Bacs Submissions over Christmas 2024

Christmas is rapidly approaching! As well as bringing festive cheer, this time of year means additional bank holidays. These can affect your Bacs Submissions over Christmas 2024. You may need to send your collection or payment files to Bacs slightly earlier than usual to ensure transactions occur on the correct date.

Plan when to send your Bacs Submissions over Christmas 2024

Bacs files are processed according to the Bacs 3-day cycle. If there is no date within the file, then transactions will default to this 3-day cycle. In order to ensure Direct Debit collections occur on time, or Bacs Direct credit payments are received on time therefore, it is important to ensure files are submitted on the correct date. Please see the helpful table below and check when the latest submission date is for files to be sent to Bacs:

Sending Bacs files in Advance of the latest Submission date

It is possible to submit your file to Bacs up to 30 calendar days in advance of the processing date. This can be useful if staff will be on annual leave on the latest possible submission date. If you do send files in advance however, it is essential to ensure that your transactions are collected on the correct date. You could do this by:

• ensuring that there is a date contained within your file. This could be either a processing or collection date, depending on your system configuration. It is also important to check that your software / bureau are configured to correctly read the date.
• Ensuring that the correct payment date is selected within your software at the point of submission to Bacs.

Collecting Direct Debits early or late 

Direct Debits should never be collected early. The Service Users Guide and Rules to the Direct Debit Scheme state:

Rule: “Direct Debits cannot be collected before the date specifically detailed on the advance notice. This applies whether or not the specified date is a working day”

Collecting early can lead to there being insufficient funds in the payers account, failed collections, additional bank charges and unhappy customers. It can also create extra admin tasks for the collecting organisation to deal with . Likewise, collecting Direct Debits later than advised can create issues, including cashflow issues for the organisation and concern for the payer.

Plan for Contingencies

Knowing that staff will be taking holidays when Bacs Submissions for Christmas 2024 are being created, is a good reason to review your processes and planning:

• Consider how many team members will be available to process the Bacs files and the training that they have had / supporting documentation they have access to if they have queries,
• Review how many smartcard holders you may have available; how and where smartcards are kept; when smartcards might expire and whether you have a bureau on standby to process for you should the need arise,
• Ensure that nominated security contacts are available to liaise with the bank / Bacs if there are any issues with the Bacs run.
• Review your Contingency Plan, Incident Response plan and escalation approach – and ensure staff are familiar with this
• Check contact details are up to date for your team, your suppliers and for Bacs / the bank,
• Consider the checks you have in place to mitigate risks e.g. 2-stage approval or a second check on submissions (i.e. by logging into Payment Services Website or accessing Bacs Input reports). These can help identify any erroneous submissions or errors in amount and/or dates (especially important over the Christmas and New Year break).

Effectively planning your Bacs Submissions over Christmas 2024 should ensure that no issues arise for staff to deal with. In turn this should mean less stress and worry for your team.

Looking Ahead

You can plan ahead for 2025 by Downloading the Bacs Processing Calendar. 

Got Questions?

Contact us. We are happy to help with queries about Bacs Accredited training options; about Bacs Bureau Support – or just for general advice.