Payment Pulse – Ep. 25

Merchant statements can feel overwhelming for busy business owners. Learn how to read your payment processing statement quickly and confidently in this Payment Pulse episode.

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Episode Transcript

 Noelle: Alrighty, thanks for joining us today. I’m Noelle, and I’m back again with Joe from our inside sales team. Joe, welcome back!

Joe: Happy to be here.

Noelle: In our last episode, we walk through what actually goes on behind the scenes when a customer makes a payment. And today we’re gonna build on that conversation. Every month, business owners receive a payment processing statement, and for a lot of them it’s something they glance at. They maybe check deposits, and then move on without ever really knowing what the rest of their document is telling them.

So, Joe, why do you think statements can feel confusing for owners?

Joe: They certainly can be very confusing and overwhelming if you’re not really understanding the terms that are used or what’s being said. To put it quite frankly, there’s a lot of information that’s packed on these statements and for most of our business owners that we work with, of course, they’re more focused on running a business than studying their statement or learning how to read their statement.

So it can certainly be a daunting task.

Noelle: Yeah, for sure. So Joe, when owners open this document, they see all kinds of different sections and don’t know where to start. What section would you recommend they start with?

Joe: The best place to start is exactly where the statement starts: the Quickview summary. Generally, most merchant statements will have similar sections on their statements, but for the sake of this conversation, I will specifically be referring to ours, which I certainly think is transparent and easier to read. This gives you a snapshot in that quick summary of just what the total volume was and the period date, and so it’s all right at the top to give you guys an idea of what you took in. And then we’ll go through the other sections, of course, in just a few.

Noelle: So then right next to that quick view section is a section called “The Breakdown”. Can you walk us through that?

Joe: Yeah, the breakdown. You’re gonna get a level view of what you took in that month. So your total volume, total settlement volume, which is just all of your bashed out fees, and then your charges and net deposit, so all that right in that breakdown.

Noelle: Awesome. And then there’s a details box that breaks out disputes, adjustments, and withholding in fees. Why is this part helpful for business owners?

Joe: Absolutely, this is great ’cause it’s gonna give them that view again right at that top so they can see what disputes or chargebacks (those are used interchangeably) if there’s any chargebacks for that month, or any adjustments that are gonna be coming from us, or if they happen to have some sort of program with one of our banks that withholding may also be there.

So that’s gonna give them that great breakdown, and individualize each of those so they can plan accordingly or recognize that those happen when they’re doing reconciliation.

Noelle: And after that, the statement moves into the transaction totals by card type. What does this tell a business owner?

Joe: So this section right here is actually very useful to any business owner because it’s gonna break down all of the card types.

So you got American Express, you got Discover Visa, MasterCard, and then even more honed in, it’s gonna tell you whether it was debit or credit. This is very useful information because it’s directly gonna correspond with your interchange levels. If you get a lot more debit card transactions, your interchange is gonna be lower. You get a lot more credit card transactions, your interchange is gonna be higher due to those fees that we’re actually about to cover in just a few.

Noelle: Awesome. And then next comes bank activity, right? Which is typically what most business owners care about.

Joe: That’s right. Yeah. So bank activity very plainly is just gonna state what date we made a deposit, and then it’s gonna tell you your amount. So right there on that first page, you’ll see exactly that. It may continue onto the second page depending on how many deposits you had, but it’s gonna say, “Here is the date that there was a deposit. Here’s the amount,” and then it’s gonna help you reconcile those.

Noelle: Then we get to the longest part of the statement. Everyone’s favorite, the fee section.

Joe: Yes, so the fee section is certainly gonna be the longest. Our statements are very forthcoming and and transparent with information, which is gonna make reconciling that much easier or even planning accordingly. That much easier because we will show you all of your interchange fees. The specific tiers within interchange that you are hitting.

And then it does separate it out by provider: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and then beneath that you’ll actually get a snapshot of our fees if you’re on an interchange plan with Xplor Pay. It is separate, so it can be confusing at times when reading a statement, but ours makes it very clear: “Here’s your interchange fees.”

So those are all going to the providers. And then below all the processing fees, those are fees originating from Xplor Pay, which is gonna include your rate and authorization fee more than likely, and whatever monthly fees that may be included depending on the products and services we’re providing.

Noelle: Great. And then there’s a section for disputes and adjustments, correct?

Joe: That’s correct. So those are gonna provide more details from that section that was referenced above in the quick view. So you’ll actually see what happened with those chargebacks or disputes, what day, and what type of dispute it was, when was the transaction date and a reference for you to reconcile and adjust.

Again, that’s gonna be coming from our company. So if you ever have a credit from us or anything that we need to do to rectify an outstanding balance or anything, we would actually make that clearly notated on our statements right there for you.

Noelle: Awesome. Thank you. So we worked our way through the full statement! To wrap this up, if a business owner opens the statement next month, what should they feel confident in doing?

Joe: Well, I’d say just being able to read their processing statement is so important. All of this information is condensed on this monthly report. Each month we generate that, of course. We’re putting our best foot forward every time with transparency, so I’d say, actually understanding these sections, after you watch this video and you look at your statement, you’ll see exactly what I had just discussed and we had gone over. So we’ll be more than glad to also connect and give you a more personalized conversation with your statements, but information is all right there. Being able to read your statement as a business owner so important ’cause there is a lot that takes place right there.

Noelle: That’s such a good point. Thank you for walking us through this in a way that explains exactly what a business owner will see when they open up their statement.

Joe: Yeah, absolutely. No business owners should feel confused looking at their own statement. Obviously we don’t want everyone to become the processing professionals because that is our job. You have a business to run though. So we’re gonna be mindful of that. We wanna give you that information very clearly so you can be more informed with business decisions you need to make to help grow your organization.

So that’s our intention of being transparent. Again, we are the professionals, so we don’t wanna burn you with another task to do, but I’d say knowing how to read these, it’s gonna do you a lot of good for your organization.

Noelle: Thank you again, Joe, for walking us through that process. For all of our viewers, Joe and I will be back soon to continue this conversation about the basics and fundamentals of payment processing.