Overview
Use residuals templates when your ISO needs to adjust agent payouts before issuing residuals. A residuals template applies payout adjustments to selected users in addition to their split percentages. Its rules recalculate item pricing based on ISO-defined formulas and data from the processor’s monthly residuals report.
Common pricing-adjustment use cases include:
- Creating multi-level payout hierarchies, such as agent, manager, and referral-partner configurations.
- Increasing or decreasing income or expense fields.
- Calculating residuals using contractually established agent buy rates.
- Excluding specific income or expenses based on the processor.
- Applying income and expenses for in-house products and services.
Each income or expense calculation is based on a column in the processor’s residuals report that itemizes the ISO’s cost to the processor. Reporting detail varies by processor, so an adjustment cannot be calculated when the required source data is absent. Make sure your ISO understands the processor’s charges. For some adjustments, you must also know where to find the processor’s buy rates so you can validate the residuals-template calculations.
Plan your adjustments before configuring a residuals template. Use the Residual Template Planning Tool to assist with this process.
Creating a Residuals Template
- Open the main navigation panel and navigate to Residuals → Residuals Management.
- Open the Template tab, and click Add a New Template.
- In the Template Form popup, enter a name and select the processor that the template will apply to.
- To add a rule, select the required Revenue / Expense Field from the dropdown. This is the report column that the adjustment will use. The available income and expense fields come from the configured processor mapping.
- Select the appropriate Action (such as Replace With, Multiply By, or Increase By) for the chosen Revenue / Expense Field, then click Add Rule. Add other revenue and expense fields as needed to complete the template.
The following field actions are available:
- Multiply By: This rule multiplies the selected column by the specified value. Merchant Central then calculates the difference between the original value and the value produced by the rule. For example, if the PIN Discount Expense is $20.00 and you multiply it by $0.05, the expense decreases to $1.00—a $19.00 reduction.
- Increase Per Transaction By: This rule increases income or expenses by a value based on the transaction count established in the mapping. For example, if a merchant has 150 transactions and you increase income by $0.02 per transaction, total income increases by $3.
- Decrease By or Increase By: This rule increases or decreases the original value by the amount entered in the Value field. The rule changes all negative, positive, and zero values in the selected Report Field by the specified amount.
- Replace With: This rule replaces every original value in the selected Report Field (all negative, positive, and zero values) with the specified value.
The following examples show ways to adjust an agent’s income or expenses according to their Schedule A.
| TYPE | Use Case | Select Report Field | Select Merchant Central Action | Enter Value | Example | Original Value | New Value |
| Network / Risk Fees | Increase from 2 BPs to 5 BPs | Discount Rate | Multiply by | 0.0005 BPs | Sales Volume $10,000 | $2.00 | $5.00 |
| Increase Amex Discount Rate from 8 BPs to 10 BPs | Amex Discount Rate | Multiply By | 0.001 BPs | Amex Volume $12,000 | $9.60 | $12.00 | |
| Increase V/MC/DISC/Amex/Debit Authorization Preferred from $0.03 to $0.05 | Preferred Authorization Expense | Multiply by | $0.05 | 1,200 preferred transactions | $36.00 | $60.00 | |
| Increase V/MC/DISC/Amex/Debit Authorization Non-Preferred from $0.06 to $0.09 | Non-Preferred Authorization Expense | Multiply by | $0.09 | 650 non-preferred transactions | $39.00 | $58.50 | |
| Increase VISA/MC/Disc Transaction Fee from $0.02 to $0.08 | V/MC/Disc Transactions Fee Expense | Multiply by | $0.08 | 1,500 V/MC/Disc transaction-fee count | $30.00 | $120.00 | |
| Increase Debit per-item fee from $0.03 to $0.05 | Debit Expense | Multiply by | $0.05 | 500 Debit Count | $15.00 | $25.00 | |
| Increase EBT per-item fee from $0.03 to $0.05 | EBT Expense | Multiply by | $0.05 | 450 EBT Count | $13.50 | $22.50 | |
| Monthly / Per Occurrence | Increase Chargeback from $10 to $15 | Chargeback Expense | Multiply by | $15.00 | Chargeback count 3 | $30.00 | $45.00 |
| Increase Retrieval Fee from $10 to $15 | Retrieval Fee Expense | Multiply by | $15.00 | Retrieval Fee count 7 | $70.00 | $105.00 | |
| Increase On File Expense for Agent | On File Fee Expense | Multiply By | $7.50 | On File Fee $5.00 | $5.00 | $7.50 | |
| Increase Batch Close Expense | Batch Close Expense | Multiply By | 0.001 | Amex Volume 12,000 | $9.60 | $12.00 | |
| Pay agents 90% of Net Income | Net Income | Multiply By | 0.9 | Net Income $100 | $100.00 | $90.00 | |
| Pay agent 50% of Income Item | Batch Header Income | Multiply By | 0.5 | Batch Header $4.20 | $4.20 | $2.10 | |
| Exclude PCI Revenue from agents | PCI Revenue | Replace with | $0 | PCI Revenue $90.00 | $90.00 | $0.00 | |
| Exclude revenue from the agent | Monthly Minimum | Replace with | $0 | Monthly Minimum $12.00 | $12.00 | $0.00 | |
| Exclude Annual Fee Revenue from Agent | Early Termination Fee | Replace with | $0 | Early Termination Fee $25.00 | $25.00 | $0.00 | |
| Flat Rate To Agent | Manager Fee from $0.00 to $5.00 | Agent Net | Decrease By (Value) | $5 | There is no Manager Fee of $0.00 | $0.00 | $5.00 |
| Monthly Bonus from $0.00 to $10.00 | Agent Net | Increase By (Value) | $5 | There is no Monthly Bonus of $0.00 | $0.00 | $10.00 | |
| Decrease Agent Net By Charge Back Income | Agent Net |
Decrease By Field (Income Chargeback) |
$35 | Agent Net $350.00 | $350.00 | $315.00 |
Modifying a Template
To modify an existing residuals template:
- Open the main navigation panel and navigate to Residuals → Residuals Management.
- Open the Template tab.
- Click View Existing Templates in the top-right corner. A popup window appears showing all of your templates.
- In the Actions column, click the pencil icon for the template you want to edit. The template opens in a new popup, where you can make and save your changes.
After updating the template, the revision number updates so you can confirm which version is assigned to users.
☝️ After modifying a template, use the Apply Latest Revision action (the checkmark icon) to apply the update to future residuals for users assigned to the previous version.
Performing Template Actions
When viewing existing templates, use the Actions column to perform the following actions.
The five actions include (in order):
- Edit Template: Edit an existing template.
- Delete Template: Delete a template. Deleting a template does not affect past residuals.
- Apply Latest Revision: After adjusting a template, apply its latest revision to the required month and year. This applies the most recent changes to all users assigned the previous version.
- Show Template Logs: View changes made to the template.
- Copy Template: Duplicate an existing template with the same rules and adjustments. You can then change its fees instead of building a similar template from scratch.
Assigning a Template to a User
- Go to Residuals → Residuals Management → Templates. Select the month and year when the template should begin applying, and click Change.
- Find the user to whom you want to assign the template, and click the user’s preview icon.
- On the user’s templates page, click Apply New Template.
- In the popup, select the processor and the template to apply to the user.
- If applicable, select the SysPrin from the dropdown. This option depends on the selected processor. Select Mark as Persistent if the template should apply to all future months.
- If the user manages other users and their subordinates need the same template, select the checkboxes beside those users’ names to apply the template to them as well.
- Click Apply to assign the template to the user and their subordinates if selected.
Assigning a Template to Multiple Users or Processors
- Go to Residuals → Residuals Management and open the Bulk-Assign Templates tab. Select users using the checkboxes beside their names. If needed, use the Group and User Class filters to narrow the list.
- Select the month and year when the templates should take effect, choose one or more processors, and select the template to apply.
- Optionally, select Mark as Persistent if the template should apply to all future months.
- Click Apply (N users) to assign the template to the selected users.
Viewing Pricing Adjustments
When a residual template changes item pricing, the adjustment appears in the residual reports.
To view these changes in the residuals report, select the View Template Modification checkbox. The report refreshes automatically.
Additional Notes
- Only administrators can access template modifications in House View and while viewing other users from the dropdown list.
- The House View of an account shows the actual percentage paid to the user after templates or other modifications are applied.
- When a template adjusts a revenue column, the CRM keeps the Total Income value unchanged and applies the adjustment to the Expense calculation to preserve data integrity.
- The rules are applied in the following order of precedence:
- Apply Revenue and Expense column rules.
- Apply TotalRevenue and TotalExpense rules.
- Apply Net rules and adjust the TotalExpense field.
- Apply Manager Global Splits, if present.