Title: Subscriptions import
Last modified: June 10, 2026

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# Subscriptions import

 *  Resolved [billhodgson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/billhodgson/)
 * (@billhodgson)
 * [4 days, 19 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/subscriptions-import/)
 * I am migrating 600 people from an external ‘club’ site into WordPress and WooCommerce.
   I have their customer information and mandate ID from the GCL account,
 * I now want to create their subscriptions in WooCommerce and need to know what
   metadata this plugin expects, to successful call for payment from the GCL platform.
 * I did a test with a real product and subscription and found these metafields 
   recorded by the plugin on the subscription record:
 * meta:_gocardless_billing_request
   meta:_gocardless_billing_request_flowmeta:_gocardless_billing_request_flow_idmeta:
   _gocardless_billing_request_idmeta:_gocardless_mandatemeta:_gocardless_mandate_idmeta:
   _gocardless_payment
 * I’ve got the data for mandate and mandate_id – what else needs to be populate?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [Dharmesh Patel](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dharm1025/)
 * (@dharm1025)
 * [4 days, 16 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/subscriptions-import/#post-18934403)
 * Hello Bill,
 * Thank you for reaching out to us, and for the detailed breakdown of the meta 
   fields you observed.
 * For WooCommerce subscription recurring payments, the plugin requires only the
   mandate ID, stored on the subscription as `_gocardless_mandate_id` (the value
   must begin with `MD`). When a renewal is due, the gateway constructs the GoCardless
   payment from that mandate together with the subscription’s own amount and currency,
   none of the other meta fields are read during this process.
 * Accordingly, the remaining fields do not need to be populated for your migration:
    - `_gocardless_billing_request*` pertain solely to the initial checkout flow
      and are not referenced on renewals.
    - `_gocardless_payment*` are written automatically after each charge, so there
      is nothing to seed.
    - `_gocardless_mandate` is stored as `array( 'id' => 'MD...' )`. You may set
      it to match for consistency, but it is not the value used when taking renewal
      payments.
 * Please also ensure that the payment method is set to GoCardless (`gocardless`)
   on each subscription, so that WooCommerce Subscriptions triggers the charge correctly.
 * We would recommend setting the mandate ID via the Edit Subscription screen (Billing
   → payment method fields), which validates the `MD` format on save. As a precaution,
   we would also advise testing the complete flow on one or two records before processing
   all 600.
 * Please let us know if any further detail would be helpful. Thanks!
 *  Thread Starter [billhodgson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/billhodgson/)
 * (@billhodgson)
 * [4 days, 15 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/subscriptions-import/#post-18934505)
 * Genius – that’s great news. I have a test environment and will try out a daily
   subscription in the GCL sandbox and watch what happens.
 *  [Dharmesh Patel](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dharm1025/)
 * (@dharm1025)
 * [4 days, 14 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/subscriptions-import/#post-18934542)
 * Sounds like a great plan. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you run into 
   anything unexpected, and we’d be glad to hear how the test goes.
 * Best regards,

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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 * ![](https://ps.w.org/woocommerce-gateway-gocardless/assets/icon.svg?rev=3239558)
 * [GoCardless for WooCommerce](https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-gateway-gocardless/)
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 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Dharmesh Patel](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dharm1025/)
 * Last activity: [4 days, 14 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/subscriptions-import/#post-18934542)
 * Status: resolved