Payment / Transaction Costs
Direct payment-processing and transaction fees attributable to delivering revenue (card processing, gateway fees, marketplace take rates). A cost-of-revenue line where relevant; omitted or near-zero for invoice-only businesses. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier)
No public third-party standard anchors this KPI yet, so I'mBoard authors and maintains the definition — transparently labeled as editorial tier. See the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system and the back-attribution workstream.
Rogue ID: finance.payment_transaction_costs
Type: Currency
Domain: Finance
Definition
Direct payment-processing and transaction fees attributable to delivering revenue (card processing, gateway fees, marketplace take rates). A cost-of-revenue line where relevant; omitted or near-zero for invoice-only businesses.
Formula
Payment-processing / transaction fees attributable to revenue for the period.Why it matters
Directly reduces gross margin on transaction- or consumer-billed revenue.
How to interpret
Expressed as a percentage of processed revenue it should be roughly stable; spikes usually mean a pricing/mix change.
Calculation policy
How an AI agent should compute this KPI from messy company data. Free-text rules consumed at reasoning time — not a deterministic DSL. The most common ways to get this wrong are listed under Common miscomputations.
Inclusion rules
- Direct payment-processing and transaction fees attributable to collecting revenue — card processing, gateway fees, and marketplace take rates.
Exclusion rules
- Corporate banking and wire fees that are G&A (finance.other_ga / finance.software_it).
- Near-zero or omitted entirely for invoice-only businesses.
Required inputs
- Processor statements and the fee expressed as a percentage of processed volume.
Validation checks
- As a percentage of processed revenue it should be roughly stable; spikes usually mean a pricing or mix change.
Common miscomputations
- Classifying corporate banking fees here.
- Omitting marketplace take rates on partner-billed revenue.
Related KPIs
finance.total_cogs
Source
I'mBoard editorial — authored and maintained by I'mBoard, first published 2026-04-01. No third-party standard is cited for this KPI; when one emerges, the definition is back-attributed and promoted to the published tier (a minor version bump). Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.
Stage relevance
| Company stage | Priority |
|---|---|
| Series A | Recommended |
| Series B | Recommended |
| Series C+ | Recommended |
| Public | Recommended |
Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- Finance
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/finance/payment_transaction_costs.json - All Finance KPIs:
/api/ontology/finance.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Paid Marketing
Paid demand-generation spend for the period — search, social, performance marketing, and sponsorships. The variable media component of go-to-market. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
Product / Design Payroll
Compensation for product managers and designers for the period. Can be folded into R&D payroll at smaller companies; kept separate where product/design is a distinct cost center. — Finance KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).