Processing Fees Explained
There are two separate costs to running ForkLine, and keeping them straight makes the math simple.
- Your ForkLine subscription — $49.99 per month, flat, no matter how many orders you take. See Subscription & Billing.
- Card processing — Stripe's standard rate on each card payment, paid to Stripe.
ForkLine takes no percentage of your orders and no per-order commission. There is no markup on top of Stripe's rate.
The rates
Stripe's standard published rates for US domestic cards:
| Payment type | Rate |
|---|---|
| Online (your ordering page, phone orders paid by card) | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| In person (card reader at the counter) | 2.7% + 5¢ |
Charged per successful transaction. A declined card costs nothing.
Card processing is a real cost and any system that takes cards has it. Be wary of anyone claiming "no per-transaction fees" — it usually means the fee is folded into a higher monthly price or a commission.
Why in-person is cheaper
A card physically present at a reader is far less likely to be fraudulent than a number typed into a web form, so it carries a lower rate and a much lower dispute risk. If a customer is standing in front of you, taking payment on the reader rather than a card-not-present method is cheaper and safer.
Worked examples
A $30 online pickup order
Order total $30.00
Stripe fee −$1.17 (2.9% = $0.87, plus $0.30)
You receive $28.83
A $30 order paid on the reader
Order total $30.00
Stripe fee −$0.86 (2.7% = $0.81, plus $0.05)
You receive $29.14
A $12 counter coffee order on the reader
Order total $12.00
Stripe fee −$0.37
You receive $11.63
Notice the fixed portion matters much more on small tickets: it's 0.4% of a $30 order but 2.5% of a $2 one. If you sell a lot of very low-value items, encourage combined orders rather than separate transactions.
How fees interact with everything else
Tips. Processing fees apply to the total charged, including the tip — the card network charges on the full amount. A $30 order with a $5 tip is processed as a $35 charge. See Tipping.
Cash. No processing fee at all. Cash orders taken at the register cost you nothing to process. See Using the Register.
Pay at pickup. If a customer orders online and pays cash at the counter, there's no online processing fee — the payment never touches a card. See Ordering Settings.
Refunds. When you refund an order, the customer gets the full amount back. Stripe returns the percentage portion of the fee to you but generally keeps the fixed portion (the 30¢ or 5¢). A refunded order isn't quite free. See Refunds & Cancellations.
Disputes and chargebacks. If a customer disputes a charge, Stripe charges a dispute fee in addition to reversing the payment. Disputes are far rarer on in-person card payments. See Refunds & Cancellations.
Delivery. Courier fees through Nash are quoted to the customer at checkout based on distance and availability. ForkLine doesn't mark them up. The delivery fee is part of the order total, so it's processed like the rest of it. See Delivery Setup.
Non-US and premium cards. International cards, currency conversion, and some premium card types carry additional Stripe fees. Stripe's published pricing is the authority on these.
Where to see what you actually paid
Your Stripe dashboard shows every charge with its exact fee, and every payout with the fees deducted. Reach it from Settings → Payments. That's the authoritative record for bookkeeping — ForkLine shows order totals, but Stripe shows fees.
For order-level revenue in ForkLine, the Dashboard and the CSV export from Managing Orders show what customers were charged, before processing fees.
Where to go next
- Payouts & Timelines — when the money lands
- Setting Up Stripe Payments
- Subscription & Billing — the $49.99 side
- Refunds & Cancellations
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