SEPA remittances for your box, step by step
From the signed mandate to the file you upload to the bank: what you need from each athlete, how the remittance is built and what to do with returns.
Wodmark team Updated 8 Nov 2026 9 min read
What a direct debit batch is
A batch (in Spain, a remesa) is a file with every direct debit you want to collect on one date: athlete, account, amount and mandate for each one. You upload it to your bank's online banking and the bank asks your athletes' accounts for the money. It is the most common way boxes in Spain collect monthly fees, and the cheapest once you have dozens of athletes.
The file follows the European ISO 20022 standard, in XML. The message type for direct debits is pain.008, which banks accept for the basic SEPA scheme (CORE), the one for consumers.
What you need before the first batch
- A direct debit agreement with your bank. The bank has to register you as a creditor before you can submit batches. Ask for its «SEPA direct debit» service.
- Your SEPA creditor identifier. In Spain it is built from your tax ID (NIF or CIF): it starts with ES, then two check digits and a suffix (usually 000). Your bank confirms it.
- A mandate signed by each athlete. It is the authorisation to charge them. It has a unique reference and a signature date, and both travel with every debit.
- Each athlete's IBAN, checked. An IBAN with one wrong digit is a certain return.
Building the file
Every month the process is the same:
- Check which fees fall due and who pays by direct debit.
- Choose the collection date. The bank needs the batch in advance, usually at least one business day before the charge; confirm the exact lead time with yours.
- Build the file and upload it to online banking.
- When the bank pays it out, mark the batch as collected.
In Wodmark the batch is built from Remittances in the box dashboard: it gathers the pending fees of athletes who pay by direct debit and have an IBAN, mandate reference and mandate date, and downloads the pain.008 file ready for the bank. Anyone with incomplete details stays out of the batch; when you import athletes, the dashboard flags IBANs that do not check out and mandates with no reference or date.
Returns
Some debits come back. The most frequent reasons:
| Code | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| AM04 | Insufficient funds | Tell the athlete and collect again in the next batch or another way. |
| AC04 | Account closed | Ask for a new IBAN and a new mandate. |
| MD06 | The account holder asks for a refund | Talk to the athlete before charging again. |
| MS02 | Refused by the account holder | The same: clear it up before retrying. |
Under the basic scheme the account holder can ask for an authorised debit back for eight weeks after the charge, with no explanation, and for up to thirteen months if it was not authorised. That is why signed mandates should be kept on file.
In Wodmark you mark the payment as returned in Billing. The fee is pending again and, if the payment deadline is on, the athlete can no longer book once it passes, though they can still open the app and see who is going.
And those who do not pay through the bank
Not every athlete will want a direct debit. Card terminal, cash, Bizum or bank transfer live alongside the batch: what matters is that every payment ends up in one place, so you know who owes what without cross-checking spreadsheets.