Amending Direct Debit instructions

How to make changes to your existing Direct Debits 

From time to time you may need to update some of your regular supporters’ donations. This may be as a result of your donors contacting you. 

Please make sure that any changes to a supporters' direct debit occur before five working days of the next calling date. Any amendments that are made within five working days of the next calling date will not take effect until the next instalment.

Details you can amend on a donor’s Direct Debit

The following details can easily be edited and amended on an existing Direct Debit instruction:

• name and address
• donation amount
• Gift Aid status
• Unique Reference Number (URN), if you've assigned one
• contact details, such as telephone number and email address and marketing preferences (how they prefer to be contacted by you).

1 - Get started

Log into your CAF Donate account on the CAF website and select ‘Amend existing Direct Debit donations’ on the right hand side of the account homepage. 

2 - Search for your existing Direct Debit

In order to amend an existing Direct Debit instruction you must include the donor’s Direct Debit reference number - otherwise a new Direct Debit will be created.

To find a donor’s Direct Debit reference, simply go to ‘CAF Donate Donations data Regular Payment Reports’ and run a search on ‘All Direct Debit instructions’. 

This will produce a file with all your Direct Debits. Search for the donor (CTRL+F) and column R in the spreadsheet will display the Direct Debit reference for that donor.

Amending other Direct Debit information

In order to change any of the following information, you will need to cancel the existing Direct Debit instruction and create a new one:

• account name
• bank details
• donation frequency
• effective date
• payment method (online or paper-based)
• campaign code

1 - Replace existing Direct Debits

Log into your CAF Donate account on the CAF website and select ‘Bulk upload Direct Debit donations’ on the right hand side of the account homepage. 

2 - Download the file named ‘template for amended Direct Debit’ 

This provides you with all the columns you need to complete on tab one. Mandatory columns are in red. The second tab provides you with information on how to complete these fields.

To help save time, the file allows you to upload 50 amended Direct Debit instructions at a time.

Remember to make sure you have downloaded the correct template. You should not use the 'new Direct Debit instructions' template to amend existing Direct Debits, and vice versa.

Feel free to save a copy of the above templates in your computer drive, however be sure to check for any updates to the template layout. Using an out of date template may result in a delay to processing. 

1 - Complete all the fields 

Remember that the columns in red are mandatory, and don't delete the column headers.

Be sure to delete the three guidance bullet points shown in the above image under column A, as leaving these in will prevent the file from uploading. 

2 - Save it as a CSV file  

All templates must be saved in the CSV format, as all other file types will fail to upload. 

To do this, select the drop down ‘Save As’ Type, select ‘CSV Comma Delimited (.csv)’ and save the file.
 
Make sure the file name is no greater than 50 characters.

Top tip

If you receive an error when saving your file, stating that the file does not support workbooks containing multiple sheets, make sure that the sheet open is the one that contains the amended Direct Debit instructions and click ‘OK’.

This will save only the sheet within which you have amended the data. 

If you receive an error regarding .csv compatibility features, click ‘Yes’.

3  Upload your file to CAF Donate

This will be in the 'Bulk upload Direct Debit donations' section of the CAF Donate homepage.  

This may take a couple of minutes to upload, but please do not refresh the page as this will resubmit your file. You can continue to use the rest of the website and return to see if your file has been uploaded.

Top tip

If you receive an error when saving your file, stating that the file does not support workbooks containing multiple sheets, make sure that the sheet open is the one that contains the Direct Debit instructions and click ‘OK’. 

This will save only the sheet within which you have amended the data. 

If you receive an error regarding .csv compatibility features, click ‘Yes’

What if I see an error message?

If the file status shows as ‘ProcessedWithErrors’, this means we haven't been able to successfully process your Direct Debits. You'll receive an email from us highlighting where the errors where made and you can see these by clicking on the 'view' button. 

You must correct the error file or create a new file for reloading corrections and not reload the entire original file, as we will already have processed all valid instructions.

Once you've corrected the errors, re-enter the sort code and account number (this is available in your original file). Make sure you don’t add any duplicates. 

Delete the columns containing the error description and then save the file as in .csv format with a new file name.

Re-upload this to CAF Donate. 

Remember

You'll  only able to view the amended Direct Debits in the CAF Donate reporting section 24 hours later.

The successful lines and error columns will remain blank until completed. 

Note

Only the five most recent error files will be shown. If you need to access previous files please contact our Customer Services team on 03000 123 000 or email cafdonate@cafonline.org.