Course The Rose - payment convenience, security and administration (#16, optional)

· course part 16 of 16

The last part bundles the extras that make your non-profit’s life easier and safer: getting your clients to pay faster, working safely with several people in the same account, and being sure your data is preserved. Read what applies to you.

Part 1: SEPA direct debit for membership fees and rent

With a direct debit your client gives your non-profit a mandate to collect the amount of your invoices automatically from their account. For recurring amounts (membership fees, monthly rent, a fixed contribution) that is the surest way to get paid: no reminders, no forgotten transfers. The Rose creates the collection files on the basis of your invoices or subscriptions (course part 13); you upload them to your bank or have them sent via a link.

What you need for that:

a collection contract with your bank (your bank then assigns your non-profit a “creditor identifier”);
per client a signed mandate (for private individuals a SEPA Core mandate), which you keep for as long as the direct debit runs and which you register on the client in The Rose;
the arrangement to notify the client in advance of each collection (the “pre-notification”, 14 days in advance by default, shorter if you agree so in the mandate). The invoice or email from The Rose can fulfil that role.

Note: a consumer can have a Core direct debit reversed without reason up to eight weeks after collection. Direct debit is therefore not a guarantee, but a convenience. Discuss with your file manager how the collections are linked in the accounts before you start.

Part 2: payment link and online payment

With a link to a payment service (The Rose works with Mollie) your invoice gets a pay button: the client clicks in the email and pays with Bancontact, card or banking app. The payment arrives on the payment service’s account and is paid out to the non-profit; The Rose registers it automatically on the invoice. Ideal for participation fees and small amounts to private individuals.

Do the sums though: each transaction costs a fixed fee plus sometimes a percentage, and the payment service pays out in batches, which makes reconciliation in the accounts harder than an ordinary transfer with a structured message. For large amounts to organisations the transfer remains the better choice. Ask your file manager how the payment service’s payouts are booked before you activate the link.

Part 3: advances and discounts

Advance invoice and final invoice. For a larger project or a hire with a deposit you first invoice an advance; on the final invoice The Rose deducts the advance automatically. An advance invoice is a real invoice (with VAT if your non-profit is subject to VAT) and goes to the accounts. If you only want to ask for a payment without an invoice, use a payment request (course part 12).
Commercial discount (on the price, e.g. “10 % for early bookers”) reduces the invoice amount and the VAT base. You give it per line or on the total (course part 5).
Financial discount (discount for cash or prompt payment, e.g. “2 % if paid within 8 days”) is a conditional discount: the client may deduct it if they pay in time. For tax purposes the VAT is calculated on the price less that discount, even if the client does not take it in the end (art. 28, 1° of the Belgian VAT Code). The Rose handles the mention and the calculation if you switch on the option. Rarely needed for non-profits; do not use it without consulting your file manager.

Part 4: extra fields and projects

Custom fields (Custom fields tab under Settings) let you add your own information to invoices, clients or products: a grant file number, the name of a department, an activity code. They can be shown on the invoice and are handy for filtering later. In our demo file Bestelbonnummer (purchase order number) is such an extra field on the invoice.
Projects group quotations, invoices and hours per project: useful if your non-profit works with project grants and has to be able to show per project what was invoiced.

Part 5: users and rights

If several people work in The Rose (chair, treasurer, secretariat), give each their own login. Shared passwords are unsafe and make the history (who did what) worthless. Under Access Control (account menu, click the name of your organisation at the top right) is the Users table with Name, Email address, Rights (e.g. Full management) and Status (Main user or In use). With Add user you create a user with their own email address and determine what they may do. The same page holds the API-keys for links with other software (part 8 of this course part). You can do that yourself or ask us: both you and we can create users in The Rose. In any case, let us know who has access to your non-profit’s invoicing, especially when the board changes.

Is someone leaving the board? Disable their user immediately. That is the most forgotten step in a change of board.

Part 6: two-factor authentication

Switch on two-factor authentication for every user: besides the password, The Rose asks for a code from an app on your phone when logging in. A leaked or guessed password is then no longer enough to get at your client data and invoices. Setting it up takes two minutes (see the supplier’s article) and is the most important security measure you can take yourself.

Part 7: backups and export

The supplier keeps your data and through our link every invoice is also in the accounts (course part 11). Still, a copy of your own is wise, certainly when the board changes or if you ever change programs. Under the settings you can:

download a backup of all your documents as PDF;
export your invoices in UBL, the structured format Peppol also uses and that any accounting software can read;
export your client and product lists to Excel (course parts 3 and 4).

Do that at least once a year, after the year-end closing, and keep the files in a place the non-profit controls (not on the treasurer’s private laptop). The legal retention period of ten years (course part 2) remains the non-profit’s responsibility.

Part 8: even more links

The Rose links with dozens of other services: web shops, ticketing platforms, automation tools, cloud storage. They are under Links. They can be handy (invoicing orders from your web shop automatically), but every link that creates invoices does so in your name and forwards them to the accounts. Consult your file manager before you activate a link that creates invoices or payments. For the accounts: Clearfacts for your invoices (course part 11) and CodaBox for your bank transactions (course part 8), nothing else.

Finally

That takes you through the whole course. Come back to the part you need when the question arises, and do not hesitate to email us at support@dkpa.be if in doubt. Better one question beforehand than one credit note afterwards.

State of the regulations: September 2026.

The screenshots on this page show the English interface of our demo file in The Rose.