Card payments from Verifone to your books
A card sale passes through several hands before money reaches your bank, and each hand can take a cut. This page follows the money, explains interchange, processor and gateway as general ideas, and shows how to read a processor statement line by line.
Works with your POS, back-office & accounting stack
The register shows the full card total, but the processor deducts its fees and any chargebacks before paying you, and deposits can combine several days. Neither number is wrong. Book sales at the full total, record fees as an expense, and match each deposit to the sales behind it.
By the FuelCFO team. Where this page describes a vendor's product, the details come from the vendor's own public descriptions and can change, so confirm them with the vendor. Figures in diagrams are illustrative.
Verifone makes card devices and also offers payment services. Who actually processes your cards depends on your own contract. We do not sell payments, set fees or give rates, so use this page as a map of the layers, then ask your processor for the numbers that apply to you.
The device at the pump or counter reads the card and sends the request out. The customer sees approved or declined within moments. Nothing has been paid to you yet at this point. The sale is only a request, and the money follows later through the steps below, which is why a day of sales never equals a day of deposits.
A gateway is the connection that carries the request from your site to the processor. Some providers bundle it into one monthly charge, and some list it separately. If you see a small recurring line on a statement with no obvious purpose, a gateway or similar service is a common reason, so ask your provider.
The processor passes the request to the network and the cardholder's bank. When approved, the sale is queued for settlement. Each hop is run by a different company, and any one of them can add a charge. This is why one card sale can produce several fee lines on paper.
Interchange is the part of the fee that goes to the cardholder's bank. It varies by card type. The processor adds its own charge on top, and statements may show the two together or apart. For your books, the total fee is what counts, and it belongs in an expense account, not netted against sales.
Money does not arrive the same minute. A batch closes, then the processor pays you on a schedule set by your contract. Weekends and holidays can push a deposit later. A deposit that looks short may simply belong to a different day, so match deposits to batches before you call anything an error.
To read a statement line by line, go to the statement guide. To see what goes wrong, go to where it goes wrong. If you want a team to handle the books side, what we do covers it. Keep each month's statement.
Every deposit on the bank statement is tied back to the sales it settled.
Fees are booked as an expense, so sales stay at the full amount customers paid.
Disputed sales taken back are booked when they happen, not discovered at year-end.
A line we do not recognize goes on your question list for the processor.
The clearing balance is checked each month until it settles to zero.
Processor statement, register card totals and the bank statement.
We collect the processor statement, register card totals and the bank statement.
All three are needed to follow a card sale from till to bank.
Daily card totals are lined up against the batches the processor settled.
Daily card totals are lined up against the batches the processor settled.
A batch that closed late explains many gaps.
Each bank deposit is tied to the batches it paid.
Each bank deposit is tied to the batches it paid.
Deposits are usually net of fees.
Fees, monthly charges and chargebacks go to their own accounts.
Fees, monthly charges and chargebacks go to their own accounts.
This shows what card acceptance really costs.
Any difference is traced to timing, a fee or a missing batch.
Any difference is traced to timing, a fee or a missing batch.
We do not leave plug entries.
You get the books and a short note on what we found.
You get the books and a short note on what we found.
Fees that look high are flagged for you to raise with the processor.
Statement layouts and line names differ by processor. These are the general kinds of lines to look for. Ask your processor to explain any line you do not recognize.
An unfamiliar monthly charge appears and nobody asks what it is for.
A bank deposit is entered as income on top of the register sale.
A chargeback is withdrawn from the account and no entry is made.
Sales made on the last day settle in the next month and drift between periods.
The lines have unfamiliar names and you want a plain explanation.
You want to know what to look for before you sign.
Something came out of the account and you do not know why.
You want to find where the difference goes.
No contract on hand? Statements are enough to start, and we will list the questions to put to your processor.
You get one 30-minute call. We then take about 48 hours to go through your books and send you what we found, at no charge.
We set up how card sales, fees, chargebacks and clearing are recorded and keep a written copy.
We reconcile, close and report your first month, and repeat it every month after.
Pump card sales and how they settle against fuel records and your daily reconciliation.
5 services →Inside card sales, plus lottery and other programs that have separate payment rules.
9 services →Fees are deductible costs and refunds change taxable sales, so both need clean records.
4 services →Several merchant accounts, one per store, kept apart and compared across the group.
3 services →FAQ
More guides on the same system, or send us a day or a month for a free review.
Monthly bookkeeping for stores that run Commander: reconciliation, month-end close and Verifone totals posted into QuickBooks Online.
Read more →What the Verifone end of day report shows, what to check on it each day, and how it ties to your bank and QuickBooks Online.
Read more →What Verifone Commander does, which reports we need from it each month, and where those numbers go next.
Read more →Send us a day or a month and we'll show you where the three systems disagree.
Get started →See all Verifone guides →| Every gas station software guide →
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