Payment costs for professional services firms.
Accounting, consulting, agency and legal practices bill by invoice and retainer. That means payment pricing can be spelled out right in your engagement terms.
Average invoice
High
A general description.
Card mix
Moderate
ACH is common for larger invoices.
Cost driver
Card-not-present
Keyed and online payments cost differently.
Where professional services lose margin.
These are the patterns we see most often when we review statements in this category.
Invoice-based billing
Card-not-present pricing usually costs more.
Retainers
Large upfront charges carry a matching cost.
Trust and escrow rules
Some accounts may not fit into a program.
Talking to clients
Terms and disclosures need to be written down clearly.
Illustrative model
Example | consulting firm
- Monthly card volume
- $95,000
- Average invoice
- $2,400
- Assumed rate today
- 3.2%
- Estimated monthly processing cost
- $3,040
These numbers are for modeling only.
What we usually deploy first.
We set things up in order, so the change with the biggest impact happens before hardware or analytics.
Pre-set for a typical professional service profile.
Adjust the inputs to match your own volume, ticket size, and current rate.
Inputs
≈ 40 card transactions per month
Total monthly processing cost ÷ total monthly card volume.
Residual cost retained by the merchant under a program structure.
Illustrative output
Estimated annual savings
$31,350
≈ 86% reduction in modeled acceptance cost
- Monthly processing cost
- $3,040
- Annual processing cost
- $36,480
- Estimated program cost / mo
- $428
- Estimated monthly savings
- $2,613
These are estimates only. Your actual results depend on your processing volume, interchange, card mix, processor fees, pricing and program setup.
Professional Services questions.
Other industries
See the numbers for your professional service.
Bring a recent statement and we will show you where your costs actually sit.
No obligation · Estimates are examples only