Cost of Getting Paid Tracker Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet prices every way you are paid: the fee, the fixed charge, the minutes, the days the money waits and the share that never arrives.
Every comparison table you have ever been shown about payment methods lists one number, the percentage. It leaves out the fixed fee on every transaction, the time somebody spends counting and banking and reconciling and chasing, the days the money sits in somebody else’s account, and the money that never turns up at all.
What is in it
- Takings — one line a week per till per method is enough: four things a row, the count and the total, which is what your till already tells you.
- By Method — every way you are paid, priced properly rather than by its headline percentage.
- By Counter — the same money cut by where it came in, because where it comes in decides how people pay and how big the sale is.
- By Size Of Sale — every band priced twice, per dollar taken and per transaction, which settles the argument about small card payments.
- What Waiting Costs — the days each sum sits elsewhere, the chasing, and the money that never arrives.
- Setup and Overview — three numbers, ten payment slots you name yourself with six numbers each, and the year on one screen.
Who it is for
Anywhere money comes in more than one way: a shop, a trade counter, a café, a garage, a salon, a builders’ merchant, an online seller. One till or four makes no difference — put one name in the Where column. If you invoice rather than take payments over a counter, bank transfer becomes most of the file and the days-and-chasing columns are the whole point of it.
The worked example
On $1,485,803 of takings across 48,446 transactions, being paid cost $36,834 — 2.5% of the money, and only 57% of that was a fee.
Cash, which has no percentage and no fixed fee at all, cost 2.2% — more than the card machine’s 2.1%. Instalments cost 10.5% to take, and $40,086 of the year’s money was permanently in transit somewhere else.
How it works
Compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install.
The download has two workbooks: one with the example above already filled in, so you can see what every column expects, and the same file completely blank for your own figures. A plain-English guide comes as a PDF. Buy it on Etsy — $9
Sold through my Etsy shop, ThePlainLedger, so the download, the payment and the buyer protection are all handled by Etsy.
A look inside the file
Questions people actually ask
How do I work out what it actually costs me to get paid?
Add four things to the percentage fee: the fixed fee on every transaction, the minutes spent counting, banking, reconciling and chasing, the days the money sits in somebody else's account, and the share that never arrives at all. In the worked year inside the file those came to $36,834 on $1,485,803 taken — 2.5% of the takings, or $0.76 a transaction — and only 57% of it was a fee. That is why a method with no fee is not a method with no cost: cash cost 2.2% and the card machine 2.1%.
We invoice rather than take payments over a counter — is it still for us?
Yes — bank transfer then makes up most of your file, and the days-and-chasing columns are the whole point of it. In the worked year bank transfer had no percentage and no fixed fee and still cost 1.9%, made up of forty-one days of waiting, the chasing, and the ones that never came. The same file also handles a single till: put one name in the Where column and everything else works exactly the same.
Do I have to enter every transaction, and what if I don't know what an hour costs me?
No — one line a week per till per payment method is enough, the count and the total, and it is what your till already tells you. Two numbers you may have to estimate: what an hour of somebody's time costs (wages plus what you pay on top, divided by the hours you get) and what money costs you (your overdraft or loan rate), and the second only affects the waiting column. Being roughly right beats leaving it out, which is what every comparison table does.
Does this work in Google Sheets, or do I need Excel?
Yes — the file is built as .xlsx, so it opens in Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, goes into Google Sheets through File → Import → Upload, and works in LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription. You download a file and it is yours. You get two workbooks — one with the whole worked year filled in and one completely blank — plus a plain-English PDF guide.
Will it lower my card rate, or connect to my payment provider?
No — it is not a till system, a payment gateway or a reconciliation tool, nothing syncs and nothing logs in, and it is not accounting or tax advice. No provider is named anywhere: ten empty slots you name yourself, six numbers each. It will not lower anybody's rate — it tells you what each way of being paid actually costs you, so that the conversation about the rate is worth having.
Need it built around your business?
This file assumes takings that arrive several ways, over a counter or into a bank account. If yours works differently — a garage where half the work is paid by an insurer ninety days later, a wholesaler running trade accounts alongside a card machine, an online seller whose marketplace holds funds for two weeks and deducts its own fees before paying out — I can build the same arithmetic around how your money actually reaches you.
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