A Clover statement is somebody else's statement.
Clover is a point-of-sale platform sold by hundreds of different processors and ISOs, each billing on its own paper. Before you can read the statement you have to establish who is sending it, and the answer is often not on the front page.
What this page settles.
Three questions, in the order most people ask them.
Work out whose statement it is
This page cannot tell you what a Clover statement looks like, because there is no such document.
Clover is a point-of-sale platform owned by Fiserv. It is sold direct on clover.com and, far more often, by hundreds of independent sales organisations, agents and banks. The statement you receive comes from whichever of those sold you the system, on their paper, in their vocabulary, with their pricing model. Two businesses with identical Clover Stations on identical counters can receive statements that look nothing alike.
So the first job is identification, and it takes five minutes.
Look at the small print. Statements usually name the acquiring bank somewhere, often at the bottom in small type, in a sentence about the bank being a registered member of the card networks. That names your acquirer.
Look at your bank deposits. The name attached to the incoming deposits is usually the processor or acquirer.
Look at your merchant agreement. The company whose name is on the agreement you signed is the ISO. This is the one that set your rate and the one to call about it.
Three names is normal, and knowing which is which is what stops you spending three weeks asking the wrong party for something they cannot give. Who is who in payments.
The two bills you may be getting
Clover merchants commonly pay two separate things and conflate them.
The Clover software plan. A monthly subscription to the platform — Clover’s published retail plans are $84.95 and $104.90, and restaurant plans $89.95 to $129.85 when bought direct. A reseller may bill this through, bundle it, or price it differently. This buys the software, not the payment processing.
The processing. The percentage and per-item on your card volume, plus the usual fixed monthly fees. This is the larger number by a wide margin at any real volume, and it is the one the ISO set.
And possibly a third: hardware. Either bought outright, financed over 36 months, or leased. Clover publishes outright prices from $349 to $4,447 and 36-month monthly figures. If you are paying a monthly amount to a company you have never heard of, that is a hardware lease with a third-party finance company, and it is the most expensive line in most of these arrangements. Equipment lease fees.
Add all three together before comparing your Clover to anything else. People compare the processing rate alone and wonder why the totals do not match.
Reading the processing side
Once you know which processor is behind it, read it as that processor’s statement. The structure is the same everywhere:
Total card volume. Total fees, including every fixed monthly charge. Fees divided by volume, which is your effective rate and will not be printed anywhere. Transaction count into volume for your average ticket. The calculator.
Then establish your pricing model, which the statement reveals if you know what to look for:
Interchange itemised by category means interchange-plus, and you can audit it. Interchange-plus pricing.
Qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified tiers means tiered pricing, and the rate you were quoted was the qualified tier only. Non-qualified surcharges.
One blended percentage with no interchange shown means you cannot audit it at all. Blended pricing.
Adjustments referring to a prior month means enhanced billback, and the statement in your hand does not show what that month cost. Enhanced billback.
If the processor is one of the large platforms, the detailed guides apply: Fiserv or First Data, or TSYS, Global Payments and Worldpay.
What the Clover dashboard can and cannot tell you
It can tell you your sales, your transaction counts, your tips, your refunds, your card-type mix and your deposits. All of which are useful, and the card-type mix in particular — your debit share decides whether a flat rate is treating you well. Debit versus credit cost.
It cannot tell you what your processing cost, how your transactions qualified, or what interchange was. Those live on the processor’s statement, not in the point-of-sale software.
That split catches people out: the dashboard feels like the authoritative record of the business, and for sales it is. For cost, it is not the document.
The clauses that came with the box
Worth finding now rather than when you want to leave, because all of them were set by whoever sold you the system.
The term and the notice window. Clover publishes no term; your reseller’s agreement has one. Find the anniversary date and the notice period, and put two reminders in a calendar. Auto-renewal clauses.
The termination cost, and whether it is a flat fee or a formula based on remaining months. Early termination fees.
The hardware arrangement. Bought, financed or leased — and if leased, with whom, for how long, and whether it continues month-to-month after the term. Buy or lease.
Whether the hardware is locked. Clover devices are normally locked to the deploying processor, which means switching processors generally means buying new hardware. Establish this before you need to know. Can I keep my terminal.
The full list of clauses to find.
What to ask about
Of whoever sold you the system, in this order:
“Who is my acquirer, and who is my processor?” A party who cannot answer this quickly is telling you something.
“Am I on interchange-plus, tiered or billback?”
“What is my effective rate this month, and three months ago?”
“What is each of these monthly fees for?” — one at a time.
“What is my term, my notice window and my termination cost?”
“Do I own the hardware, and is it locked?”
Six questions, and the answers tell you more about your arrangement than anything printed on the front page. How to compare the answers to another quote.
What we charge
Interchange + 0.50% + 10¢ in person, interchange + 0.75% + 25¢ keyed, with no contract, no monthly fee and no monthly minimum.
Send us a page of your statement and we can usually name the acquirer, the platform and the selling ISO from the document itself, work out your effective rate, and tell you which of the six questions above you still need answered. That is useful to you whether or not you ever move.
While we are on the subject
Does Clover send statements?
No. Clover is a point-of-sale platform. Your merchant statement comes from the processor or ISO that sold and services your account.
How do I find out who my processor actually is?
Look at the small print on the statement, the name on your bank deposits, and the name on your merchant agreement. If those differ, the deposit name is usually the acquirer and the agreement name is the ISO.
Why are my Clover software fees on a different bill?
Because they are a different thing. Clover’s software plan is a subscription to the platform; your processing is a separate arrangement with whoever sold you the system.
Can I change my Clover's processor?
Usually not without new hardware. Clover devices are normally locked to the party that deployed them.