Payment cost control for finance teams
The Clearer Side of Payments.
Cece shows finance what accepting payments actually costs, explains why it changed, and checks it against what you agreed to pay. Every number is deterministic and traceable.
Payment cost rose 8 bps to $3.07 per $100. Provider pricing didn't change; a shift to e-commerce drove most of it.
- Payment volume
- $11.2M
- +1.8%
- Total Payments Cost
- $343,568
- +$14,731
- All-in cost per $100
- $3.07
- +8 bps
- Total Provider Spend
- $351,098
- +$16,591
- RecoverInternational card fee billed above Amendment 1$50,040 since Feb 1
- MonitorNon-renewal notice deadline87 days
What am I paying?
Every provider fee, classified into Core Processing Cost, Payment Product Cost and Total Provider Spend, in dollars and per $100.
Why am I paying it?
Cost movement separated into volume, channel mix, ticket size, pricing and product usage, adding up to the observed change.
Is it what I agreed, and is it competitive?
Billed fees against your confirmed agreement terms and a documented Reference range.
What should I do about it?
Recover billing variances, renegotiate commercial gaps, monitor renewal and notice deadlines.
Payment Economics
See what accepting payments actually costs.
Headline rates hide most of the bill. Cece classifies every provider fee into one hierarchy, so processing, add-on products and everything else you pay the provider are visible separately and add up to the cent. Dollars first, rates second.
- Same definitions for every provider and account
- Channel kept separate from payment method and product
- Unclassified fees stay visible, never dropped
- Gross Successful Payment VolumeThe denominator. Refunds don't reduce it.$11,200,000
- Core Processing CostProcessing, international and FX$325,970
- Payment Product CostFraud, billing, tax, identity, net of credits$17,598
- Total Payments CostCore + products$343,568
- Total Provider SpendEverything paid to the provider$351,098
- All-in cost per $100Core Processing EAC 2.91%$3.07
Illustrative merchant. Not customer data.
Cost drivers
Know exactly why cost moved.
A higher bill isn't always a pricing problem. Cece separates volume, channel mix, average ticket, provider pricing and product usage, and the drivers add up to the observed change. If pricing didn't move, Cece says so.
Total Payments Cost +$14,731, August to September
- Higher payment volume+$5,979
- Channel mix toward e-commerce+$4,764
- Payment product fees+$3,256
- Lower online ticket+$1,295
- Other / interaction−$563
- Provider pricing$0
Illustrative merchant. Not customer data.
Agreement Intelligence
Turn processor agreements into terms you can check.
Upload the agreement, amendments and pricing schedules. Cece proposes each commercial term with the page it came from, flags ambiguity and conflicts, and applies amendment precedence. Nothing is used until your team confirms it.
- Upload the agreement package
- Review proposed terms against source pages
- Confirm, edit or reject; resolve conflicts
- Compare Actual vs Contract
Illustrative merchant. Not customer data.
Actual vs Contract vs Reference
See where billed economics differ from what was agreed.
Cece compares what you paid with your confirmed terms and with a versioned Reference range, then sorts the result into three actions. A modeled gap is shown as a range, not as money owed.
- Recover
- Fees billed above confirmed terms, with the term and page behind them.
- Renegotiate
- The gap between your contract and the Reference range, in dollars a year.
- Monitor
- Renewal dates, notice deadlines and Market Drift, tracked separately.
Core processing cost as a share of volume
Illustrative merchant. Not customer data.
Cece AI
Ask across verified payment intelligence.
Cece answers in context: why a cost moved, what your agreement says, what to raise with the provider, what to show the CFO. Answers cite where each fact comes from, and Cece says so when the evidence isn't there.
What should I renegotiate?
CeceCorrect the international fee to the 1.00% in Amendment 1, then use the 6–13 bp gap to Reference and your volume growth to reprice online processing before the December 31 notice deadline.
Confirmed contract term · Deterministic calculation · Modeled ReferenceIllustrative merchant. Not customer data.
Reviews & Reporting
Board, CFO and sponsor reporting from the same numbers.
A Monthly Payment Review, board slides and PDF reports in your branding. Tell Cece what to emphasize; it changes layout and wording, never the figures.
Illustrative merchant. Not customer data.
Walkthrough
See Cece in action
One month for a sample merchant, from raw provider fees to the board slide.
What did accepting payments cost?
$3.07 for every $100 accepted. $351,098 paid to the provider in total, including services outside payment acceptance.
Who it's for
For the people who own the payment bill.
- CFO and VP Finance
- A defensible view of payment cost, and what to change before renewal.
- Controller
- Every fee classified, with lineage back to provider records.
- PE operating teams
- Comparable payment economics across portfolio companies and providers.
- Founders and finance leads at scale
- Payment cost under control without hiring a payments specialist.
How it works
From provider data to decisions.
- 01Connect read-onlyCece connects to your payment providers with read-only access. It never moves money.
- 02NormalizeProvider records map into one provider-independent model: payments, fees, channels, products.
- 03CalculateThe deterministic Payment Economics engine produces versioned results that add up to the cent.
- 04Add your agreementUpload the agreement package; confirm extracted terms against their source pages.
- 05MonitorDeterministic events flag cost changes, contract variances and deadlines by email.
Controls
Built to be trusted with financial truth.
No refunds, no payouts, no account changes.
Every figure comes from a versioned calculation that adds up to the cent.
Totals trace back to provider records and the calculation version that produced them.
Extracted terms carry their page reference and are never used until confirmed.
Customer data is isolated by tenant at the database layer, with audited support access.
Cece AI explains verified results and drafts communication. It doesn't calculate them.
Plans
Start with visibility. Add commercial control.
Cece Free shows what payments cost and why. Cece Pro adds your agreement, the Reference range, quantified actions and reporting. Pricing is based on payment volume; talk to us for details.
| Capability | Cece Free | Cece Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Payment EconomicsWhat accepting payments costs, in dollars and per $100 of volume. | Included | Included |
| Why cost changedSeparates volume, channel mix, ticket size, pricing and product usage. | Included | Included |
| Channel economicsE-commerce, in-person and MOTO economics side by side. | Included | Included |
| Products & servicesEvery provider product and service, on its own pricing basis. | Included | Included |
| Provider comparisonEconomics by provider and account under one set of definitions. | Included | Included |
| Payment cost alertsEmail when cost, fees or provider products change materially. | Included | Included |
| Cece explanationsPlain-English explanations of verified results. | Included | Included |
| Data exportExport the underlying payment economics as CSV. | Included | Included |
| Agreement IntelligenceTurns processor agreements, amendments and pricing schedules into confirmed commercial terms with page-level evidence. | Visible, locked | Included |
| Actual vs ContractCompares what you were billed with what you agreed to pay, term by term. | Visible, locked | Included |
| Cece ReferencePositions your pricing against a documented, versioned reference range. | Visible, locked | Included |
| Market DriftShows when the reference range moves even though your billed price did not. | Visible, locked | Included |
| Recover / Renegotiate / MonitorQuantified commercial actions with the evidence behind them. | Visible, locked | Included |
| Renewal & notice monitoringTracks renewal dates and non-renewal notice deadlines separately, with reminders. | Visible, locked | Included |
| Conversational CeceAsk follow-up and commercial questions across verified payment intelligence. | Visible, locked | Included |
| Reviews & ReportingBoard, CEO and PE-sponsor reporting built from verified figures. | Visible, locked | Included |
The Clearer Side of Payments.
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