GoCardless MD01: mandate_cancelled and authorisation_disputed in a SEPA collection

Three events and four rows, the same code

The four rows come from the SEPA Core table in GoCardless's documentation and all carry MD01; the cancelled payment appears with two causes and the same text. The mandate is also cancelled, and GoCardless reports it with its own event: “A payment under this mandate failed, indicating that the mandate has been cancelled at the customer's bank. Any subscriptions and pending payments will also be cancelled.”.

What changes depending on the moment

If the customer cancels the mandate before the collection is made, the payment fails: the money never arrived. If they dispute it after it has been collected, it is a chargeback: the money arrived and goes back out. And if there were payments waiting to be submitted, GoCardless cancels them before sending them. The connector notes in its code that it saw the cause authorisation_disputed with MD01 on a sandbox test payment, as a chargeback of an already settled payment.

What Odoo does with the connector

The transaction is opened from the invoice, with the “Payment Transaction” button at the top; the transactions menu only appears in developer mode, and in Odoo 20 it does not exist. In all three cases the transaction ends in “Error” with the cause in view. The message depends on the event: “GoCardless could not collect this payment (mandate_cancelled).” for a failure, and “GoCardless reported a chargeback for this payment (mandate_cancelled). The funds have been taken back and will be deducted from a future payout.” for a chargeback. If Odoo already had the invoice marked as paid with that collection, the connector cancels the payment and the invoice becomes outstanding again.

What matters is the mandate. mandate_cancelled and authorisation_disputed are among the four causes with which the connector treats it as dead, so:

• it archives the customer's payment method, which stops being offered for collections;
• it writes in the customer's record “The GoCardless direct debit mandate of … is no longer usable (mandate_cancelled). No further collection can be taken against it. Ask the customer to set up a new mandate.”;
• it creates an activity “GoCardless mandate lost”.

Several events arrive with the same news, the payment one and the mandate one, but the notice is shown only once: the second finds the mandate already archived.

The connector writes all these texts when it applies the event, with nobody in front of it. In an Odoo in English they appear in English, as quoted: “GoCardless could not collect this payment (mandate_cancelled).”, “GoCardless reported a chargeback for this payment (mandate_cancelled). The funds have been taken back and will be deducted from a future payout.”, “The GoCardless direct debit mandate of … is no longer usable (mandate_cancelled). No further collection can be taken against it. Ask the customer to set up a new mandate.” and “GoCardless mandate lost”.

What to do

Before asking for a new mandate, understand why they cancelled it. A customer who stopped wanting the service needs a cancellation, not another signature. If it was their mistake or a change at their bank, ask them to sign again and collect the open invoices with the new mandate. If they say they never authorised the charge, check how the mandate was signed before continuing to charge them.

With our connector

In Odoo 17, 18, 19 and 20, the connector distinguishes the failure from the chargeback, reopens the invoice if needed, retires the mandate and leaves you the task of talking to the customer on their record. What it does not do is request the new mandate on its own: that conversation is yours.

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