The Starter Integration lets your users send an unpaid invoice to debt collection from a button in your product. Here is what you build, what Debitura handles and what your users see.
What the Starter Integration is
The Starter Integration is one of two ways to integrate with Debitura as a referral partner. Your platform sends Debitura one collection request per invoice. Debitura then handles what has to happen before that invoice can become a collection case: sign-up, approving the connection, signing agreements, identity checks and fixing invoice details.
With the Starter Integration, Debitura runs more of the journey for you. With the Full Integration, your platform controls each step through the API in its own screens. Both use the same clients, agreements, collection cases and referral earnings rules. For both ways side by side, see the API & integration overview.
What you build
A collection button beside an unpaid invoice in your product.
One call per invoice from your server to Debitura. It carries your own identifier for the client, the invoice reference, the client's details and the user submitting it.
Opening the link Debitura returns whenever your user needs to act.
Following each request until it becomes a case (see Following progress below).
When your user has finished a step on Debitura's pages, they are sent back to the destination configured on your partner account. It is not set per request.
To see where the button can sit in a product, click through the demo journey: a made-up accounting app, from an overdue invoice to the client onboarding.
What happens when your user clicks
Your server sends one collection request to Debitura for each invoice. Debitura finds or creates the client and answers each request with one link. That link always opens the step your user needs to do next, so your platform never has to work out which step comes next.
Debitura picks the step in this order:
Onboarding - a new client signs up and signs Debitura's standard collection agreement. The onboarding pages show your logo and colour.
Approval - a client who already uses Debitura approves the connection to your platform (see the next section).
Signature - the client signs an agreement a case is waiting for, such as an updated Standard Debt Collection Agreement (SDCA) or a power of attorney.
Identity check (KYC) - the client provides identity details the collection partner requires.
Fix - the client corrects invoice details that need fixing.
Case - the client follows the collection case.
This is the order Debitura checks in, not a promise about the order of every page. For example, a new client's onboarding can ask for identity details before the agreement is signed.
A case being created does not mean collection has started. Agreements, identity checks and Debitura's ordinary case checks can still be outstanding.
Sending the same invoice for the same client again does not create a second case. Debitura returns the existing case, also when that case was created through the Full Integration.
If the client is already connected to another referral partner, Debitura refuses the request and offers no onboarding or case link.
Existing Debitura users approve the connection
If the client already has a Debitura account that is not connected to you, no case is created until the client approves the connection.
Debitura emails one approval invitation to the user you sent with the request. It shows your company name, the review link and the expiry, but no invoice details.
Debitura does not email every user in the client's company, and it does not send a new invitation for each invoice waiting on the same approval.
The approval page is also the link your button opens, so your user can reach it from your product too.
To approve, the user chooses which of their companies to connect (or creates a new one) and then approves or declines.
The invitation expires after about 7 days by default. The approval window is set per partner and can be at most 30 days.
If the user declines or the approval expires, no case is created. Sending the invoice again starts a new approval.
This is different from the Full Integration. There, Debitura does not email the approval link: your platform delivers the approval URL to the client itself. If a connected client's cases do not earn referral fees, see Missing lead attribution.
Missing invoice details and identity checks
Fixable invoice errors - if the invoice is readable but some details need correcting, such as a missing debtor address or an invalid date, the invoice becomes a draft in your user's Debitura account, with a task to fix it. The user corrects the details and submits the invoice. Saving a correction alone does not create a case.
Errors that cannot be fixed - an invoice in a country Debitura does not cover, or with an amount below the collection minimum, is rejected. A draft does not get around these rules.
Identity checks (KYC) - if the collection partner requires identity details, the case is held until the user provides them through a task in their Debitura account. Once the details are submitted, the held case continues automatically. The collection partner can still review the details afterwards.
Following progress
Your platform can follow each collection request in two ways:
Update notifications - subscribe to the collection request update webhook (collection_request.updated). Debitura sends it when the request's status or invoice outcome changes: when the request is submitted, and through approval, signing, identity checks, corrections and the case. You can use it alongside the case events in the Webhook events glossary.
Reading the request - your platform can look up a request at any time, by its ID or by your client identifier and invoice reference. It always shows the current step.
Update notifications are best effort, so your developers should also read the request to catch up on anything missed.
Starter or Full Integration?
Topic | Starter Integration | Full Integration |
What you build | A button and one call per invoice | Client onboarding, case submission and status tracking in your own screens |
New clients | Sign up on Debitura's onboarding pages with your logo and colour | Your platform creates the client and sends them to a co-branded onboarding flow |
Clients who already use Debitura | Debitura emails one approval invitation | Your platform delivers the approval URL |
Cases | One invoice per request; the case is created once the required steps are done | Your platform submits cases on the client's behalf |
Following progress | The collection request update webhook, or reading the request | Webhooks or polling |
Referral earnings | Same rules | Same rules |
You can mix both for the same client. A client who came in through a Starter request can also have cases submitted and reports read through the Full Integration, without creating a new client connection. Cases from both routes earn under the same rules; see the Referral program overview.
Qualifying for the Integration plan
Using the Starter Integration does not move you to the Integration plan by itself. Debitura grants the plan after checking that you have all three of these:
A live coded integration (Starter or Full)
A link to Debitura
A support article for your users
What the plan pays is explained in the Referral program overview. Before you launch, work through How to go live (non-technical checklist).
Related articles
Getting started with Debitura - the steps from first contact to your first referral
API & integration overview - what you can build with the Starter and Full Integration
Referral program overview - what you earn, when, and what counts
Missing lead attribution - when cases are not generating referral fees
Developer Docs: Developers: Want to build the Starter Integration? See Developer Docs: Referral Partners, which compares the Starter and Full Integration and links to a quickstart for each.