BACS collections for a term of classes, without the spreadsheet.
FastPay is a UK Direct Debit bureau. Connecting it lets you collect tuition fees by BACS straight from Zooza, instead of exporting a file and keying it into a bank portal every month.
It is batch-based and partly manual, and this page says exactly where. If you want mandates signed online and collections that schedule themselves, GoCardless is the other rail we support.
What moves, and which way
Three flows. The first one is on you, the other two are not — and knowing which is which is the whole decision.
The mandate
paper → you → FastPay portal The customer completes a paper Direct Debit Instruction and returns it to you. You key it into the FastPay portal, which lodges the mandate. Neither Zooza nor the API creates mandates automatically — this is the part GoCardless does online instead.
The collection batch
Zooza → FastPay → the payer’s bank You set a date range, preview the batch and submit it. Zooza pushes the file to FastPay rather than asking you to build one. BACS then settles two to three working days after submission, so charges sit pending until it does.
Status and reconciliation
FastPay → Zooza, daily Zooza polls FastPay every day and updates each charge, so reconciliation happens on its own. A failed collection is marked failed and a system message lands in your admin inbox with the bounce reason, while the rest of the batch carries on unaffected.
Running a monthly collection
Once mandates are lodged, the month is three clicks and a wait.
Lodge the mandates once
Paper instruction in, keyed into the FastPay portal. From then on that payer is collectable without touching it again.
Set the range, preview, submit
The preview is worth reading before you submit — it is the last point at which a wrong date range is cheap to fix.
Leave it alone for two to three working days
That is the BACS cycle, not a Zooza delay. Statuses update themselves as FastPay reports back.
What it will not do
None of these are faults, but each one is cheaper to read now than to meet in the middle of an enrolment month.
Mandates are not created digitally
A paper Direct Debit Instruction, returned to you, keyed in by you. For a provider enrolling dozens of families in a September week, that is real admin — and the main reason to look at GoCardless instead, where the parent authorises online.
Collections do not schedule themselves
You trigger each batch. Automatic monthly scheduling is planned for a later release but is not there today, so the submission belongs in somebody’s calendar.
No refund API
Process the refund manually in the FastPay portal, then correct the payment in Zooza. Two systems, in that order.
Mandate references are strict
Up to 18 characters, uppercase letters and digits, and unique — tighter than the 35 characters SEPA allows. Worth knowing if you are migrating references from another system.
Never re-submit a period
Re-submitting charges your customers twice. Zooza blocks a second push for a period already submitted, but the habit to build is to trust the first run and check the statuses rather than push again.
UK only
FastPay is a UK bureau. In other regions it shows as not available, and the equivalent elsewhere is GoCardless on SEPA Direct Debit.
Setup detail lives in the help centre: help.zooza.online/payments/fastpay-direct-debit/ · help.zooza.online/payments/fastpay-faq/
Questions before choosing a Direct Debit rail
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FastPay or GoCardless?
GoCardless if you want the parent to authorise online and the admin to disappear at sign-up; it collects on SEPA Direct Debit. FastPay if you already run BACS through a bureau and want Zooza to take over the monthly push and the reconciliation rather than the mandate paperwork. Both report back into the same booking. -
A collection failed. What happens?
Zooza marks that charge failed and sends a system message to your admin inbox with the bounce reason. The rest of the batch is unaffected, so one bounced payer does not hold up the month. -
A parent cancelled their Direct Debit at the bank. Do I have to update Zooza?
No. Zooza detects a mandate reported as cancelled or expired, deactivates it, and skips it in future collections. That is the failure mode that usually produces awkward emails, and it handles itself. -
Why is the payment still pending?
Because BACS settles two to three working days after submission. Zooza polls FastPay daily and updates the charge when FastPay reports it, so pending on day one is the system working rather than failing. -
Can I re-submit a batch if I am not sure it went?
No, and you should never try — a second push would charge customers twice. Zooza blocks re-submission for a period already sent. Check the statuses instead; they update on their own. -
How do refunds work?
Manually, in the FastPay portal, because FastPay has no refund API. Then correct the payment in Zooza so the booking and the bank agree.
Collect the term without rebuilding the file each month.
Zooza pushes the batch, polls the statuses and deactivates dead mandates on its own. What stays manual is stated above, not discovered later.
