Hidden Fee Finder for Manufacturers: Check Your Merchant Statement
Manufacturers take fewer, larger card payments, often by phone or invoice and often on corporate or purchasing cards, so a small rate gap or a missing data field can cost real money. Enter last month's statement figures to see your effective rate, how it compares to a B2B industry average assumption, and which charges are worth a question.
Your statement check
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
The fees you ticked
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
About your pricing model
Bring this statement. A payments specialist can walk through it line by line with you. Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
How this works: the assumptions behind your numbers
Every number above comes from the totals you enter plus the assumptions below. Assumptions are estimates, not verified rates.
- Industry average effective rate by segment: retail 2.55%, restaurant 2.75%, ecommerce 3.15%, services 2.90%, healthcare 2.65%, b2b 2.80%, high_risk 4.25%. Source: TouchSuite pricing assumptions file (estimates only; replace with verified figures before launch).
- Comparison tolerance band: ±0.25 percentage points counts as 'close to average'. Source: Tool design assumption to avoid flagging trivial differences.
- Last month is representative: Monthly fee amounts are multiplied by 12 to annualize. Source: Tool design assumption; seasonal businesses should treat annual figures as rough.
- Annual fee frequency: Annual fee entered as a once-a-year amount, multiplied by 1. Source: Tool design assumption.
- Early termination fee: Treated as a one-time cost, not annualized. Source: Tool design assumption.
- Fee classification tags: Interchange and card brand fees tagged 'typically pass-through'; listed account-level fees tagged 'typically processor-set'. Source: General industry structure; actual billing varies by processor and contract, so tags read 'typically'.
- Sanity check bounds: Warn if effective rate is above 15% or below 0.5%. Source: Tool design assumption to catch data-entry mistakes.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
Why manufacturers' statements behave differently
Most manufacturers do not look like a retail counter. You might run 40 to 200 card payments a month instead of thousands, with tickets in the thousands of dollars. Many are keyed in through a virtual terminal from a phone order, paid through an emailed invoice link, or charged against a card on file for a distributor's standing order. That makes most of your volume card-not-present, which generally carries different interchange costs than a card that is dipped or tapped in person.
Your card mix matters too. Buyers at other businesses often pay with business, corporate, or purchasing cards. The card brands publish separate interchange categories for some commercial card transactions that include extra order data, commonly called Level 2 and Level 3 data: tax amount, customer code, line items, and so on. If your gateway or terminal does not send that data, those transactions may be charged at a higher category, and on a tiered statement they often show up as Mid-Qualified or Non-Qualified surcharges.
Because your transaction count is low and your tickets are large, the percentage-based charges drive almost all of your cost. A $0.10 per-item fee barely registers on a $3,000 order, but a few extra tenths of a percentage point on that same order adds up quickly. When you use the tool, choose B2B as your business type; that segment covers wholesale, distribution, and manufacturing.
Worked example: a hypothetical parts manufacturer
These numbers are made up to show how the tool reads a manufacturer's statement. Say a machine-parts shop processed $120,000 in card volume last month across 60 transactions, and the statement shows $3,720 in total fees. Effective rate: $3,720 / $120,000 = 3.10%. Cost per transaction: $62.00. Average ticket: $2,000.00. The B2B industry average assumption in the tool is 2.80%, so the gap is 0.30 percentage points, which the tool labels 'Above the industry average' because it is more than the 0.25-point band.
In the gated breakdown, that 0.30-point gap on $120,000 a month works out to about $4,320 a year above the industry average assumption, and annualized total fees of $44,640 if last month is representative. If the owner also entered $2,500 of interchange and $180 of card brand fees, the tool would estimate $1,040 of markup for the month: about 0.87% of volume and roughly 28% of total fees.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
Fees manufacturers should look at first
Non-qualified and mid-qualified surcharges: on a manufacturer's statement these are often tied to keyed-in or commercial card transactions. Ask which transactions were downgraded and why, and whether your setup sends Level 2 or Level 3 data.
Gateway fees: if you take payment through invoices, an ERP or ecommerce integration, or a virtual terminal, you may be paying a monthly gateway fee plus a per-transaction fee, sometimes to two different companies. Check that you are not paying for a gateway you no longer use.
Monthly minimums, PCI non-compliance fees, and statement or service fees: these are typically processor-set and do not scale with your volume. A slow month can trigger a minimum, and a PCI non-compliance fee often means a questionnaire was never completed. Also look for equipment leases on a countertop terminal that sits unused because most orders come in by phone.
Picking the right month and reading a good result for manufacturers
Manufacturing volume is lumpy. A single large order, a year-end distributor restock, or a deposit on a custom production run can make one month look very different from the next. The gated annual figures multiply last month by 12, so use a month that reflects normal activity, or run the tool twice with a busy month and a quiet month and compare.
Returns and credit memos also distort a month. If you refunded a large order, check whether the original processing fee was returned; on many statements it is not, so your fees can look high relative to net volume. Make sure the volume and fees you enter come from the same statement period.
A good result for a manufacturer is an effective rate close to or below the B2B average assumption, few or no processor-set fees beyond what your contract describes, and no unexplained Non-Qualified lines on commercial card sales. If you are above average or on a tiered plan, the questions list in the full breakdown gives you exact wording to send your current processor, or you can talk to a payments specialist at https://touchsuite.com/contact.
Frequently asked questions
Most of our customers pay by invoice. Does the tool still work for us?
Yes, as long as some of those invoices are paid by card. Enter only the card volume, card transaction count, and card processing fees from your merchant statement. ACH or check payments that never touch the card statement should be left out, or your effective rate will look artificially low.
We see a lot of purchasing and corporate cards. Why is our rate higher than the B2B average?
Commercial cards can carry higher interchange than consumer cards, especially when they are keyed in without the extra order data some commercial categories look for. Tick Non-qualified or mid-qualified surcharges if you see them, and ask your processor whether your gateway is sending Level 2 or Level 3 data on those transactions.
We took a large deposit on a custom order last month. Should we include it?
Include it if it was charged to a card and appears on that month's statement, since the fees for it are in your total. Just be aware that the annualized figures assume last month is typical, so a one-off deposit can overstate your yearly volume and fees. Running the tool on a more typical month gives a cleaner annual picture.
Can we pass card fees on to our distributors through a surcharge?
Some manufacturers consider surcharges or cash discount programs, but the rules vary by card brand and by state, and they change. This tool does not address surcharging. Confirm the current requirements with the card brands and your state before adding any fee to an invoice.
Our contract has an early termination fee. Does that change what the tool shows?
The free results tag it as a contract term worth questioning. In the full breakdown, the amount you enter is shown separately as a one-time exit cost rather than annualized, so you can weigh it against any yearly cost above the industry average assumption.