Payment technology fees

When clients pay invoices or make prepayments by credit card, you can сharge them a 3% payment technology fee to credit card payments. This helps your firm offset processing costs. Learn how to configure this setting and manage exceptions.

How payment technology fees work

When this feature is enabled, a 3% fee is automatically added to the payment amount when clients pay by credit card through TaxDome Payments or Stripe. The fee covers the cost of processing credit card transactions, helping your firm maintain profitability without absorbing these costs.

Here’s how it works in practice.

If a client makes a prepayment or pays a $1,000 invoice by credit card:

• Payment technology fee (3%): $1000 × 3% = $30
• Total charged to client: $1000 + $30 = $1030
• Transaction fee (2.9% + $0.30): $1030 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $30.17
• Your earnings: $1030 – $30.17 = $999.83

The fee applies to several types of payments:

• Prepayments that clients make to add credits to their account
• One-time invoice payments , including bulk invoice payments
• Recurring invoice payments
• Proposal payments
• Bulk payments

Attention

The fee only applies to credit card payments. If clients choose to pay by bank debit (ACH) or debit card, no additional fee is added since bank debit transactions have lower processing costs.

The actual transaction fee charged by the payment provider may vary slightly from the 3% client fee due to the provider’s specific fee structure. However, the 3% rate ensures you recover most of your processing costs while staying within legal limits.

Before you start

Make sure your payment settings are configured correctly before enabling the payment technology fees feature. Only firm owners and admins can access these settings.

Go to Settings > Integrations > Payments and verify the following:

1. TaxDome Payments or Stripe must be connected . If you use a different payment provider, this feature won’t be available.

2. Your payment method should include Credit or debit card as an option. The fee will only apply to credit card transactions, even if payments via bank debits are also selected.

Enable payment technology fee

Enabling payment technology fee is a two-step process. Go to Settings > Integrations > Payments, then click Enable.

Review compliance requirements

As the merchant, you’re responsible for complying with rules that apply to your business. Important compliance steps may include:

• Verifying jurisdiction requirements where your firm operates
• Card network registration (requirements vary by network)
• Client notification (timing requirements vary by jurisdiction and network)

Specific requirements vary by location and card network and are subject to change. On this step, you’ll be asked to confirm that you understand and have completed these requirements.

Make sure to read and follow the compliance guide before proceeding. We recommend consulting with your legal or compliance advisor to ensure you’re meeting all applicable requirements.

Select the checkboxes to acknowledge the compliance requirements, then click Continue.

Choose exceptions

You may want to exclude certain clients from the payment technology fee, perhaps for long-standing relationships or special agreements. The exceptions list gives you this flexibility at both the firm level and individual client level.

At the Exceptions step, select which clients should be exempt from the fee, then click Enable.

Manage exceptions

You can change this setting anytime, by clicking Manage on the payment integration page.

You can also control the fee setting for individual clients directly from their account profile. This approach is useful when you’re already working within a client’s account and want to make a quick adjustment.

Go to Clients > Accounts and select the client whose settings you want to modify. Click Info to view their profile details.

If the payment technology fee feature is enabled at the firm level, you’ll see an Enable payment technology fees toggle in the client’s profile. This toggle is only visible to firm owners and admins.

The toggle’s default state depends on whether the client is in your firm-level exceptions list:

• If they’re already on the exceptions list, the toggle starts in the off position.
• If they’re not on the list, it starts in the on position.

When you change the toggle setting, it automatically updates the firm-level exceptions list. Turning off the toggle adds the client to the exceptions list, while turning it on removes them from the list. This two-way synchronization ensures consistency between the firm settings and individual client settings.

If you haven’t enabled the payment technology fee feature at the firm level, the toggle in the client profile will be disabled with an explanation. You’ll need to enable the feature in the firm settings first before you can manage it at the client level.

Client view

When clients make payments, they’ll see clear information about the payment technology fee before completing their transaction.

Note

When this feature is enabled, guest checkout becomes unavailable. Clients must log in to their client portal or use the mobile app to make payments. This requirement exists because the feature relies on saved payment methods, which are only available to authenticated users. Clients excluded from the payment technology fee can still use guest checkout.

Pay an invoice

When paying an invoice in the client portal, clients must always first save and then select a payment method. If a credit card is selected, a payment technology fee is automatically calculated and added to the total amount due. If a debit card or ACH is selected, no payment technology fee is applied.

After selecting a credit card, the Total to pay field updates to reflect the original invoice amount plus the payment technology fee. Clients can review these details before completing the payment.

Make a prepayment/pay deposit request

When making a prepayment, clients must first enter the prepayment amount, then save and select a payment method. If a debit card or ACH is selected, no payment technology fee is applied. If a credit card is selected, a payment technology fee notification displays and the total amount adjusts to include the fee.

The same applies to paying a deposit from a proposal.

Payment confirmation

Once the payment is made, the payment history displays:

• Payment amount
• Payment technology fee (if applicable)
• Total paid

When you view the payment details in the firm portal, you’ll see a note indicating that the client paid the payment technology fee. This information is also included in the PDF version of paid invoices, providing a complete record of the transaction.

Refund payments

When you refund a payment that included a technology fee, the fee is also refunded—in full for full refunds, or proportionally for partial refunds. For example, refunding $50 of a $103 payment (original $100 + $3 fee) returns $51.50 to the client.

To view the full details of a refunded payment, click the payment number in the payment history. The payment sidebar shows the payment amount, payment technology fee, and amount paid — as well as the transaction fee charged by the payment provider, the refunded amount, and the net total.

Hover over the i icon next to Refunded to see the amount of the fee returned.

To process a refund, follow the steps in Process refunds .

Integration with QuickBooks Online

The payment technology fees are synchronized as Expenses in QuickBooks Online , when the Create expenses setting is enabled in QuickBooks Online integration settings.

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