customer's direct debit history, download the signed agreement as a PDF, and cancel an agreement to stop further automatic payments. ## Overview Once a customer authorises a **direct debit**, the **Direct debits** area is where you watch it work—and step in if you need to. It lists every customer with an active agreement and gives you the tools to request, track, and cancel them. ## Requesting a direct debit Choose **"Request direct debit"** to invite a customer to set one up: 1. Share the **direct debit request link**, or show a **QR code** to scan 2. Choose the **direct debit method** 3. Choose the **payment type**: ### All future payments Every payment the customer owes is debited automatically, and they're shown the list of payments it covers. Best for an ongoing plan. ### One payment to many installments The richer option: it lets the customer turn a single payment into **their own direct-debit payment plan**. In their portal, the customer chooses **how often they'd like to pay**—**weekly**, **every 2 weeks**, or **monthly**—and Qualy splits the amount into automatic debits on that schedule, finishing before the due date. If the schedule they pick doesn't leave enough time before the due date, Qualy prompts them to choose a more frequent option. Great for letting a customer spread one amount in a way that suits them, collected automatically. ## Tracking what's happening Direct debits are grouped so you can see the state at a glance: - **Scheduled** — upcoming debits (each shows when it's expected, e.g. today/tomorrow, or "delayed") - **In bank processing** — on their way through the bank - **Retrying** — a failed attempt being retried automatically - **Failed & impossible to retry** — these won't be attempted again - **Successful** — collected A failed debit usually means **insufficient funds** or the **bank rejected** it. Qualy retries automatically for a while before marking it as failed and impossible to retry. ## Managing one agreement Open a customer's agreement to: - **Manage direct debit** — see its details, amounts paid/pending/overdue, and next due date - **Direct debit history** — a full timeline of every event - **Download direct debit agreement** — the signed PDF, including the digital signature and the date/IP it was signed from - **Cancel direct debit agreement** — stop all further automatic payments Cancelling an agreement stops **all** future automatic debits for that customer. If you only want to skip one payment, handle that payment individually instead of cancelling the whole agreement. Pair a direct debit set to **all future payments** with a payment plan, and every instalment collects itself—you only step in if a debit fails. ## Frequently asked questions ### Where do I see all my direct debits? In the Direct debits area. It lists the customers who have an active direct debit agreement, with their next due date and how much is paid, pending and overdue. If no one has set one up yet, it simply shows that there are no active direct debits. ### How do I request a direct debit from a customer? Choose 'Request direct debit'. You share a direct debit request link (or a QR code to scan), pick the direct debit method, and choose the payment type—'All future payments' (every payment is debited automatically and the customer sees the list), or 'One payment to many installments' (let the customer pay a single payment in several smaller debits, e.g. weekly). ### What's the difference between 'all future payments' and 'one payment to many installments'? 'All future payments' sets up automatic debiting for everything the customer owes going forward. 'One payment to many installments' lets the customer turn a single payment into their own direct-debit payment plan: in their portal they choose how often to pay (weekly, every 2 weeks, or monthly) and Qualy splits the amount into automatic debits on that schedule, finishing before the due date. It's a flexible, customer-chosen instalment plan collected automatically. ### Can a customer set up their own instalment schedule? Yes—with 'one payment to many installments', the customer builds the schedule themselves in their portal. They're asked how often they'd like to pay (weekly, every 2 weeks, or monthly), and Qualy works out the instalments and debits them automatically. If there isn't enough time before the due date for the schedule they picked, Qualy lets them know so they can choose a more frequent option. ### A direct debit failed—what does that mean and what happens? It usually means the customer had insufficient funds or their bank rejected the transaction. Qualy retries failed direct debit transactions automatically for a while; if they still don't go through, they're marked as failed and impossible to retry, and you'd arrange another way to collect. ### Can I see the history of a customer's direct debit? Yes. Open the agreement and choose 'Direct debit history' to see every event—scheduled, attempted, retried, succeeded or failed—on a timeline. ### Can I get a copy of what the customer agreed to? Yes. Each agreement has a 'Download direct debit agreement' option that opens the signed agreement as a PDF, including the digital signature and the date and IP address it was signed from. ### How do I stop a customer's automatic payments? Open the agreement and choose 'Cancel direct debit agreement'. This cancels it and stops any further automatic payments. (The customer can also cancel from their side.) ### What do the different sections mean? They group debits by where they are: scheduled (upcoming), in bank processing, retrying (a failed attempt being retried), failed and impossible to retry, and successful. It's an at-a-glance view of what's collected and what needs attention. ### When will a scheduled debit actually be taken? Each scheduled debit shows its expected timing—often today/tomorrow by end of day, or marked as delayed—so you can tell a customer when to expect it to leave their account. ## Prefer doing this via the Qualy API? Head over to our developer docs for everything you need—endpoints, examples, and simple how-tos. 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