With online invoicing and payments through Aisle Planner, you now have the option to enable Platform Fees on your invoices to seamlessly cover any service-related costs, with full transparency for your clients.
What Are Platform Fees?
Platform Fees are essentially an optional percentage based fee that is automatically added to a payment when your clients use a credit card or ACH bank transfer to make an online payment on any of your invoice that you send through Aisle Planner.
How Does it Work?
As the merchant, you set the percentage based fee and when it should be applied.
You can decide whether you want to apply a Platform Fee for credit card or ACH bank transfer payments (or both!)
You set the fee - the fee for credit card payments can be different than the fee for ACH payments or the same - you decide!
You choose when a Platform Fee should be applied:
You can enable Platform Fees for all new invoices going forward
You can enable Platform Fees on existing and new invoice templates
You can enable Platform Fees for all existing and future invoices
You can enable Platform Fees on just specific invoices
Once enabled, a Platform Fee will be automatically added to a payment IF your client pays by a Platform Fee enabled payment.
Please note: This Platform Fee is available for WEDPAY users only.
How to Set Your Platform Fee Amounts
Before you can enable platform fees, you'll first need to add a value (%) for the Platform Fee you'd like to add if a client makes an online payment through Aisle Planner.
A percentage value is required to enable Platform Fees for either credit card or ACH.
You can set different percentage amounts if you'd like for each payment method, and you can enter in up to two decimals (for example, 3.25%).
You can find this setting in your Business Settings⚙️ > Templates > Invoice Templates page.
Once you've added your values, you'll still need to enable Platform Fees. Read on below to learn more.
Please note: Transaction fees are for the entire payment amount, so you may want to factor that into your percentage.
For example:
Invoice Amount: $100 + 3.2% platform fee
Payment from client: $100 + $3.20 non refundable transaction fee
Paid to your merchant account: $103.20
Transaction Fee: 3.2%
Deposited to you: $99.90
To ensure you are covered, you might consider a platform a bit higher than your transaction fee. A 3.5% platform fee would look something like this:
For example:
Invoice Amount: $100 + 3.5% platform fee
Payment from client: $100 + $3.50 non refundable transaction fee
Paid to your merchant account: $103.50
Transaction Fee: 3.2%
Deposited to you: $100.20
Pro Tip: You can change your Platform Fee percentages at any time, and we'll automatically apply the new amount to all online payments going forward.
How to Enable Platform Fees
Once you've set your percentage based fee on your Invoice Templates index page, you'll be able to enable Platform Fees. There are three options:
Globally (recommended): If you want to enable Platform Fees on all existing invoices and invoice templates (and all new invoices and invoice templates going forward) check the "Enable Platform Fee" boxes in the Payment Options section of your Invoice Templates Index (in your business settings) and confirm that "yes" you want to apply this setting to ALL existing invoices and invoice templates. We'll apply this setting across the board - even to invoices you've already published.
Invoice Templates: If you want to just pick and choose which invoice templates to apply a Platform Fees to, head on over to each template to enable. Adding this option to your Invoice template will set it, so you can forget it! This fee will apply to all NEW invoices you create from enabled template.
Specific Invoices: Are you charging this fee on a case-by-case basis? You can enable this fee on only the invoices you designate for fees to be collected on all future payments on this invoice. If you make changes on invoices that have already been published, be sure to republish to set the changes live. Please note this cannot apply to previous payments on an invoice, only new payments moving forward.
Pro Tip: Platform Fees are clearly visible to your clients during the time of payment. However, if you choose to enable Platform Fees on one or both online payment methods, we recommend including the details in the notes section on your invoice so your clients aren't caught off guard. It's also best practice to include this information (and the fact that Platform Fees are nonrefundable) on your quotes, proposals and contracts.
🎥 Tutorial: Enabling Platform Fees
What Do My Clients See? 👀
Platform Fees won't appear on your actual invoice before they make a payment, but this separate fee will automatically be added to the payment due associated with your invoice.
When a client views their invoice, they'll automatically see Pay By options on their screen. IF a platform fee has been applied, we'll also include the fee associated with each method of payment:
When your clients click to pay online, we'll provide up front information IF a platform fee has been enabled for your methods of payment, including the Platform Fee %, the Platform Fee amount and the total due for each method of online payment:
Once your clients have completed an online payment, they'll receive both a "payment received" email notification AND a "payment receipt" for their records. Both will include information on the invoice ID, date and method of payment, payment amount, Platform Fee (nonrefundable) and total paid.
You and your clients will also see a recap of all payments, including a breakdown of invoiced amounts, platform fees and total payments towards the bottom of their invoice for full transparency and documentation.
❗️ Important Things To Know
While Platform Fees are legal at the Federal level, they may not be legal in every state. We highly recommend that you consult with a financial professional or take the time to do your research if you are not familiar with the regulations in your area, as there may be specific rules and restrictions that may apply to you and your business. By enabling this feature, you agree to Aisle Planner's Terms of Service and acknowledge that you are abiding by regulations based on your location.
Platform Fees are NONREFUNDABLE. If you need to issue a refund to your clients, please know this fee is not returned to your client. Platform Fees are yours to keep and help offset the cost of accepting online payments since Wedpay's processing fee for any transactions are not refunded to you as the merchant.