5 min read
4 ways direct debit saves you time and money
As an increasing number of Australian consumers embrace direct debit as a viable online payment solution, businesses on – and offline – need to start taking notice.
In 2013, 2.4 million direct debit payments were made on an average day in Australia, according to the Australian Payments Clearing Association. Records show that the popularity of direct debit is growing fast, with the volume of payments doubling since 2002.

These figures show Australian consumers are more than willing to pay their bills and invoices through, if only businesses would integrate this solution into their business fee collection model.
Here are four reasons your business should embrace this trend sooner rather than later.
Protect PCI compliance
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a framework designed to ensure businesses protect their customer’s payment data. By providing organisations with a global standardised framework, the PCI DSS helps businesses prevent, detect and react to security breaches.
For some companies, remaining compliant to the PCI DSS can seem like a big effort, taking significant time and resources away from other important business functions. Fortunately, direct debit is a reliable and safe payment solution, particularly when you access a cash flow management system through a fully PCI compliant provider.
Reduce debtor delays
By enabling your clients to sign up to a direct debit solution, you can significantly cut down on the amount of late or missed payments. This is because direct debits can be set up to automatically make payments to a chosen schedule. No longer are you relying on your clients to remember their monthly bill, but instead you receive funds on a reliable timeline.
In addition to making things easier for your clients, this process can have huge knock-on benefits for your business as you can confidently pay your own bills knowing that the necessary capital will safely be delivered into your account each month.
Mitigate the need to chase late payments
Direct debit payment solutions can increase efficiency and resourcing across many departments in your business. In particular, when clients sign up to automatic payments, there is no longer a need to chase up late or missing funds.
While in the past, your team may have spent a number of hours contacting clients and investing in debtor solutions, direct debit ensures your employees can concentrate on more important functions. Great news for time-poor financial controllers.
With this time freed up for alternative objectives, you may be surprised by how much more your business can get done. The additional time and resources could become an effective source of innovation and productivity.
Increase client retention
Client retention is a vital factor in securing regular, sustainable and reliable revenue for your business. By encouraging customers to remain loyal to your products or services, you can operate with the peace of mind that your available funds will continue to grow.
Direct debit is great way to encourage customer retention and attract recurring revenue as it creates a simple payment method that can easily be renewed and maintained over long periods of time.
By paying via direct debit, your customer simply confirms the initial authority and needs to take no further action to continue their payments – other than confirming the renewal when the subscription period is up. This means that direct debit solutions can minimise customer churn.
As consumers embrace the direct debit payment solution in increasing numbers, consider integrating this system into your business to discover the benefits for yourself.