Consulting is a high-invoice business. Monthly retainers of $5,000–$25,000, project milestone payments of $10,000–$100,000, and advisory fees create significant card processing volume. When clients pay by card, your processor takes 2.5%–3.5% of every dollar.
A $25,000 milestone payment at 3% costs **$750 to process**. For a consulting firm processing $50,000–$300,000/month in client card payments, annual fees reach **$15,000 to $126,000**.
The Consulting Processing Problem
Enormous Per-Transaction Costs
Premium and Corporate Cards
Corporate clients almost exclusively use corporate credit cards or premium rewards cards — the most expensive card types to process at 2.3%–2.7% interchange.
Client Convenience vs. Firm Cost
Consulting firms accept cards as a client convenience. The client prefers card payment for cash flow management, rewards, and simplicity. The firm absorbs $300–$1,500 per payment in processing fees for that convenience.
Network Offset Pricing for Consulting
Invoice example:
Why Consulting Clients Accept It
- B2B norm. Corporate clients encounter network offset pricing across vendors.
- Large payments strongly incentivize ACH/wire. Saving $1,000 on a $25,000 payment is a no-brainer. Most clients switch to ACH.
- Firms already differentiate pricing by payment terms. Net-30 vs. Net-60 pricing is standard. Cash vs. card pricing follows the same logic.
David C. writes about payment processing for professional and B2B service firms. With a background in accounting and business advisory, he helps law firms, consultants, and accounting practices understand how processing costs affect their per-engagement profitability.
$10,000+
in potential annual savings with optimized payment processing.
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The first step to reducing your processing costs is understanding exactly what you are paying today. Request a free statement analysis and we will show you a side-by-side comparison of your current costs versus what you could save with Network Offset Pricing.