Sign SEPA direct debit mandates

A SEPA direct debit can only be collected with a mandate signed by the customer. Instead of printing the form, waiting for the scan and typing the mandate, you can let the customer sign it online with eYssen Sign: the customer enters the account to debit, confirms with a one-time code and signs on screen. The mandate is then created as valid, ready for the next debit order, with the signed document and the evidence of the signature attached.

Note

The feature is provided by the SEPA Mandate Online Signature module, which needs the eYssen Sign and Account Banking SEPA Direct Debit modules. Install it from the Apps menu.

Prerequisites

  • The SEPA Creditor Identifier of the company is set in Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings (see SEPA identifiers). It is printed on the mandate. Even if you use one identifier per payment mode, the company needs one to send a mandate; otherwise sending stops with Set the SEPA creditor identifier of … first.

  • The customer has an email address (or a contact with an email address, which is used when the customer has none). The one-time code and the link are sent there.

  • To send the code by text message, the mobile number of the customer must be set and your database needs SMS credits (see two-factor authentication).

  • The address of your company is printed on the mandate as the address of the creditor: check that it is filled in.

Send a mandate to a customer

  1. Open the contact of the customer, click the Actions (gear) menu, and select Send SEPA Mandate for Signature. The action is available to users who can create invoices.

  2. Check the Customer and, in a multi-company database, the Company that will collect the debits.

  3. Select the Scheme: Basic (CORE) or Enterprise (B2B), and the Type: Recurrent or One-Off, as for a manual mandate. A note reminds you that a B2B mandate must also be confirmed by the customer to their own bank before the first debit.

  4. In One-time Code, select how the customer receives the code that confirms their identity: Email, SMS or Email & SMS.

  5. Click Send.

screenshot: accounting-sepa-mandate-sign-wizard
menu
Contacts ‣ (a customer) ‣ Actions ‣ Send SEPA Mandate for Signature
shows
The "Send SEPA Mandate for Signature" dialog with the customer, the company, the Scheme "Basic (CORE)", the Type "Recurrent" and the One-time Code "Email", with the Send button.
highlight
The Scheme, Type and One-time Code fields.
data
Demo customer with an email address, company with a SEPA creditor identifier.
module
sign_sepa_mandate
notes
English UI, light theme, crop to the dialog.

Odoo reserves the mandate reference, generates a one-page mandate form in the language of the customer (creditor, creditor identifier, mandate reference, scheme text, type of payment) and sends the signature request. The signature request opens on screen; it is also listed under eYssen Sign ‣ Sign Requests, with the reference SEPA mandate followed by the mandate reference.

What the customer does

The customer receives an email with a link to the mandate and:

  1. fills in their name, address, postal code, city, country, the Account number (IBAN), the BIC (optional), the place and the date. The IBAN is checked before the signature: an invalid number is refused with the message The IBAN … is not valid. Please check it.;

  2. enters the six-digit code received by email and/or SMS. The code is valid for 10 minutes and the signer has three attempts;

  3. signs on screen.

Customers with a portal account can also sign without waiting for an email: on their portal home page, the Direct debit tile (Sign a SEPA direct debit mandate to pay by bank debit) opens the signing page, at the address /my/sepa_mandate. Add ?scheme=B2B to the address to offer a business (B2B) mandate. The portal mandate is recurrent, for the current company, and the customer has to sign in first. A request that is still open is reused instead of creating a new one.

Result and evidence

When the customer has signed, the following is done automatically:

  • the customer’s bank account is found by IBAN, or created (with the bank of the BIC when given);

  • a mandate is created and validated, in the state Valid, with the reference, scheme and type of the request. The Date of Signature of the Mandate is the date of the signature in the time zone of the customer (or of your company when the customer has none), and the Sequence Type for Next Debit of a recurrent mandate is First;

  • the signed PDF is stored as the Scan of the Mandate and attached to the mandate;

  • an evidence file named <mandate reference>_evidence.json is attached to the mandate;

  • a message in the chatter of the mandate confirms the online signature.

The mandate form has an Online Signature field that opens the signature request. On the request, the SEPA Mandate tab shows the debtor, creditor, reference, scheme, type and the mandate created, and Verify Document checks the audit log and the document hash again (see Audit & verification).

The evidence file (JSON) contains:

  • the request, the mandate reference, the creditor and its creditor identifier, the debtor, the scheme and the type;

  • how the signer was identified (one-time code by email, SMS or both);

  • for each signer: name, email, signature time in UTC, IP address and whether the code was verified;

  • the SHA-256 hash of the signed document;

  • the complete audit log with the hash of each entry, and whether the hash chain is valid.

Warning

Whether a simple electronic signature confirmed by a one-time code is enough for your bank, and as evidence if a customer claims a refund of a debit they did not authorise (possible for 13 months), has to be confirmed with your bank and your advisers. Keep the signed PDF and the evidence file for as long as you collect with the mandate.

Then use the mandate

The mandate is proposed on the customer’s invoices whose payment mode is SEPA Direct Debit for customers, so the customer is collected with the next debit order. With the Subscriptions - SEPA Direct Debit module, it is also proposed on the customer’s new subscription contracts.

See also