Business Insider forecasts that credit card payments will reach $1.82 trillion in annual transactions by 2024. It is also estimated to remain the largest in-store payment type by volume. Every business that accepts credit cards as a payment form is expected to contribute to this growth projection. This calls for the need to have small businesses conduct a thorough merchant processing audit to avoid paying extra fees and ensure they meet their financial goals.

A single transaction can have several erroneous charges that could add up to thousands or millions of lost dollars for your business. Below is a guide on how to use a merchant processing audit to improve your cash flow. 

What Is a Merchant Processing Audit?

A merchant processing audit involves an auditor scrutinizing a business’s process statements to ensure every processing fee aligns and is consistent with the fees stipulated in their agreement. A thorough merchant processing audit can uncover errors and report accordingly if the credit card processor took as much as an extra penny. Varying factors determine the method and amount of fees charged. Audit services help you to understand the expenses and possible savings.

How Do Merchant Fees Affect Cash Flow or Profits?

Cash flow is the money that circulates in your business. However, certain factors can affect your business’s healthy cash flow, including merchant fees. Merchant fees are costs third-party services charge businesses for processing credit card transactions. It is often a small percentage of the product’s original price. 

If you are a vendor and have recently checked your statement and bills, then chances are that there is a list of other fees, apart from the merchant fees, present in your credit card processing statements. Unfortunately, how these extra charges come about remains a mystery to many businesses. But such fees often contain errors and overcharges. 

These inflated merchant fees mean that a business will have to pay for the extra fees that they didn’t budget or prepare for. Without a proper merchant processing audit conducted regularly, the business will suffer losses and experience a poor cash flow. If you want to avoid the unexpected merchant fees from affecting your business profits and cash flow, then enlist the services of a highly qualified merchant processing auditor. 

Benefits of a Merchant Processing Audit for All Retail Businesses

A merchant processing audit offers a comprehensive analysis of your expenses to ensure they’re valid. Below are the reasons for regular merchant processing auditing:

Uncover and Eliminate Hidden Fees and Save Money

Merchant transactions often have an associated fee. But you may not realize the effect it has on your business as these fees pile up. A merchant processing audit helps to review your merchant statements. 

The merchant processing auditor will investigate your business merchant accounts and interchange rates. Several variables affect interchange rates, including the credit card type used. But an auditor can help you minimize your credit card processing fee by cutting down on interchangeable negotiable rates. With the audit, your business could cut average spending per month by 20-30%.

Monthly Monitoring of Statements

Depending on the size of your business, the number of daily transactions can be overwhelming. At the end of the month, the statements can be too enormous to monitor yourself. Monthly audits help to monitor your statements and reduce the chances of error. Professional auditors have the necessary expertise, experience, and facilities to save you the trouble of cumbersome self-scrutiny, thus allowing you to concentrate on your core business and save money. 

Refunds

Results from a comprehensive merchant processing audit can help a legal team seek refunds from the credit card processing companies for the piled-up charges. Not only do you save your company fallacious expenses in the future, but you also claim refunds for similar charges in the past.

Work With a Professional Merchant Processing Auditor

Regardless of your business size and number of daily transactions, it is important to conduct regular merchant processing audits if you accept credit cards as a payment form. A professional merchant processing auditor will help you discover and then eliminate hidden costs affecting your cash flow and profits. 

The auditor can help you monitor your merchant bills and reduce recurring monthly costs. We can also help you seek refunds from the processing companies. Util Auditors, LLC provides reliable merchant processing audit services with no upfront costs. We also provide reliable resources for our clients with the latest industry systems and technology to solve their needs. Our successful track record of saving monthly costs and obtaining refunds is well known.  Contact us today to help optimize your merchant bills accordingly and avoid financial losses.