The most important facts in brief
- Legal certainty: Digital SEPA mandates are fully legally valid in accordance with the eIDAS Regulation (FES or QES)
- No more typing: digital data transfer instead of manual input of illegible scans
- Speed: collection and signing takes less than 2 minutes with sproof Fastlane
- Hybrid power: sproof Fastlane bridges the gap between paper and digital – by simply scanning a QR code on physical documents
- Best practice: Find out how the energy and infrastructure service provider Salzburg AG has optimized its customer service through this digital transformation
Why conventional SEPA processes slow down your business
Collecting direct debit authorizations manually is a massive time waster and a relic from the analogue world. The traditional process – printing out, sending by post, signing by hand, scanning and returning by email – is not only tedious for your customers, but also causes enormous overhead in your administration:
- Source of error in data transfer: IBAN, name and mandate reference must be transferred manually from (often illegible) scans to the ERP or accounting system. This is error-prone and expensive.
- High abandonment rates: Every media break – such as going to the printer or letterbox – is a hurdle that causes customers to abandon the process.
- Bureaucratic congestion: illegible handwriting leads to time-consuming correction loops and delays the payment process, which directly burdens your liquidity and ties up valuable administrative resources that could actually be used for more productive tasks.
Digital SEPA mandates for modern payment processes
Switching to a partially or fully digital process offers far more advantages than just eliminating paper. The positive effects extend across the entire value chain.
The positive effects optimize your entire administration:
- Significantly shorter processing times: Mandates are finalized in minutes instead of days.
- Error reduction through verified data entry: As customers enter their data digitally in predefined form fields, there are no transmission errors when typing. Validation aids ensure that only complete and correctly formatted mandates enter your system.
- Higher completion rate (conversion rate): The simpler the signature process, the lower the abandonment rate.
- Significant cost reduction: You save on postage, printing and archiving costs as well as valuable working time for manual data entry.
- Centralized & audit-proof management: All mandates are digitally archived, can be found immediately and are documented in a legally compliant manner thanks to a seamless audit trail.
- Modern customer experience: You offer your customers a contemporary, user-friendly service without media discontinuity.
Particularly flexible: this digital process can also be used in hybrid form
If you are still sending paper-based documents, you can simply print a QR code. Your customers scan it and immediately land in the digital signature flow – the perfect bridge between analog mail and digital efficiency. This turns a slow, paper-based process into a standard digital process.
How is a SEPA Direct Debit Mandate issued digitally?
If you use a digital signature solution like sproof, you can automate the entire process of issuing a mandate via a template and offer your customers a hybrid solution.
When creating a SEPA direct debit mandate, certain mandatory information must be included in the document. These include:
- Name of the debtor (account holder:in)
- Address of the debtor
- IBAN of the debtor
- Name of the payee (creditor)
- Creditor identification number (Creditor ID)
- Mandate reference (unique identifier of the mandate)
- Type of mandate (one-off direct debit or recurring direct debit)
- Reference to the right to reimbursement (e.g. “I can within 8 weeks…”)
- Date of the mandate
- Signature of the debtor
Without this information, a mandate may not be processed by banks.
sproof Fastlane enables the seamless integration of these processes into your corporate design. After the signature, the data is directly transferred digitally, making manual typing completely unnecessary.
The principle is simple:
- Prepare: You prepare a contract or form in sproof Sign and place a QR code on the document.
- Dispatch: The document will be sent to your customers by the usual postal service.
- Sign digitally: The customer scans the QR code with their smartphone. The signature process starts immediately – without the need to register or log in.
- Finalize: With just a few clicks, the contract is legally signed and securely returned to your company.
The legal basis: Is it valid?
Yes, a digital SEPA direct debit mandate is subject to the eIDAS Regulation in the EU. While the text form is sufficient for many mandates, banks often require the written form to minimize risk. The Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) is 100% equivalent to a handwritten signature and offers the highest probative value in court. In practice, the Advanced Electronic Signature (AES) has established itself as an efficient middle ground for standard payment transactions. Legal certainty and speed are not mutually exclusive.
Best Practice: Salzburg AG
FAQs on the topic
- What is a SEPA Direct Debit Mandate?
A SEPA Direct Debit Mandate is the legal authorization given by a customer to a company to collect amounts due directly from their bank account. It also serves as an instruction to the bank to execute the payment. - Is an electronic SEPA mandate legally valid?
Yes, an electronic SEPA mandate is legally fully effective as long as it complies with the eIDAS standards. Digital signatures (FES or QES) and a forgery-proof verification protocol make it even easier to prove the identity of the signatory than on paper. Banks accept these e-mandates across the board as they meet the requirements of the European Payments Council. - Do banks accept digital mandates?
Yes, provided the signature standard (FES or QES) proves the authenticity of the signatory beyond doubt. - Does the customer have to create a sproof account for the signature?
No. Your customers can sign the mandate directly via the link they receive or after scanning the QR code. No registration or account creation with sproof is required, which keeps the abandonment rate extremely low. - What happens to the document after it has been signed?
As soon as all parties have signed, both you and your customers automatically receive the signed document as a PDF by email. The data can also be transferred directly to your leading system (e.g. ERP or accounting) via an interface. - Is the digital mandate archived in an audit-proof manner?
Yes, every document signed via sproof contains a tamper-proof audit trail. Together with the digital certificate, this fulfills all requirements for audit-proof archiving and provides a seamless chain of evidence. - Can corporate customers (B2B) also sign?
Yes, absolutely. sproof Fastlane is ideal for B2B processes. Even authorized representatives or authorized signatories of companies can digitally sign SEPA business mandates in a legally secure manner – if desired, also with the Qualified Electronic Signature (QES), which is legally equivalent to a handwritten signature.
Further use cases: Place the Fastlane where your use cases require it →
