Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) aims to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments and turn the fragmented national markets for euro payments into a single domestic one. It enables customers to make cashless euro payments to anyone located anywhere in the area, using a single bank account and a single set of payment instruments.

Introduction of new SEPA standards changed the process of direct debit and credit transactions in pixi, but not its basic operation. Changes were made in:

Shop Connections and pixi Apps,
pixi Control Center, explanation for all important settings and the structure of the SEPA XML file you find here: DTAUS/SEPA Transactions for direct debits and credits
new variables for auto e-mails and invoice templates,
pixi Payments,
pixi Customer Service.

At the end of this article you find version information, in case you are experiencing trouble an update of your pixi version might help.

Important terms

The following terms are used throughout this documentation and in the pixi user interface:

Direct Debit Types

Three different direct debit types are available:

CORE (CDD) - B2C (Business to Consumer) direct debit.
~~COR1~~ ~~(CD1)~~ - ~~related to CORE DD type, but with a shorter time cycle (minimum 1 day).~~ This type is not supported anymore
B2B - Business to Business direct debit.

Creditor ID

A Creditor identifier or Creditor ID is a unique identification number of a creditor with up to 35 alphanumeric characters. It is made up of the respective ISO country code, a check digit comprising 2 characters, the Creditor Business Code and a country-specific part, called the national identifier.

Default Execution Time, Requested Collection Date and Requested Execution Date

The Execution date defines the date when the bank should process the credit transaction. The Collection date defines the date when the bank should withdraw funds from the customer’s bank account (direct debit).

Default Execution Time: For each payment type the number of days that are added to the invoice date can be set which defines the requested collection date of the direct debit (which is included in the SEPA export file).

Mandate reference

Mandate reference is a unique identifier for the mandate behind the direct debit, with a length of up to 35 characters (no special characters allowed).

Sequence Type

Sequence type defines the debit frequency value connected to one SEPA mandate and is mandatory information for the SEPA file. The allowed values are

One-Off Direct Debit (OOFF): single direct debit
First Direct Debit (FRST – this is the default value in pixi): first direct debit for the concerning mandate, but the agreement includes a series of direct debits
Recurrent Direct Debit (RCUR): all direct debits that follow the first direct debit if the mandate includes a series of direct debits
Final Direct Debit (FNAL): final direct debit of a series of direct debits, usually ends the mandate

BIC and IBAN

IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number and is made up of a code that identifies the country the account belongs to, the account holder's bank and the account number itself. A BIC (Bank Identifier Code) code uniquely identifies a particular bank.

How to use SEPA with pixi

Shop Connections and Apps

SEPA requirements are supported by our Afterbuy and Tradebyte Apps. Shop connections plugins have been adapted for:

Oxid
Shopware
Magento
XTC

Please do not hesitate to contact pixi Support in case of additional questions.

Changes to order import

When orders are imported via an XML file, IBAN and BIC values are parsed from the customer's billing details:

Opentrans XML:

…
<PAYMENT>
   <BANK>
      <BANK_ACCOUNT>Kontonummer</BANK_ACCOUNT>
      <HOLDER>Kontoinhaber</HOLDER>
      <BANK_CODE>Bankleitzahl</BANK_CODE>
      <BANK_NAME>Name des Bankinstituts</BANK_NAME>
      <IBAN>DE43435345345345436</IBAN>
      <BIC>76768686</BIC>
   </BANK>
</PAYMENT>
…

Note that IBAN and BIC are only parsed if payment type is Lastschrift (Payment tag in XML is BANK). From pixi ELI Update 15 on IBAN and BIC can be imported for all payment types.

Templates for Auto E-Mails and Invoice Templates

Auto E-mails

The following variables have been added to use in e-mail templates:

SEPAMandateReference: SEPA regulations instruct that mandate reference needs to be included in customer e-mails sent out before a debit is booked.
ExecutionDate: SEPA regulations instruct that the customer must be pre-notified about the exact booking date of a direct debit. Since the collection date for direct debits is calculated at the time of the invoice creation (because it’s based on the invoice date), this variable is available only in e-mail types that are sent after the order gets shipped.
ShopCreditorID: creditor ID of the shop as defined in table Shops in pixi Control Center
ShopBIC: BIC of the shop as defined in table Shops in pixi Control Center
ShopIBAN: IBAN of the shop as defined in table Shops in pixi Control Center

Variables have been added in auto e-mails for the following e-mail types:

Order Sent Completely (incl. NLB items)
Order Sent Partially
Order Sent Partially (incl. NLB items)
SFU – Follow Up
Order Sent Completely

ShopCreditorID, ShopIBAN and ShopBIC are available additionally in the following e-mail types:

HAL 7 - 1st payment reminder
HAL 14 - 2nd payment reminder
Payment Received
REM1 - 1st reminder
REM2 - 2nd reminder
REM3 - 3rd reminder
REM4 - 4th reminder
REM5 - 5th reminder
STO Complete
STO Partial

Insert this variable into the e-mail templates as you would usually add a variable. Note that the variables are also available for manual e-mails sent from Customer Service > Invoices tab.

Invoice Templates

The following variables for invoice templates have been added to Admin Client:

Execution date
SEPA – Mandate reference
Shop Creditor ID
Shop BIC
Shop IBAN

These variables can be added to templates and printed on invoices.

Changes in the pixi Applications

pixi Payments

To provide all necessary information at the time of the creation of the SEPA xml, the following columns were added to all tables in tab Batch Bank Transfer (DTAUS/SEPA) in pixi Payments:

Execution date: Note that execution date value is only editable in Data Preparation - Charge and Refused by Bank folders.
Sequence Type: The allowed values for sequence type are One-Off Direct Debit (OOFF), First Direct Debit (FRST), Recurrent Direct Debit (RCUR) and Final Direct Debit (FNAL). Note that currently sequence type is not editable and FRST is the default value.

Creation of SEPA XML

The process of how to create a SEPA XML file for direct debits or credits did not change. Please refer to the documentation of SEPA transactions for further information: DTAUS/SEPA Transactions for direct debits and credits

Import of SEPA payments and payment matching with MT940 format

The process of import of bank files in MT940 format and the payment matching itself did not change. Please refer to the documentation of the payment import wizard for further information: Import of payments from bank files

pixi Customer Service

When creating refunds manually, Bank Name, Bank Code, Account, Acc. Name, IBAN and BIC are no longer mandatory fields. Once a refund is created for a value that matches a payment in pixi Customer Service, the fields are filled out automatically with the available information from the payment.

SEPA Introduction 2014