Bacs

Bacs is the oldest of the UK's retail payment systems and still the one most recurring money moves through. Direct Debit is the pull side: an organisation with a service user number, sponsored by its bank, collects agreed amounts from payers who have signed a mandate. Bacs Direct Credit is the push side, used for payroll, pensions and supplier payments. Both run on the same cycle: submitted on day one, processed on day two, and debited and credited on day three, counting working days only.

Why it matters to a business: Direct Debit is a dependable, low-friction way to collect a fixed amount that repeats, on dates the business sets, which is why memberships, rent, fees and subscriptions often run on it. The three-day cycle means a collection has to be submitted in advance, and a failed collection is reported back by reason code rather than declined on the spot.

For a software platform, Bacs is where a large share of many platforms' payment volume sits: a membership system, a lettings platform or a childcare provider may have most of its customers' revenue on Direct Debit through a standalone provider. Bringing that collection inside the product, with mandates, advance notices, retries and reconciliation handled in the platform's own screens, is one of the clearer cases for built-in payments. The regulated acquiring partner is the sponsored party on the scheme; Synapto is not.