It’s not uncommon for a merchant to skip reviewing their month end statement. After all, they got paid for their sales so everything appears to be working as desired; why bother reviewing your month-end statements, right? Well… you might be surprised, reading your statement can help recognize the early signs of trouble.
A smaller (but growing) merchant hired an accountant for the first time to assist with their business. They had been operating for a few years and were looking for areas to save money, great! The accountant shared their first year’s reconciliation was a breeze, but a few months into the second year of processing, the funding deposits seen weren’t matching their batch reports. They were stumped, which eventually led to their call with my support team. While on the call, I looked for all the common reasons for the mismatch, but immediately I could tell this was more unique. The discrepancies were small: a few missing pennies here, a quarter there, never more than a dollar off. I promised a call back to the merchant. I knew I needed more time to understand what was going on.
I quickly recognized the issue started to occur on a specific day a few months prior, but wasn’t occurring on a regular basis. There was a noticeable parallel on the days that had the issue compared to those that did not; when there was an AMEX sale there was a discrepancy, but where there wasn’t all was well. This had to be the culprit, AMEX! Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed, AMEX was charging a “Transaction Non-Compliance” fee. When speaking with the accountant later on, I asked if there had been any recent changes. They shared their POS system reached out indicating a software update requirement at the beginning of the year. The accountant looked into the POS system’s menu and the exact day of the last update. You guessed it, it was the same day AMEX started assessing the non-compliance fee.
The solution was found! They needed to reach out to the POS provider and ensure the update was correctly implemented. The merchant later shared it took some time with the POS provider addressing the problem, but eventually the POS system was successfully updated and the AMEX non compliance fee was no longer being assessed.
There can be a few relationships to navigate when processing credit cards, and one small change in one system has the potential to impact another integrated system. It can get confusing! As your merchant service provider we take pride in being your starting point of any issue that may arise. We often recognize and fix most issues, but also are adept at leveraging our business relationships when necessary.