UK fintech GoCardless, the online payments business simplifying Direct Debit, and Xero have teamed up to launch an integration to help tackle late payments in Australia.

GoCardless already serves more than 35,000 businesses every month across the UK, Eurozone and Nordics. This move will benefit more than two million SMBs in Australia to improve their cash flow and reduce the time spent on administrative tasks. Companies can use the platform to set automatic payment collection dates and use Xero to reconcile payments automatically. It often takes more than 30 day invoice terms for a customer to pay an invoice, direct debit can ensure timely payment. With permission from the account holder, GoCardless for Xero can automatically debit money from a nominated account on an agreed day.

According to Hiroki Takeuchi, founder and CEO of GoCardless, Australia is an important market for the company. “We are thrilled to be setting up operations in Australia. It is exciting to be able to offer Australian businesses a better way to take recurring payments and to be joining a thriving and innovative FinTech community,” said Takeuchi.

Kiril Shaginov, co-founder of Mörk Chocolate, one of GoCardless’ first Australian customers, said: “GoCardless has showed us how much time can be saved on payments admin and improved our cashflow. We jumped at the chance to introduce it to our customers here. It allows us to spend more time building relationships with our customers rather than focusing on the accounts.”

Joseph Robins, GoCardless’ Australia Country Lead, said that feedback from early customers had been very positive. Robins said, “Small and medium businesses in Australia are time poor. They want to be focusing on growing their businesses, not grappling with administrative tasks. GoCardless’ platform makes it easy to collect Direct Debit payments, giving them certainty about cash flow and taking the stress out of managing their finances. With GoCardless, Australian businesses big and small won’t be hit with a setup cost, hidden fees or a contract. The risk of payment failure is also removed, so businesses can avoid involuntary churn from failed card payments such as lost cards.”