GoCardless fees & costs: which fee types are there?
In the items of a payout, GoCardless reports different fee types. The actual rates depend on your plan, the payment scheme and the country – your GoCardless dashboard is always authoritative. For accounting, the type of item is what counts:
GoCardless fee
The transaction fee per collected direct debit. It is not debited but deducted directly from the payout – so it never appears on the bank account.
Partner fee (app fee)
If you use GoCardless through a partner app (e.g. billing or membership software), that app can retain its fee via GoCardless. It comes from a different company than GoCardless – with its own VAT treatment.
Surcharge fee
Additional fees GoCardless reports for certain events, such as failed debits – depending on plan and country.
Fee refund
If a debit fails or a payment is charged back, GoCardless may refund the fee. The item appears with the opposite sign and is booked mirrored.
Each of these fees reduces your payout but is a separate expense. Distinguish at least between GoCardless fees and partner fees – because the supplier is different and the tax classification can differ.
The net trap with GoCardless payouts
The bank statement only shows the payout. Whoever books that total as revenue loses three times: revenue is too low, the expense is missing, and the VAT on the fees is never considered. The right way: every payment gross, every fee individually, the payout as a pure money transfer.
1,047.10 € is paid out. If finHero books all items individually, exactly this amount ends up on the cash-in-transit account – and the GoCardless account at zero.
Booking example: GoCardless fees in SKR04
An example payout: ten customers pay 119.00 € each by direct debit. GoCardless retains 12.00 € in fees, the partner app 11.90 € (booked here to a separate account 6856), one direct debit comes back as a chargeback. Then GoCardless pays out the rest. For readability the payments are summarised – in the export finHero books every payment and every fee individually with invoice number.
| Amount € | Account | Contra account | Booking text |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.190,00 | 1816 | 10000 | GoCardless payments 10 × 119.00 € |
| 12,00 | 6855 | 1816 | GoCardless fees on payments |
| 11,90 | 6856 | 1816 | Partner fees (app fee) |
| 119,00 | 10000 | 1816 | Chargeback · RE-1198 |
| 1.047,10 | 1467 | 1816 | Payout to bank account |
The accounts at a glance – common SKR04 standard accounts as an example. Which accounts and booking keys you actually use is something to agree with your tax firm:
| Transaction | Debit | Credit | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer payments (direct debit) | 1816 GoCardless | 10000 debtor | 1,190.00 € |
| GoCardless fees | 6855 fees | 1816 GoCardless | 12.00 € |
| Partner fees (app fee) | 6856 partner fees | 1816 GoCardless | 11.90 € |
| Chargeback | 10000 debtor | 1816 GoCardless | 119.00 € |
| Payout to bank account | 1467 cash in transit | 1816 GoCardless | 1,047.10 € |
The GoCardless account (1816) represents your balance at GoCardless and nets to zero per payout. The fees remain visible as a separate expense instead of silently shrinking revenue. Every fee entry carries the same invoice number as its payment – how it gets there is explained in Invoice number & Belegfeld 1.
Booking partner fees (app fees) separately
Partner fees do not come from GoCardless but from the app through which you use GoCardless. That is why you can separate them from the GoCardless fee account in finHero with one checkbox ("Book partner fees separately"):
- Separate account: all app-fee items (charge and refund) go to the account you store for partner fees under accounting.
- Separate booking key: optionally a separate BU key for the partner fee, independent of the key for GoCardless fees – or none.
- Safe fallback: if the checkbox is ticked but no account is stored, finHero books to the general fee account and notes this in the log instead of aborting the export.
The booking text reads "Partnergebühr (App Fee) zu Zahlung (…)" or "Partnergebühren-Erstattung", so the tax firm recognises the items immediately.
VAT on GoCardless fees
GoCardless can report VAT on a fee item (depending on the country and the entity charging you the fee). finHero books the fee gross with your fee booking key – and notes the tax amount reported by GoCardless on the entry as additional information "USt auf Gebühr". That way your tax firm sees at a glance whether and how much tax is included in the fee.
finHero does not take the tax treatment itself off your hands – it depends on which GoCardless entity charges you the fee and how your tax firm classifies payment services. So clarify with your tax advisor:
- Does a foreign GoCardless entity bill you, so that the reverse-charge mechanism (§ 13b UStG in Germany) has to be checked?
- Which booking key belongs on the GoCardless fees – and a different one on the partner fees?
- Are partner fees (app fees) payment services or software services with their own VAT?
- How are fee refunds after chargebacks treated?
The answers end up in two settings: the booking key for the fee account and – if desired – account and key for partner fees. Once stored, finHero applies them to every export.
Reconciling the payout: GoCardless account and cash-in-transit account at zero
Whether the fee entries are right is shown by the GoCardless account. After all entries of a payout it must be exactly at zero – finHero also books rounding differences that arise when GoCardless keeps fees with more decimal places than it can pay out.
| Position | Movement | GoCardless account balance |
|---|---|---|
| Customer payments | + 1,190.00 € | 1,190.00 € |
| GoCardless fees | − 12.00 € | 1,178.00 € |
| Partner fees | − 11.90 € | 1,166.10 € |
| Chargeback | − 119.00 € | 1,047.10 € |
| Payout to bank account | − 1,047.10 € | 0.00 € |
The 1,047.10 € sit on the cash-in-transit account until the bank entry clears them. The document date of all entries is the arrival date of the payout – so the tax firm finds the matching bank statement line immediately.
Typical mistakes when booking GoCardless fees
- Booking the payout as revenue – revenue too low, expense and VAT on fees missing.
- Booking fees monthly as a total – the link to the payment and the invoice number is lost.
- Mixing partner fees with GoCardless fees – although a different company supplies them.
- Forgetting fee refunds after chargebacks – the GoCardless account no longer reconciles.
- Ignoring VAT reported by GoCardless – the tax firm cannot check it.
- Using the collection date as document date – the entries no longer match the payout on the bank statement.
Checklist: GoCardless fees in the monthly close
Six points that keep every GoCardless month clean:
- Fee account and booking key agreed with the tax firm.
- Decided whether partner fees go to a separate account – checkbox and account set.
- Every fee carries the invoice number of its payment (Belegfeld 1).
- GoCardless account is at zero after every payout.
- VAT notes ("USt auf Gebühr") passed on to the tax firm.
- Reverse-charge question clarified once with the tax advisor.
Booking GoCardless fees automatically with finHero
Everything on this page is done automatically by finHero – from every GoCardless payout, every month:
- Every fee individually, assigned to its payment, with invoice number and your booking key.
- Partner fees on a separate account with their own key if you want.
- Reported VAT as additional information on the entry.
- Rounding differences booked, GoCardless account at zero per payout.
Connect GoCardless via OAuth (read access only) and create the first booking batch for free – all details on the GoCardless integration page.
