Data Migration: Sync GoCardless Direct Debit Mandate Data to Business Central

Introduction

For customers already using GoCardless and implementing Bluefort’s GoCardless for Dynamics 365 Business Central – TAPP, a direct debit mandate synchronization between GoCardless and Business Central is necessary to continue using existing mandates through TAPP. This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to perform this data synchronization and explains the criteria used to match GoCardless’ mandates with Business Central mandates.

Pre-Requisites

• [Optional] An Export of the Direct Debit Mandates List from GoCardless. This can be retrieved by potentially asking GoCardless for assistance with providing you this data.
• GCL Customer Sync procedure completed – as described in this article, the customer synchronization between GoCardless and Business Central should be completed.

Process Overview

Syncing Direct Debit Mandates between GoCardless and Business Central can be done via two different approaches as follows;

• Built-In Approach : TAPP has in-built processes that syncs all mandates from GoCardless to Business Central as sync records to be processed in a syncronization batch process.
• Template Approach : Synchronizing mandates data from GoCardless to Business Central is done through the use of Configuration Packages in Business Central where the exported GoCardless mandates data is transferred to a template provided by TAPP (downloadable at the end of the article) and imported in Business Central to be used in a Synchronisation batch process.

N.B. Upon installing TAPP and doing the mandates synchronization for the first time, for the Initial Migration, if the number of mandates to sync exceeds 1.5k, it is suggested to use the template approach.

Built-In Approach

The built-in approach within TAPP works by retrieving all direct debit mandates directly from GoCardless and import them as GoCardless Events and eventually DCL Direct Debit Mandate Sync records in Business Central ready for processing without the need to utilize templates.

Through the built-in approach, TAPP provides 2 processing options for mandate synchronization;

• Initial Migration: where all existing GCL Mandates are brought into Business Central from GoCardless. This option is run when Migration Mode is switched on within the GoCardless Parameters page.
• Daily Synchronization: where newly created and updated mandates within GoCardless are brought into Business Central to ensure data is kept in sync between both platforms. This option is run when Migration Mode is switched off within the GoCardless Parameters page.

Follow the steps below to carry out the data synchronization using the built-in approach.

1. Navigate to the GoCardless Migration Run page in Business Central
2. Select Create New DDM Migration – this will initiate the process to retrieve the mandates from GoCardless depending on whether TAPP is in Migration Mode as previously explained in this section. Take note of the Migration Run No. generated
3. Once the process finishes, the number of mandates retrieved is shown accordingly on the same page.
4. Select Related GCL Events to navigate to the imported mandate events from GoCardless.
5. From within the GoCardless Events screen, select Process DDM Events to transfer the imported mandate events as synchronization records ready to be processed.
6. Navigate to the GoCardless DDM Sync page and filter with the Migration Run No. (generated in step 2 above)
7. Run the Suggest Action batch job from the action available in the menu. If this is the first-time synchronization, it is suggested that this job be run for all records. This batch job loops all the records and suggests what action should be taken for this mandate (see more info. in the Suggested Actions section within this article.)
8. Select whether the job should be run now or at a scheduled time according to the job queue setup.
9. The next step is to run the Accept Suggest Actions to accept the actions.
10. The final step is to process all the actions which have been accepted. Run the Process Suggest Actions to process and initiate the matching criteria for the records. The mandate records in Business Central will be created according to the suggested action previously on the sync record.

Once the process is completed, mandates are created in the standard Business Central Direct Debit Mandate table and accessible via the customer card as per standard procedure.

Template Approach

Upon installing TAPP, a configuration package with code DDM-SYNC and including one table (BFTGCLDDMSync) is automatically created.

Follow the steps below to carry out the data synchronization.

1. Navigate to the Configuration Packages page in Business Central and locate the package named DDM-SYNC
2. As per standard Business Central procedure, export the excel template. The template should include 5 columns as follows.

Column Name	Definition
Entry No.	The Synchronization Record Entry No. This should be unique and should have increments of 10 or more. If synchronization records already exist, the Line No. should be a continuation from the last Entry No.
Migration Run No.	For Initial Migration, this is suggested to be INITAL-SYNC
GCL Mandate Status	The GoCardless Direct Debit Mandate Status
GCL DDM ID	The GoCardless Direct Debit Mandate ID
GCL Customer ID	The GoCardless Direct Debit Mandate Customer ID
GCL Customer Bank Account	The GoCardless Direct Debit Mandate Customer Bank Account ID
GCL Event ID	Same value assigned to the Migration Run No.
GCL Event	Set the value to ‘Migration‘
Migration	Set the value to ‘true‘

3. Transfer the data from the GoCardless mandates list export to the template from the configuration package, following the data mapping explained in the table above.
4. Import the template into Business Central as per standard procedure.
5. Navigate to the GCL DDM Sync page.
6. Run the Suggest Action batch job from the action available in the menu. If this is the first-time synchronization, it is suggested that this job be run for all records. This batch job loops all the records and suggests what action should be taken for this mandate (see more info. in the Suggested Actions section within this article.)
7. Select whether the job should be run now or at a scheduled time according to the job queue setup.
8. The next step is to run the Accept Suggest Actions to accept the actions.
9. The final step is to process all the actions which have been accepted. Run the Process Suggest Actions to process and initiate the matching criteria for the records. The mandate records in Business Central will be created according to the suggested action previously on the sync record.

Once the process is completed, mandates are created in the standard Business Central Direct Debit Mandate table and accessible via the customer card as per standard procedure.

Suggested Actions

The synchronization process attempts to match Business Central Direct Debit Mandates with GoCardless Mandates using the process below;

1. Attempt to find a Busines Central Customer using the GCL Customer ID
2. Attempt to find an already existing Direct Debit Mandate in Business Central using the GCL DDM ID.
3. If the mandate is found within Business Central, confirm that the related Customer Bank Account* in BC has the same Customer Bank Account within GCL, taking the value from GCL Customer Bank Account. If not, update the Business Central Customer Bank Account with the GCL Customer Bank Account in order to maintain data in sync between the two platforms.
4. If the mandate is found (step 2 above) and is of the found customer (step 1 above), the suggested action is set to Update and Cust-DDM Match is set to true.
5. If the mandate is not found (step 2 above) and the customer is found (step 1 above), the suggested action is set to New and Cust-DDM Match is set to true. If the Customer Bank Account is not found (step 3 above), then create the Customer Bank Account using GoCardless details.
6. If both the mandate and the customer are not found, then the suggested action is set to None (since the process did not even find a Business Central customer to create the mandate for) and the Cust-DDM Match is set to false.
7. If the customer is not found but the mandate is found (possibly also under a different or duplicate Business Central customer), the suggested action is set to None (since the process did not identify a proper Business Central customer to set the mandate for).

When the suggested action is None , this usually happens when the system finds inconsistent data and therefore allows the user to manually decide on how to proceed for that sync record.

*standard Business Central requires a Customer Bank Account for the creation of a Direct Debit Mandate