Card vs ACH vs Check: What Invoice Payments Really Cost eCommerce Stores
If your eCommerce store also sells wholesale, takes bulk or corporate orders, or offers net terms to retail buyers, every invoice gets paid by card, bank transfer, or a check in the mail. This calculator shows eCommerce stores what each method costs in fees, staff time, and cash waiting to arrive, and what changes if you move check-paying accounts to faster methods.
What getting paid costs you
Side by side, per month
| Per month | Card | ACH | Check | Total |
|---|
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
Scenario: move part of your check volume
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
Your payment-mix report
Four scenarios run on your numbers
| Scenario | Direct cost | Carrying cost | Total / month | Cash tied up | Days to cash | vs. current mix |
|---|
ACH-first moves 50% of your check share to ACH. Paperless moves all of it to ACH. Card for speed moves 25% to card and 50% to ACH. Card-heavy moves all of it to card. The highlighted row has the lowest estimated total monthly cost; ties go to the option with less cash tied up.
Illustrative interchange-plus card estimate
Invoice wording templates
Customers pay the way your invoice makes easiest. Put the electronic option first and the mailing address last. Replace everything in brackets.
Version 1: full invoice footer
Amount due: $[amount] by [due date] Pay online by ACH/eCheck or card in about a minute: [secure payment link] Paying by bank transfer? Use the ACH remittance details on file and include invoice #[number] in the payment reference. We will never change our bank details by email alone; call [phone] to confirm any change. Paying by check? Make it payable to [legal business name] and mail to [remit-to address]. Write invoice #[number] on the check.
Version 2: one line for the invoice email
Invoice #[number] for $[amount] is due [date]. Pay by ACH or card here: [secure payment link]. Checks are still accepted at [remit-to address].
Version 3: for customers with an AP department
Payment options (in order of preference): 1. ACH / eCheck (preferred): [secure payment link], or ACH to the account on file. Email remittance advice to [ar@yourcompany.com]. 2. Card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express): [secure payment link]. [If you apply any card fee, describe it here exactly as your card program and state rules require.] 3. Check: payable to [legal business name], mailed to [remit-to address]. Please reference invoice #[number] with every payment.
Setup checklist: ACH/eCheck and a virtual terminal
- Decide the order you will list payment options on invoices, with ACH/eCheck first if lower cost and faster cash is the goal.
- Confirm the deposit account and who at your company can see and change payment settings.
- Set up ACH/eCheck acceptance with your bank or processor. If you will pull funds from customer accounts (ACH debits), get each customer's authorization and keep a record; ask your provider which authorization format they require.
- Set up a virtual terminal for card and eCheck payments taken by phone, with a separate login for each staff member.
- Create a secure payment link or hosted payment page and add it to your invoice template and invoice emails.
- Require the invoice number in the payment reference field so payments match to invoices without manual lookups.
- Connect deposits to your accounting system and set a daily or weekly reconciliation routine.
- Write a call-back rule for any request to change bank details, using a phone number you already have on file.
- Never write down or email full card numbers. Key them directly into the virtual terminal.
- Email your customers' AP contacts with the new options and the date they start.
- Track the share of payments by method each month and rerun this comparison with the new mix.
Questions to ask any processor about pricing
- How do you quote card pricing: interchange-plus, tiered, or flat rate? Can I see a sample monthly statement?
- What fees apply beyond the rate: per-transaction, monthly, gateway, PCI, batch, or statement fees?
- What does each ACH/eCheck payment cost, and is it a flat fee, a percentage, or a percentage with a cap?
- How many business days until card and ACH funds reach my bank account?
- How are refunds, returns, and chargebacks charged?
- Which interchange categories will my business, corporate, and purchasing card payments fall into, and how does that change by card type?
- Do you support passing Level 2 and Level 3 data (tax amount, customer code, line-item detail)? From which entry points: virtual terminal, gateway, payment links, invoices?
- Is Level 2 and Level 3 data filled in automatically, or does my staff have to type it for each payment?
- Do large single payments trigger extra review, holds, or reserves, and how are those handled?
- Will my quote show interchange separately from your markup so I can see what changes on large tickets?
Passing card costs to customers
Some sellers add a surcharge to card payments, run a cash discount or dual pricing program, build card costs into prices, or offer early-pay terms for ACH. The rules for surcharges and cash discounts vary by card brand and by state, can include notice, disclosure, registration, and cap requirements, and may treat debit cards differently from credit cards. Confirm the current rules with the card brands and your state before changing how you price card payments. This report does not determine whether any practice is allowed for your business.
A lower-friction first step is to make ACH the easiest option on the invoice, using the templates above, rather than adding a fee to card payments.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
Bring these numbers to the conversation. A specialist can walk through ACH, virtual terminal, and card options for your invoices. Nothing on this page is a quote.
Where invoices show up in an eCommerce store
Your storefront checkout is not where this tool helps. It helps with the other revenue: wholesale accounts restocking your products, boutiques on net 30, corporate gifting and bulk orders, and B2B customers who order through a portal or by email and get an invoice. Those payments behave differently from consumer checkout. Tickets are larger, terms are longer, and many buyers pay however their accounts payable department prefers.
For eCommerce stores, card payments on invoices are almost always card-not-present: a payment link, a hosted invoice page, or a card keyed into a virtual terminal. Card-not-present pricing usually costs more than a card tapped at a counter, so card is typically your fastest method and your most expensive one on fees.
Checks are the opposite. The fee is low, but someone opens the mail, matches the check to an invoice, marks the order paid, and makes the deposit, and the cash can arrive weeks after you shipped. ACH and eCheck usually sit in between: a small per-payment fee, little handling, and a few days to settle. The tool puts all three on the same scale so you can see the true cost, not just the processing fee.
A worked example for an eCommerce store's wholesale channel
Hypothetical numbers only. An online skincare brand invoices $60,000 a month to retail and spa accounts, with an average invoice of $1,500 (40 invoices). Buyers pay 40% by card, 30% by ACH, and 30% by check. Assumptions entered: card rate left blank, so the tool uses its eCommerce placeholder of 3.15%; $0.50 per ACH payment; $3 out-of-pocket per check; staff cost $30 per hour; 2, 3, and 10 staff minutes per card, ACH, and check payment; 2, 5, and 35 days to cash; 10% annual cost of cash.
Baseline result: card costs $772 in fees and staff time, ACH $24, and checks $96, for $892 in direct costs. About $25,600 is tied up waiting to be collected, which carries roughly $213 a month at 10%. Total: about $1,105 a month, or 1.84% of invoiced volume, with a weighted 12.8 days to cash. Notice that checks look cheap on fees ($36) but cost $60 in staff time and $175 in carrying cost.
Scenario: move 100% of check volume to ACH. Monthly cost falls to about $883, a saving of about $222, and roughly $18,000 in cash is freed, with weighted days to cash dropping to 3.8. Moving the same checks to card instead frees slightly more cash (about $19,800) but adds about $318 a month in cost, because 3.15% on an extra $18,000 outweighs the speed. That trade-off is the decision most eCommerce wholesale channels are actually making.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
What changes the math for eCommerce stores
Large wholesale tickets. When invoices run $1,000 or more, small rate differences add up fast. Some wholesale buyers pay with corporate or purchasing cards, and passing Level 2 or Level 3 data (tax amount, PO number, line items) may qualify eligible commercial card transactions for lower interchange. If your average invoice is $1,000 or more, the full report adds questions to ask your processor about this.
Seasonality. Many eCommerce brands see wholesale orders spike well before their own retail peak, as stores stock up for the holidays. A check-heavy mix during that window means a large amount of cash sits in transit right when you are paying for inventory. Run the tool once with a typical month and once with your peak month.
Returns, credits, and deposits. Wholesale returns and chargebacks on card payments can carry fees, and depending on your processor the original processing fee may not come back on a refund. Pre-order deposits paid by card are charged at your card rate on the full deposit. Standing replenishment orders are good candidates for recurring ACH with the buyer's authorization.
Fees hiding in the rate. When you enter your card effective rate, use total fees divided by total card volume from your statement, so gateway fees, per-transaction fees, PCI fees, cross-border fees for international buyers, and chargeback fees are included. If you are considering passing card costs to wholesale buyers, rules vary, so confirm with the card brands and your state before changing your terms.
What a good result looks like for eCommerce stores
A strong result is not the lowest fee line. It is a mix where large, slow-paying accounts move to ACH or eCheck, card stays available for buyers who need it or pay quickly, and your weighted days to cash is short enough that wholesale growth does not squeeze inventory purchasing.
The free view shows your baseline and one scenario. The full breakdown runs four recommended mixes (ACH-first, Paperless, Card for speed, and Card-heavy), identifies the lowest-cost option, and includes an illustrative interchange-plus card estimate using placeholder pricing assumptions, not a quote and not TouchSuite's actual rates. If 30% or more of your volume arrives by check, it adds an ACH, eCheck, and virtual terminal setup checklist. If your weighted days to cash reaches 30 or checks take 45 days or more, it links to the Merchant Funding Payback Estimator.
Want to review the results with someone who works with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce stores? Talk to a payments specialist.
Frequently asked questions
My store already takes cards at checkout. Why would my wholesale invoices cost me differently?
Wholesale invoices are usually larger, paid on terms, and often settled by ACH or check instead of your storefront checkout. Card payments on invoices are card-not-present and can include commercial cards, which price differently from consumer cards. Your checkout fees tell you little about what a $2,000 net-30 invoice really costs, so model the invoiced side separately.
Should I choose eCommerce or B2B as my business type?
Choose the one that best describes how invoiced card payments are processed for you. The choice only matters if you leave the card rate blank: the tool then uses a placeholder industry-average assumption (3.15% for eCommerce, 2.8% for B2B). Entering your actual effective rate from your statement gives a far more useful answer either way.
My storefront and wholesale payments run through the same processor. How do I find my card effective rate?
Add up every processing-related fee on a recent statement and divide by total card volume for that month. That blended rate includes consumer checkout, so if your processor reports wholesale or virtual terminal transactions separately, use those figures instead for a closer number on invoice payments.
Can I add a fee to wholesale buyers who pay by card?
Rules on surcharging and cash discounting vary, and they depend on the card brands and where you and your buyers operate. Confirm with the card brands and your state before changing invoice terms. The calculator does not model surcharges; it shows your cost as if you absorb the fees.
Our biggest wholesale orders come in before the holidays. Which month should I enter?
Run it twice. A typical month shows your ongoing cost. Your peak month shows how much cash is stuck in transit when you are also paying for inventory, which is often where moving check-paying accounts to ACH matters most.