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.

After receiving an initial data set comprised of merchant statements for the organizations merchant ID(s), Util communicates directly with the processor(s) to obtain related account data.

In addition to the application of proprietary knowledge and methods, the following bullet points outline some of the steps performed throughout the detailed audit process:

Processing program type was identified; flat rate, tiered, or interchange plus. 3rd party processing costs such as discount rate, per transaction and per authorization fees, monthly fixed costs, chargeback fees and other program costs were clarified. Any unnecessary, multiple, or redundant fees were identified.

Interchange costs were reviewed to assure that each card type being accepted was passing the appropriate level of data to receive the best available pricing. Cost basis was compared to multiple like-type accounts processing similar volume and transaction amounts within the client industry to assure cost is in line with market rates.