Product: Card Issuing
Who this is for: What makes up the monthly invoice for a card program, how the total is calculated, how to retrieve the billing reports that break it down, and when those reports are available.
What you will learn: Finance and operations teams at businesses running a card program with Reap, and anyone evaluating one.
Overview
Once a card program is live, Reap issues the business running it a monthly invoice covering all fees and revenue associated with that program.
This article explains the structure of the invoice, not its amounts. Fees and rates are specific to each program and are set out in your commercial agreement with Reap.
How the invoice is calculated
The monthly total is made up of three components, two that add to the invoice and one that reduces it:
(Monthly transaction fees + Monthly non-transaction fees + Card Production/Shipping Fee) − (FX revenue + ATM revenue + Interchange share) = Total monthly fee
Transaction fees
These are the fees incurred when cardholders use their cards. Because they are tied to individual transactions, they vary month to month with the program's activity, and every charge can be traced back to the specific transaction that produced it.
Non-transaction fees
These fees are not linked to card spend. They cover the operational costs of running the program and any additional capabilities it has subscribed to, such as card maintenance, and add-on feature subscriptions.
Each is billed as a count of occurrences multiplied by the agreed unit cost, or a minimum order where one applies. This is why they can appear in a month with very little card activity.
For the definitive list of what was charged in a given month, use the monthly non-transaction fees report described below.
Card production and shipping fees
These are the costs of physically producing cards and delivering them to cardholders. They are billed as a count of cards multiplied by the agreed unit cost, or a minimum order where one applies, plus the associated shipping cost.
Because they depend on how many cards a program issues in a month rather than on card spend, they can be significant in a month when a program onboards a batch of cardholders and near zero otherwise.
Revenue that reduces the invoice
A program owner can set its own mark-ups on certain cardholder activity. The mark-up is charged to the cardholder, and the resulting margin is treated as revenue for the card program.
Three kinds of revenue are credited to the card program and deducted from the invoice. They arise in two different ways.
FX revenue and ATM revenue come from mark-ups. A program owner can set its own mark-up on foreign exchange transactions and on ATM transactions. The mark-up is charged to the cardholder, and the resulting margin is treated as revenue for the card program. These mark-ups are set by the program owner, not by Reap.
Interchange share works differently. It is the portion of network interchange revenue passed back to the program, calculated against the revenue share tiers in your commercial agreement. It is not a cardholder mark-up, and it is not something the program owner sets.
All three are deducted automatically. There is no claim to raise and no request to submit, because the offset is already applied by the time the invoice is issued.
Because FX and ATM revenue are generated by transactions, they appear in the transaction fee reports rather than in a separate revenue statement.
A worked example
The figures below are illustrative only. They are not Reap's prices and are not indicative of them. They exist purely to show how the components combine.
Suppose that in a given month a program incurred:
| Line | Illustrative figure |
|---|---|
| Transaction fees | 4,000 |
| Non-transaction fees | 1,500 |
| FX revenue from the program's mark-up | −2,200 |
| ATM revenue from the program's mark-up | −300 |
| Total monthly fee | 3,000 |
Gross fees of 5,500 are reduced to a net invoice of 3,000 by 2,500 of program revenue. The mark-ups a program sets materially change what it actually pays.
Reconciling with billing reports
To validate the fees on an invoice, retrieve the billing reports. They give line-item detail for everything charged in the period, so each fee and each unit of revenue can be matched back to what produced it.
Available reports
| Report | What it contains | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly transaction fees | All fees and revenue arising from card transactions in a given month | Verify monthly transaction cost and revenue, reconciled at individual transaction level |
| Daily transaction fees | All fees and revenue arising from card transactions on a given day | Investigate a specific day, or reconcile more frequently than once a month |
| Monthly non-transaction fees | A line-item breakdown of non-transactional costs for the month | Identify and reconcile the fixed and service-based costs of the program, per line item |
| Fee report | Details of the FX and ATM mark-up fees charged to cardholders as program revenue | Track total revenue generated from the FX and ATM mark-ups that have been set |
The fee report is being retired. Where you have a choice, use the monthly or daily transaction fees report instead. Both contain the same mark-up revenue, reconciled at transaction level. Avoid building new processes on the fee report.
How to request a report
Billing reports are requested through the Reap API and delivered by webhook, so retrieving one is integration work rather than a download.
- Choose the report and the period. Decide which of the four reports you need and the date or month it should cover.
- Call the
GET /filesendpoint. The report type goes in the path, and the target date goes in the query parameters, formattedYYYY-MM-DD. For a monthly report, any date within that month will do. - Wait for the webhook. Reap generates the file and sends a download link to your files webhook. Nothing is returned in the immediate API response, so your integration must be subscribed to that event or the report will not reach you.
For the exact file type values, request parameters, and webhook payload structure, see your Reap API documentation or contact our support team.
When reports are available
Reports are not available immediately. Allow two calendar days after the period you want to report on. A report covers activity up to 11:59 PM UTC on the date requested.
| What you want | When to request it | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A specific day | On or after two days from that date | All activity recorded on that day |
| A completed month | On or after the 2nd of the following month | The full month |
| The current month so far | Any time before the month ends | Activity up to the latest available date, not the whole month |
Requesting a report for today or for a future date is rejected as an invalid date, as is a daily report for a day less than two days ago. Requesting a month that has not yet finished is not an error, but the report will be partial.
Adjustments to previously billed fees
Fees are sometimes corrected after a transaction has already been billed. When that happens the correction does not overwrite the original record. A new row is added showing only the difference.
An adjustment row carries the same transaction ID and card ID as the original, is labeled as an adjustment, and is timestamped when the correction was issued while still showing the original transaction date.
For example, if a transaction was billed with an FX mark-up fee of 5.00 and later reconciliation established that the correct figure was 4.00, an adjustment row appears showing −1.00.
This matters when reconciling. A row that does not correspond to any transaction you recognize is usually an adjustment to an earlier one rather than a new charge, so match on transaction ID rather than on date to pair it with the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do invoices start?
Monthly invoices begin after a card program has launched.
Where can I find the fees and rates for a card program?
Fees and rates are not published on the Help Centre. They are specific to each program and set out in the commercial agreement with Reap. If you are evaluating a card program and want to discuss pricing, see Reap pricing.
What should I do if I think there is an error on an invoice?
Retrieve the relevant billing report for the period first, so the specific line item can be identified, and check whether an adjustment row already corrects it. Then contact our support team with the invoice period and that line item.
Contact our Support Team
If you have questions or need assistance, contact our support team via the Live Chat in the Reap Dashboard (bottom right corner) or email us at hello@reap.global
For more information, visit Know who to talk to at Reap.