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Surcharges and Address Verification

Two things routinely make a card charge look "off" to a customer: a processing fee (surcharge) that makes the statement total larger than the invoice, and an address verification (AVS) result that does not match what the bank has on file. This guide explains both, where they are configured, and what to do when the numbers or flags do not look right.

How do processing fees (surcharges) work?​

A surcharge is a fee added to a card payment to cover processing costs. In MaidCentral Pulse:

  • The feature is off unless enabled for your company. With the surcharge feature off, Pulse calculates every fee as zero and charges the base amount only.
  • The fee amount is calculated by the payment processor, not by Pulse. At charge time, Pulse asks the processor to price the fee for the specific saved card, using the amount and the customer's billing ZIP code. The processor answers with the fee and rate, and the charge is submitted so the processor applies the fee on its side.
  • The fee can differ card to card. Fee rules vary by card type — a credit card and a debit card from the same customer can price differently — so the preview is always per card.

Where you see the fee before charging​

  • Office charging: when you charge an invoice for a customer whose payments run through the card processor, a Confirm Payment with Surcharge dialog appears first, showing the base amount, the fee with its rate, and the total. Nothing is charged until you confirm.
  • Customer portal: customers paying online see the same style of fee preview before submitting, and the fee line appears in their payment summary.
  • After the charge: every transaction stores the base amount and the fee separately. Transaction History and the Transaction Details drawer show both, which is the first place to look when a statement total does not match an invoice. The invoice detail drawer and the invoice PDF show the fee as Card Processing Fee, then Total with Card Fee (the invoice total plus the fee); Amount Paid includes the fee and any credits applied, so the total minus the amount paid equals the balance.

Where surcharges are configured​

There are two layers, and they live in different places:

  1. In Pulse: an administrator enables the surcharge feature for the company. There is also a pass-through option controlling whether fees are passed to customers. These are feature settings — ask your administrator or support to confirm how your account is set.
  2. At the processor: the actual fee rates (fee type and value) are configured on your merchant account with the payment processor — not in Pulse. Pulse's payment settings page shows the fee type and value as read-only and offers a Sync Surcharge Settings button to refresh them. Changing the rate itself is done with the processor.

Do bank account (eCheck/ACH) payments get card surcharges?​

They should not — card surcharges are a card-network concept. In Pulse, the fee for any given payment is priced by the processor for the specific payment method being charged. If a bank account or eCheck payment shows a processing fee you did not expect (for example, a $50 tip that settles as $51.50), treat it as an error to investigate, not as normal behavior:

  1. Open the transaction in Transaction History and note the base amount and fee amount recorded.
  2. Check the same transaction in your processor's portal to see how the fee was applied.
  3. Refund per Refunds and Voids only after you confirm what happened, and contact support so the fee setup can be corrected — otherwise it will recur on the next bank payment.

What does an AVS mismatch mean?​

AVS (Address Verification Service) is a check the card networks run on card transactions: the billing address and ZIP code submitted with the charge are compared against what the card issuer has on file. The issuer returns a result code, and Pulse records it.

Key things to understand:

  • An AVS mismatch is not the same as a decline. A charge can be approved by the bank even when the address check does not match — which is why a customer can see the charge at their bank while your records show an address flag. Whether a mismatch blocks a charge is decided by the card issuer and your merchant account's rules, not by Pulse.
  • Pulse shows you the raw result. Open any transaction in Transaction History and check the Verification Results section of the Transaction Details drawer — it shows the AVS result (and the CVV result) exactly as the processor returned them. The result codes are the processor's; their reference explains each code.
  • The billing ZIP does double duty. The customer's billing postal code is also sent when pricing surcharges, so a wrong ZIP can affect the fee calculation as well as the address check.

What should I do about an AVS mismatch?​

  1. Check whether the charge actually captured. Look at the transaction's status first. If it is Captured, money moved regardless of the AVS flag. If it declined, the mismatch may be why.
  2. Confirm the billing address with the customer. The address Pulse submits comes from the customer's billing profile and the address entered when the card was saved. Customers move; issuers update; the two drift apart. Update the billing address on the customer's Billing tab.
  3. Re-save the card if the address was wrong when it was stored. Adding the payment method again with the correct billing address puts the right address on file with the processor. See Saving Payment Methods.
  4. Several accounts flagged at once, but charges are going through? Verify a sample transaction at the processor. If the charges captured normally and only the address flags look wrong, the billing addresses on file are the likely culprit — clean them up account by account. If the processor's records disagree with Pulse's, contact support before making changes.
warning

Do not re-charge a customer because of an AVS flag alone. First confirm in Transaction History (and at the processor, if needed) whether the original charge captured. An approved charge with a mismatched address is still an approved charge.

Tips and best practices​

  • Quote totals with the fee. When surcharges are on, tell the customer the total from the preview dialog — the statement will show base plus fee as one amount.
  • Keep billing ZIP codes current. One field drives both the address check and the fee pricing.
  • Read the surcharge notice before refunding. The refund dialog explains how the processing fee is treated on a refund — see Refunds and Voids.
  • Investigate the first unexpected fee, not the tenth. A mis-applied fee on bank payments will repeat until the underlying setup is corrected.
  • Use the per-card preview when customers ask "why this amount?" The fee is priced for the exact card, so the preview is the authoritative answer.

Troubleshooting​

IssueWhat to do
Statement total is higher than the invoiceOpen the transaction — Pulse records the base and fee separately. Base plus fee should equal the statement line.
Fee preview shows zero but you expected a feeThe surcharge feature may be off, the provider may not support surcharging, or the amount was zero. Ask your administrator to confirm the feature settings.
Fee rate looks wrongRates come from your merchant account with the processor. Use Sync Surcharge Settings on the payment settings page to refresh what Pulse displays, and correct the rate with the processor.
A bank account / eCheck payment includes a card feeNot expected. Verify the transaction at the processor, refund only what you have confirmed, and contact support to correct the fee setup.
Surcharge and payment totals do not reconcileUse Payment Reconciliation to line up processor batches against local charges; the fee is recorded on each transaction so mismatches can be traced line by line.
Account flagged for AVS mismatch but the charge went throughAn approved charge can carry a mismatched address. Fix the billing address; do not re-charge.
Charge declined with an address-related resultConfirm the billing address and ZIP with the customer, update their billing profile, and retry per Charge Status and Safe Retry.