Explanations of SEPA rules and file formats that stand on their own, step-by-step help for the free Community Edition and for Pro, and references for when a bank rejects a file.
How SEPA Direct Debit mandates, schemes and addresses work — written to answer the question, whatever software or bank you use.
SEPA explainer General SEPA knowledge
What a SEPA Direct Debit mandate is, what it must contain, who stores it, how CORE and B2B differ, refund rights, pre-notification, sequence types and when a mandate expires — with links to the EPC rulebooks.
SEPA explainer General SEPA knowledge
The EPC removed the 15 November 2026 end date for unstructured SEPA addresses. What still applies to pain.001 and pain.008 files, and how to prepare your data.
Formats in practice: pain.001 Credit Transfer XML · pain.008 Direct Debit XML · pain.001 versions compared
For the free, open-source Community Edition: SEPA Credit Transfer XML (pain.001) from CSV, XLS and XLSX files, with no license or activation.
Software tutorial Applies to: Community
Set up the free SEPA Generator Community Edition: install it, enter your debtor settings, prepare a CSV or Excel file from the built-in templates, and generate pain.001 SEPA Credit Transfer XML.
Software tutorial Applies to: Community & Pro
A practical step-by-step workflow for creating a pain.001 SEPA Credit Transfer XML file from CSV, XLS, or XLSX payment data — including validation and testing with your bank.
By input: CSV to SEPA XML · Excel to SEPA XML · What Community validates · Download Community
For SEPA Generator Pro users and trial users: the Payments and Collections workspaces, customers and mandates, XML Tools, local saving and encrypted backups.
Software tutorial Applies to: Pro
Install SEPA Generator Pro, start the 14-day free trial, set up company profiles, prepare and export your first SEPA XML file, set up optional encrypted backups and activate a license.
Software tutorial Applies to: Pro
Pay the same suppliers and contractors every month with SEPA Generator Pro: saved beneficiaries, payment batches, bank-detail change warnings, review, pain.001 XML export, export history and repeating a batch.
Software tutorial Applies to: Pro
Prepare a SEPA Direct Debit collection in SEPA Generator Pro: creditor profile, customers and mandates, CORE or B2B, amounts and sequence types, review, pain.008 XML export, bank submission and repeating next month.
Software tutorial Applies to: Pro
Record customers and their signed SEPA Direct Debit mandates in SEPA Generator Pro: mandate reference, signature date, scheme and status, importing from CSV or Excel, and reusing mandates in collections.
Evaluating Pro? Supplier payments · Direct Debit collections · Mandate records · Download free trial (14 days · No credit card · No account required)
Message versions, validation and the most common reasons banks reject a SEPA XML file. A valid file is not a guarantee of acceptance: your bank and upload channel can apply their own rules.
Technical reference Applies to: Community & Pro
Why banks reject pain.001 SEPA Credit Transfer files: invalid IBANs, malformed amounts, wrong message version, missing fields, execution date and remittance issues — and how to catch them before upload.
Technical reference Applies to: Community & Pro
A practical comparison of the pain.001.001.02 and pain.001.001.09 SEPA Credit Transfer XML versions: what changed, structured addresses, and how to choose the right version for your bank.
Technical reference General SEPA knowledge
Prepare SEPA bulk payment (pain.001) and Direct Debit (pain.008) XML files for Bank of Ireland: accepted versions, bank-specific rules and troubleshooting.
Technical reference Applies to: Community & Pro
What Community checks while generating a file, and what Pro adds: official XSD validation and checks of existing SEPA XML files.
Example Applies to: Pro
A real Pro report generated from a synthetic pain.008 file, with each finding explained by row, field and validation layer.
