Cost reduction consulting
Cost Reduction Consulting for Credit Card Processing Fees
Fractional CFOs bring us in when a client needs a real financial win early. We audit merchant card processing, recover what was overbilled, and put savings on the P&L in weeks rather than quarters.
Average client savings run about 40 percent. The first audit is free, and nothing has to be signed to find out what the account is really costing.
The first ninety days
Your client hired a CFO to find money. Card processing is where it is still sitting.
Rent is fixed. Payroll is untouchable. Insurance was shopped last year. Card processing looks like a small line item and gets treated as a fixed cost of doing business, which is exactly why nobody has audited it.
Interchange is 80 to 90 percent of what card acceptance costs, and the card networks change more than 200 rules and rates twice a year, every April and every October. An account priced correctly three years ago is not priced correctly now, and nobody at the processor is going to call and mention it.
We find savings on about 99 percent of the audits we run. More than 90 percent of the accounts we review are not set up correctly, and setup and overbilling are two separate problems: an account can be structured properly and still be billed for things that were never real.
Where the money sits
Six places a merchant statement gives up savings
1
Interchange downgrades
Transactions settling in a more expensive category than they qualify for, usually because data the network wanted was never passed. It is silent, and it repeats every month.
2
Fees that were never real
Invented fees, inflated pass-throughs, and the same charge appearing under several names on one invoice. Nothing on a merchant statement is required to be called what it is.
3
PCI non-compliance fees
Billed monthly to accounts that were never actually walked through certification. Often recoverable, and always fixable. See PCI compliance.
4
Setup and configuration
The wrong MCC code, a gateway configured without the fields interchange rewards, transactions entered in the way that guarantees the worst available rate.
5
Contract terms
Early termination, equipment and data breach clauses written to make leaving expensive. See restructuring contracts.
6
Drift
New locations, a new gateway, a quiet repricing. Accounts move away from what was negotiated, which is why a single audit is not the whole answer.
The work
What we do once you hand us a statement
weAudit fixes overbilling. It does not simply report it, and it does not hand your client a slide deck of theoretical savings to go chase on their own.
A 10-point audit of the client’s statements, covering fees, MCC codes, gateway setup and configuration
Interchange optimization, so every transaction settles at the lowest rate it actually qualifies for
Restructuring the deal with the processor the client already has, or with a new one. That choice stays with the client
Legal recovery of past overbilling through a nationwide attorney network. See refunds and fee recovery
Contract cleanup, where attorneys strip early termination, equipment and data breach clauses
PCI compliance handled directly, with most clients certified in under an hour
Monthly audits after that, because accounts drift and a quiet month is the product
Built for fractional CFOs
How it works when you bring us into a client
1
You send one statement
One recent merchant processing statement is enough to start. No portal access, no vendor questionnaire, nothing for your client to build.
2
We audit it free
You get back what the account is really costing, what is recoverable, and what it should cost. If there is nothing worth pursuing, we say so.
3
We fix it, not just flag it
Interchange gets optimized, the deal gets restructured, and past overbilling goes to the attorneys. Your client keeps running their business.
4
You report the win
Savings land on the P&L in weeks, with a documented before and after you can put in front of an owner or a board.
If you would rather refer clients than manage the engagement, the partner program covers how that works. If a company reading this is still choosing a CFO firm, we keep a plain comparison of fractional CFO companies and what each one is built for.
The difference
Why this is not generic cost reduction consulting
Most cost reduction services are run by generalists who benchmark a company’s spend against a database and take a percentage of whatever turns up. That model has two problems on card processing. The answers are not in a benchmark, they are in interchange qualification rules and in the specific way a processor bills. And a percentage fee pays a consultant to find savings, not to go fix the account and keep it fixed.
weAudit came out of the processing industry. A merchant has negotiated two or three of these deals in a lifetime, against a company that does it all day, every day, and has for decades. Knowing the rules as well as the processor does is what levels that
weAudit is partially owned by an attorney and applies the same principle: never represent two parties with conflicting agendas. It represents the merchant only
A low flat monthly fee based on processing volume and account complexity. Never a percentage of savings, never an advisory fee
No revenue share, no referral arrangement and no financial tie to any processor or ISO. The fee is identical whether a client stays, renegotiates or switches
If the savings found do not exceed what weAudit would charge, the fee is waived and the client is taken on at no cost
Sixty days to love the results or every dollar paid comes back. Month to month after that, with no contract holding anyone in place
Approved nonprofits are audited and served free, permanently
Two anonymized examples of what an audit turns up: four fees, four names, one invoice and a settlement fee worth 60 basis points.
Questions we get from CFOs
Before you bring us to a client
Who pays, the fractional CFO or the client?
The client engages weAudit directly, and the first audit is free. Bringing us in costs you nothing and does not come out of your own engagement budget.
Do you take a percentage of the savings?
No. It is a flat monthly fee set by processing volume and account complexity, published on this site for merchants processing 5 million dollars a year or less. Above that the fee is quoted, because those accounts carry real complexity and often many locations. It is still a flat fee, never a percentage.
Does my client have to change processors?
No. We try to fix the processor the client already has first. Sometimes the right answer is to move, sometimes it is to stay and repair the deal, and the first question is always whether this is a fight that should have happened at all. weAudit is paid the same either way.
How fast does anything show up?
Savings from interchange optimization and removed fees show up on the next statements, in weeks. Legal recovery of past overbilling runs on its own clock and depends on the agreement and the facts.
What if the audit finds nothing?
Then it costs nothing, and if what we find does not exceed our fee, we waive the fee. We look as hard as we can on every audit regardless, because that is the job, not because the pay depends on it.
What does the ongoing service cost?
Pricing is published. See what an audit costs, or what sets weAudit apart for the guarantees in full.
For fractional CFOs
Fractional CFO Toolkit
Free guides for fractional CFOs who want to walk into every client with the first win already in view. See the full toolkit.
1
CFO interview questions and answers
The questions you will be asked, how strong candidates answer, and the cost-savings answer most candidates miss. Read the interview guide
2
The CFO’s first 90 days
A week-by-week plan for new, interim and fractional CFOs, built around a hard-dollar win by day 90. See the 90-day plan
3
Fractional CFO rates and salary
What fractional CFOs charge by the hour and by the month, what they earn, and how to make the fee look small. See the rates
4
Fractional CFO companies
Nine fractional CFO firms described from their own published material. Nothing ranked, nobody paid. Browse the firms
Send us one statement
One recent merchant statement is enough for us to tell you what your client is paying, what is recoverable, and what the account should cost. The first audit is free and there is nothing to sign.
Want to talk?
- Call us today 800-672-1292
- Book a free consultation
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