How do I cut payment-processing fees on recurring agency invoices?

The biggest lever is moving recurring clients off cards and onto ACH bank-link payments, where the per-transaction fee is typically a flat amount rather than a percentage of the invoice. In HubWho, clients connect a bank account once via Plaid, then recurring invoices auto-draft on their due date. Card stays available for clients who insist on it, and HubWho's per-client margin view lets you see, on demand, what each payment method is actually costing you against what you bill.

On a $2,000/month retainer, a percentage-based card fee scales with the invoice while a flat ACH fee does not — so the single highest-leverage move an agency can make is changing the default payment rail for its recurring clients. Below is the operator-level playbook for doing that without adding friction for the client, plus how HubWho is built to support each step. Every capability here reflects what the platform actually does today; where something is on the roadmap, it's labeled as such.

Why the answer is what it is

ACH bank-link beats cards on percentage fees

Card processing is charged as a percentage of the invoice, so the fee grows with every retainer increase. ACH bank-debit is typically priced as a small flat per-transaction fee. HubWho takes payment by ACH bank-link through Plaid and by card, so you can make ACH the default rail for recurring clients and reserve cards for the few who require them.

Auto-draft removes the re-keying that creates fees and failures

Once a client connects their bank account once via Plaid, HubWho's recurring billing is built to auto-draft the invoice on its due date. That removes manual card re-entry, which both keeps clients on the lower-fee rail and reduces the failed-payment churn that pushes you back toward expensive ad-hoc collection.

See the fee against true per-client margin, on demand

Processing fees only matter relative to what you keep. HubWho computes per-client margin on demand — what you bill versus your own entered wholesale/product cost — so you can pull up a client and see how a card surcharge is eating your spread versus moving them to ACH. The margin uses costs you enter, not any third-party feed.

One system instead of QuickBooks plus spreadsheets

Agencies usually lose fee visibility because billing, payments, and margin live in separate tools. HubWho puts recurring invoicing, ACH and card payments, and per-client margin in one platform, with a white-label client portal on your own domain, so the payment-method decision and its cost are visible in the same place you bill.

What to look for

  • List your recurring clients and note which currently pay by card versus bank transfer
  • Set ACH bank-link (Plaid) as the default payment method for new and renewing retainers
  • Have each client connect their bank account once, then enable auto-draft on the invoice due date
  • Keep card available only for clients who require it, and review that exception list each quarter
  • Pull each client's per-client margin on demand to confirm the fee savings against what you bill

Related questions

Is ACH always cheaper than card for agency invoices?

For larger recurring invoices it usually is, because ACH is typically a flat per-transaction fee while card is a percentage that scales with the invoice amount. The crossover depends on your specific rates, so use HubWho's on-demand per-client margin to compare the actual cost against each retainer before you switch a client over.

Can I pass the processing fee on to clients instead?

Surcharging is allowed in some regions and prohibited in others, and rules differ between card and ACH, so confirm what applies to you before adding any fee. Often the simpler, lower-risk move is to shift recurring clients to ACH bank-link so the underlying fee is smaller to begin with rather than passing a percentage card fee along.

Does HubWho automatically chase failed or overdue payments?

Automated dunning and accounts-receivable follow-up are on the HubWho roadmap — the platform is being built to handle them, but that's not a shipped, running capability today. For now, auto-draft on connected bank accounts is what reduces failed payments at the source. For specifics, contact info@roffik.com.

How Roffik addresses this

Billing, ACH and card payments, recurring subscriptions, per-client margin tracking, and branded client portals for marketing agencies — built on Midnight + cyan. Learn more about HubWho.

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