Transaction fees
Every payment method costs something to process, and that cost is the transaction fee. It is deducted from the payment before anyone is paid out.
Who pays it. The organisation that owns the order. If you install on someone else’s order you are never charged a fee, so “you” below means the order owner.
Where the fee shows up
| Place | What you see |
|---|---|
| The offer, while pricing | A note that the payout is worked out after transaction fees, and that fees vary by payment method |
| The payout statement | A Fee figure per order, alongside Customer Paid and Net Payout |
| The statement CSV | A TransactionFee column per invoice line |
| The month’s documents | A Transaction Fee Invoice (PDF) and (CSV) |
Why there is a fee, and why the rate moves
Different payment methods cost different amounts to process. A card, a bank transfer and a buy-now-pay-later agreement are not the same product, and the providers behind them price them differently. The transaction fee reflects what the method the customer chose actually costs.
It is the cost of the payment method, taken out of the payment once. The card schemes and payment providers do not bill you separately for it, and the customer pays nothing on top.
The rate follows the method. Most methods sit on your organisation’s standard rate. Some carry their own, because they cost more to process.
Two things drive that. A method that takes on the credit risk and collects from the customer later costs more than one that does not. And cards are not all alike either: the schemes do not charge the same as each other.
Because the customer picks the method, the exact fee is not known until they have paid. Nor, therefore, is the exact payout.
How the fee is charged
Fees are not invoiced per order. They are deducted from the payment as it is processed, and invoiced to you once a month.
Do not pay the transaction fee invoice. The fee was already taken from the payment. The invoice is issued as settled, and its due date is its issue date. It is a receipt for your records, not a bill. Paying it would pay the fee twice.
The monthly Transaction Fee Invoice lists one row per fee with the period, order, invoice number, invoice date, payment method, payment reference and fee amount. That is the document your accountant needs, and the CSV is the same data in spreadsheet form.
A refund does not return the fee
The payment method took its fee when the customer paid. Refunding the customer does not reclaim it, so the fee stays charged.
The customer is refunded in full, and your balance covers the difference. That applies to a credit and to a lost chargeback alike.
Reading a split order
An order can be split between a merchant and an installer. On such an order, the fee can appear on its own row rather than deducted inline against the customer payment. Either way the net figures still sum to the payout total. See Understand your payout statement.
Who pays it
The payment is distributed in a fixed order.
| Order | What comes off |
|---|---|
| 1 | Transaction fee for the payment method the customer used |
| 2 | Installer’s share of the line |
| 3 | Your part, which is everything left |
So the fee comes off first, the installer’s share is taken next, and your part is whatever is left. The merchant carries the fee, because the installer’s share is worked out before the merchant’s part is.
An installer is never charged a transaction fee on someone else’s order. The only way an installer pays one is on their own orders, where they are the merchant.
The installer is paid the share the offer states in full, with one exception. If the payment after the fee cannot cover that share, the share is capped at what is there. That is why a share set close to the full price shows as a range until the customer has chosen a method.
Set the share with the fee in mind, since it comes out of your side.
Was this helpful?