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A mandate is the merchant’s standing permission to collect from a customer in the future. The scenarios below describe the most common shapes that permission takes, covering what the customer agrees to, how the platform behaves at collection time, and the configuration that expresses each one.
The customer agrees to pay a fixed amount on a regular cadence, the way streaming services, gym memberships, and SaaS plans bill. The customer authorises once during sign-up; every subsequent month the merchant collects without involving them.The configuration locks down the price so the customer cannot be charged a different amount.
By default (adjustment: "nearest_weekday"), if the chosen day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the collection is moved to the closest weekday so banks process it on a working day. With days: [1], a 1st that falls on Saturday is collected on the Friday before, and a 1st that falls on Sunday is collected on the Monday after. To collect on the 1st regardless of weekend, turn this behaviour off:
The customer agrees to pay a predictable amount each month, typically aligned with payday or a billing cycle.
The customer agrees to pay on the last working day of every month, regardless of how many days the month has. This is a common pattern for payroll-aligned obligations such as rent, levies, or loan repayments.Using the last keyword instead of a specific number means the collection always lands on the actual final day of the month, even in February.
Integer day values are capped at 28, since every month has at least 28 days and higher values would be ambiguous in shorter months. This means a fixed day like 28 runs every month, but it isn’t the actual last day in 29, 30, or 31-day months. If the intent is “every month-end”, use last instead, which always resolves to the true final day of the month regardless of its length.
The customer agrees to split a monthly obligation across two collection dates, common for rent, body-corporate levies, or any arrangement where one large debit would strain cashflow.
Each configured day must be distinct. The platform rejects the configuration if the same day appears twice, or if two entries describe the same date (for instance day 28 and last in a 28-day month like February):
The customer agrees to a collection on a specific weekday occurrence within each month, for example the second Tuesday (a common payday cadence in some markets) or the last Friday (typical for payroll-aligned subscriptions).
A given weekday appears either 4 or 5 times in a calendar month. Asking for the 5th occurrence means there’s no collection in months that only contain 4, which happens regularly, especially in February. If the intent is “always the last”, use "last" instead of a number:
The customer agrees to a single collection per year, such as annual subscriptions, professional association dues, or insurance premiums.
February 29 is a valid date but only exists in leap years. Configuring an annual collection for Feb 29 means it runs in 2024 and 2028 but is skipped in 2025, 2026, and 2027. If the intent is “once a year around month-end February”, target Feb 28 or use a month-end configuration instead:
The customer agrees to one or more collections per week, such as weekly delivery services, lesson fees, or staff allowances.
The customer agrees that the merchant may collect varying amounts on demand, up to an agreed ceiling, such as wallet auto top-ups, ride-hailing balances, or prepaid utility refills. There’s no consented cadence; the merchant decides when to collect.
Payment methods whose consent surface requires a cadence (such as Capitec VRP) are not eligible on on_demand. See the next scenario for the VRP equivalent of this use case.
Capitec VRP has no on_demand equivalent: the consent surface requires a cadence. A scheduled mandate with a daily recurrence approximates ad-hoc top-ups instead, consenting to collection on any day up to the ceiling.
See Recurring Payments for how mandate type and payment method eligibility fit together.
The customer agrees to a billing rhythm (for example monthly) with the amount varying within an agreed range based on actual usage, so the customer is never surprised by a charge outside the expected ballpark.
The customer agrees to a fixed number of collections over a fixed time window, such as a 6-month donation pledge, a promotional payment plan, or a capped fundraising commitment.
Once the agreed limit is reached (six successful collections in this case, or the validity period ending on June 30, 2026), the mandate is automatically marked as EXPIRED and any further collection attempt is rejected. The customer keeps control: they never pay more than they originally agreed to. See Lifecycle for how this is reflected in the mandate’s status.
For configuration details on each field, see Consent.