Reconcile a merchant payout without mistaking it for sales
A clearing-account workflow for tying gross activity, fees, refunds, disputes, processor balances, and bank deposits.
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FOR BUSINESS / THE NUMBERS DESK
See what the
headline rate leaves out.
A payment stack affects cost, cash flow and the work of running a business. Start by making the assumptions visible.
A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN
Follow a reading path.
THE NUMBERS DESK / INTERACTIVE WORKSHEET
Small fees.
Real differences.
A percentage is only part of the story. Change the sale size and transaction count to see how a fixed fee changes the effective rate.
Illustrative inputs, not a provider quote. Assumes identical sales and a simple percentage-plus-fixed-fee plan. Excludes refunds, disputes, taxes, FX, hardware and other charges.
Learn to read a processor statementILLUSTRATIVE MONTHLY STATEMENT USD
Gross sales$20,000.00
Percentage fees$580.00
Fixed transaction fees$150.00
Monthly plan fee$0.00
Total fees$730.00
Effective rate3.65%
Show the calculation
Gross sales = transactions × average sale.
Total fees = gross sales × (percentage ÷ 100) + transactions × fixed fee + monthly plan fee.
Effective rate = total fees ÷ gross sales × 100. Undefined when sales are zero.
THE OPERATOR’S READING LIST
Make the statement make sense.
Merchant reserves and negative balances: read the cash position in layers
A practical cash-control guide to pending, available, reserved, and negative processor balances.
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Read a remittance disclosure from total paid to amount received
A line-by-line guide to sender total, fees, exchange rate, covered third-party charges, and total to recipient.
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Verify an invoice bank-detail change before paying
A dual-control callback and vendor-master workflow for invoice-modification and business-email-compromise attempts.
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Normalize processor quotes before comparing the headline rate
A worked worksheet for comparing blended and interchange-plus quotes on the same hypothetical transaction mix.
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Launch payment acceptance as an operating system, not a checkout button
A small-business launch checklist spanning channels, cash flow, returns, records, access, and incident readiness.
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Recover recurring payments without surprising the customer
A customer-safe dunning design that separates retryable failures, account updates, notices, grace, and cancellation.
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Buy Now, Pay Later: True Costs, Credit Reporting, and the Rules in 2026
What BNPL really costs in 2026: late fees, APRs, credit reporting, FICO's BNPL scores, and new U.S. state and UK rules, explained in plain English.
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Earned Wage Access: Helpful Paycheck Advance or Credit in Disguise?
How earned wage access works, what it really costs, and where the law stands in 2026: CFPB's opinion, state laws, court cases, and a House bill.
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Interchange Fees: The Hidden Cost Inside Every Card Purchase
What interchange fees are, who sets and collects them, why rewards cards cost merchants more, and where 2026 debit caps and swipe-fee cases stand.
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Make sense of your processing statement.
Find the percentage, fixed charges and extras in the total.
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Choosing a Payment Processor for a Small Business: Stripe, Square, PayPal, and More
Compare small-business payment processors on published 2026 fees, pricing models, payouts, and contracts: Stripe, Square, PayPal, Shopify, Adyen, and more.
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The Real Cost of Sending Money Abroad: How Exchange-Rate Markups Hide Fees
Why a 'no fee' international transfer can still cost you: how exchange-rate markups work, how to compare total cost, and your rights under U.S. rules.
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Embedded Finance: Why Every Software Company Wants to Offer Financial Products
What embedded finance is, how software platforms add payments, lending, and accounts, how the money flows, and the risks after the Synapse collapse.
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Corporate Cards and Spend Management: How Brex, Ramp, and Others Changed Business Spending
How startup corporate cards and spend management software work, how they make money, what they cost as of 2026, and what to check before switching.
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How Fintech Companies Make Money: Interchange, Float, Lending, and More
Plain-English guide to fintech revenue: interchange, interest on deposits, lending, order flow, subscriptions, and fees, with 2026 examples.
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