Batch

How it works

The expensive mistake is a batch that never closes. A terminal set to manual close holds its transactions until someone ends the day, so a forgotten long weekend can leave several days of sales sitting unsettled and unpaid. Run more than one device, or a terminal alongside an online gateway, and each one closes on its own schedule. That is why the deposits landing in your bank so rarely line up with your trading days one for one.

Here is what closing actually does. A captured sale sits in an open batch on your terminal or gateway, visible in your reports and not yet money. At the cut-off the batch goes to your processor, which sorts the transactions by card network and sends them for clearing. The networks debit each issuing bank and credit your acquiring bank, and your acquirer funds you from there. Before the batch closes, none of those steps have started. Nothing has moved.

So the cut-off starts your payout clock, not the sale. A sale taken at 9pm against an 8pm cut-off rides the next day's batch and funds a day behind the ones either side of it. Delay can cost money too. The card networks expect a transaction to clear within a short window after authorization, usually a day or two, and a stale one can be re-priced into a more expensive interchange category.

Worked example

Thursday's deposit is $2,379.28. Behind it: a cafe's 96 card sales worth $2,480 taken on Tuesday, batched automatically at 11:00pm so all 96 cleared together, less $100.72 in fees at 2.9% plus $0.30 a sale. One $60 sale rung up at 11:20pm missed the cut-off; it joined Wednesday's batch and funds on Friday instead.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I forget to close my batch?

Nothing gets paid. The transactions stay open and unsettled until the batch is submitted, and on top of that they can age past the network's clearing window and be downgraded to a costlier interchange rate. Most terminals and gateways now close automatically at a preset time, so this is rare, but any system that needs a manual close can bite you over a long break.

Can I change my batch cut-off time?

Most processors will move it if you ask, usually for free. Set it after your latest normal closing time and a full trading day stays in one batch, which makes reconciliation simpler and stops evening sales slipping into the next day's payout. Businesses that trade past midnight often go the other way and ask for an early-morning cut-off.

Why does my bank deposit not match my batch total?

The batch total is gross sales and the deposit is net of fees, refunds, and any reserve. Processors that bill daily take their fees out of each deposit; those that bill monthly pay you gross and debit the fees once at month end. Same-day refunds come off too. Reconcile against the settlement report rather than the terminal's batch slip.