Applying a Surcharge to Online Transactions

Can I pass credit card fees on to my clients?

Nicole avatar
Written by Nicole
Updated over a week ago

If you take online payments and would like to pass on the credit card fee to your client, you can do this through your Stripe or Square configuration in Settings › Client Payment Methods.

Important Notes About Surcharges

Debit card surcharge rules may vary by state, regulatory, or card network rules. Please touch base with a tax professional or your local government for further guidance on whether surcharges are permitted in your area. In certain jurisdictions, such as the UK and EU, this may be illegal.

It is your responsibility to meet all legal and card network requirements, including notifying both Visa and MasterCard.

Calculating Surcharge Fees

Credit card processing fees are taken out of the total amount of the transaction, including tax, tips, and any added surcharges.

The following is an example of a $100.00 payment with an added surcharge:

Let’s say you enabled the 3% surcharge to account for the credit card processing fee. The total charged to your client's card would be: $100 + $3.00 = $103

  • If you charge your customer a total $103, the credit card processing fee will be applied to the total payment: $103 x 2.9% + $0.30 = $3.29

  • To determine the deposit you’ll receive for this payment, subtract the fee from the total payment amount: $103 – $3.29 = $99.71

  • Following this example, $99.71 will be deposited to your linked bank account. Reducing your credit card processing fee from $3.29 to $0.29.

Enabling and Customizing Your Surcharge

If you're interested in enabling this surcharge feature, in Settings › Client Payment Methods, you'll either integrate with your Stripe or Square account or edit your existing integration.

In the Configuration box you'll check the option to Apply a surcharge fee to all credit card transactions.  While 3% is the default rate to charge, you can customize that to be whatever percentage you'd like (up to a maximum of 4%) in the Percentage box provided. You can also customize the wording used for the surcharge label on your job ledgers and on the payment option screen on invoices in client access in the Surcharge Label field.  By default it will refer to it as a "credit card surcharge" unless this is changed.

Stripe:

Square:

When a client pulls up an invoice that accepts credit card payment, they will see a note about the added surcharge when that payment method is used, as shown below:

When they proceed to pay through that method, it will confirm their full payment total, including your surcharge, on the payment screen:

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