When analysing 2023’s consumer trends and spending behaviour, Forbes reported a total of $5.7 trillion in online payments in the retail e‑commerce arena alone. Experts suggest this value will increase to $8 trillion in the coming years, while the rapidly growing subscription economy is predicted to reach a market value of $1.5 trillion by 2027.
In short, not only the way we pay for things, but how we expect to purchase and consume goods and services, continues to evolve towards online payments and subscriptions. This means businesses need to be ready.
With NetSuite firmly established as the go‑to finance and ERP solution for scaling businesses (supporting the likes of Spotify, Motorway, and Deliveroo), and GoCardless recognised as one of the fastest‑growing and most widely deployed payment platforms globally (supporting 85,000+ clients), it’s only natural that the two should work seamlessly together to provide a secure, scalable payment solution.
(Spoiler alert: GoCardless for NetSuite by Cooper Parry Digital does exactly this.)
In this article, we explore the major benefits of integrating GoCardless with NetSuite—beyond simply offering a smoother payment experience for customers:
- Scaling transaction volumes without increasing AR costs
- Increasing accuracy for all stakeholders
- Improving cashflow, reporting, and visibility
- Removing risk when managing customer payment details
- Creating a better working environment for your team
SCALING TRANSACTION VOLUME WITHOUT INCREASING AR COSTS
This is often the most significant advantage for NetSuite users.
As transaction volumes grow, two areas rapidly become more manual without integration:
- Payment initiation: Sending instructions to GoCardless to collect payment
- Payment collection and allocation: Receiving payments, allocating them to open transactions, and reconciling bank accounts
Without an integration, many NetSuite customers default to using GoCardless as the primary operational system, with NetSuite acting only as a repository for summarised payment files. While this allows transaction volumes to scale, it comes at the cost of losing critical transaction‑level insight within NetSuite.
This issue is amplified for businesses selling through multiple channels. Subscription payments may be handled via GoCardless, while ad‑hoc products or services are purchased through e‑commerce platforms, portals, account managers, or telesales. The result is fragmented customer data, inconsistent billing experiences, and limited cross‑team visibility.
By integrating NetSuite and GoCardless, all customer and order data originates in NetSuite, automatically triggers payment collection in GoCardless, and flows back into NetSuite at transaction‑ and line‑level. This ensures NetSuite remains the system of record, while eliminating manual allocation and reconciliation.
The result: you can scale to tens, hundreds, or thousands of transactions per month without growing your Accounts Receivable function—while maintaining a consistent customer experience and full visibility.
INCREASING ACCURACY FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS
When NetSuite and GoCardless are integrated, data only needs to be entered once—dramatically reducing the risk of error.
That accuracy benefits everyone:
- Customers: Reduced risk of incorrect billing or payments being taken in error
- Your team: Removal of duplicate data entry and associated stress
- Your business: Faster closes, more reliable reporting, and clearer cash visibility
Because GoCardless also collects payments automatically, you know not only what you expect to receive—but when.
IMPROVING CASHFLOW, REPORTING AND VISIBILITY
Automation improves not just efficiency, but confidence in reporting and forecasting.
One of the biggest cashflow advantages of GoCardless is its high collection success rate—97.3% of payments are successful on the first attempt, significantly reducing delays and bad debt risk.
With payments flowing directly back into NetSuite, finance teams gain near‑real‑time insight into performance, enabling more accurate forecasting and stronger working capital management.
REMOVING RISK WHEN MANAGING CUSTOMER PAYMENT DETAILS
Fraud relating to online and card payments continues to rise, with reports showing significant increases in recent years.
GoCardless allows businesses to collect payments without storing sensitive customer payment details, dramatically reducing exposure to fraud. When integrated with NetSuite, the risk is further reduced by removing internal access to payment details altogether.
Fewer touchpoints mean fewer opportunities for errors or malicious activity—protecting both your customers and your cash.
CREATING A BETTER ENVIRONMENT FOR YOUR TEAM
Manual data entry is tedious, error‑prone, and demotivating—especially when the same data is entered multiple times in different systems.
By integrating NetSuite and GoCardless, you remove repetitive admin tasks and free your finance team to focus on analysis, insight, and value‑adding activity. Better data, less grunt work, and a more engaged team create the foundation for smarter growth.
CONCLUSION
As payments continue to shift towards digital and subscription‑based models, businesses must ensure their systems and processes can scale without increasing risk or operational cost.
Together, NetSuite and GoCardless form a powerful platform for modern digital commerce—supporting scalability, security, and insight without compromising efficiency.
GoCardless for NetSuite by Cooper Parry Digital is the first off‑the‑shelf integration of its kind, developed in response to real user needs and recognised as GoCardless’ preferred NetSuite integration solution.
If you’re looking to scale payments, improve visibility, and future‑proof your finance operations, this integration is a powerful place to start.
