You can charge merchants a recurring fee for accessing your platform by setting up a platform service fee. This tutorial shows you how to create a custom platform fee that automatically charges an individual merchant or a group of merchants for using the platform.
Audience: Partner
Set Up a Custom Platform Fee
Ensure that you complete the prerequisites and all tasks in a section to enable the respective fee.
Prerequisites
Before attempting this tutorial, you must:
Meet the general prerequisites described in Get Started with Use Case Tutorials.
Understand the types of fees you can create and how to structure them.
Notify any existing merchants before you apply a new platform fee to their account. By including the fee in your terms and conditions, merchants accept the costs as a monthly fee schedule, eliminating the need for a third-party billing solution.
Set Up a Custom Platform for a Group of Merchants
Complete all steps in the following sections.
Open the Group Profile
Click GROUPS in the left navigation panel to open the Groups page.
Locate the group in the table and select any information in the table row to open the Group Profile page.
Add a Fee to the Group Profile
Click FEES in the list of tabs on the left side of the page.
Click ADD FEE in the upper-right corner of the page to open the Add Fee dialog on the page.
Click the When to Trigger the Fee dropdown menu and choose from the following:
Months (recommended)
Days
Weeks
Years
Single
Enter the charge frequency in the Every How Many Monthly field. A value of 1 is recommended.
Click the How Much is the Fee dropdown menu and then select ACTUAL.
Enter the fee as a dollar amount in the Amount field.
Tip
If you’re unsure of how much to charge for a specific fee type, refer to the Visa and Mastercard card brand network guidelines.
Enter the date on which the fee becomes effective.
Tip
Using today’s date as the Fee Start Date is recommended to make the fee effective immediately.
The start date default setting in the Add Fee dialog will use today’s date. If you need to change or reset the fee start date, click on the CALENDAR icon under the Fee Start Date section and select the start date.
(Optional) Enter a name for the new fee in the Fee Name field. This helps to identify your fee when viewing the portal.
(Optional) Click ADVANCED OPTIONS to open the Advanced section, where you can add a charging entity, collection information, or conditional rules for the fee.
Click ADD to finish the setup.
Result: The fee is now visible in the group profile fees tab, and will trigger at the scheduled interval to charge any merchant associated with the group.
Set Up a Custom Platform Fee for an Individual Merchant
Complete all steps in the following sections.
Open the Merchant Profile
Click MERCHANTS in the left navigation panel to open the Merchants page.
Locate the merchant in the table and select any information in the table row to open the Merchant Profile page.
Add a Fee to the Merchant Profile
Complete all steps listed in the Add a Fee to the Group Profile section.
Result: The fee is now visible in the Merchant Profile Fees tab, and will trigger at the scheduled interval to charge that merchant.
Next Steps
After adding the new fee, review the following guides for information on related topics:
Set Up a Transaction Fee: Set up transaction fees for a merchant account or group.
Enable Transaction Event Alerts: Create an email alert that triggers when a transaction is created or updated by you or one of your users.