When you let a client pay by credit card, the card processor takes a cut — roughly 3% — to move the money. Eano lets you pass that cost along so it doesn’t eat into your margin. Flip on the Client Credit Card Fees toggle when you create an invoice, and clients who choose to pay by card see the processing fee added to their total.
You might expect Eano simply adds the fee on top of your invoice and calls it done. It’s a little subtler than that — and it’s worth understanding why, because the obvious approach quietly leaves you short.
Why “Just Adding the Fee” Doesn’t Work
Here’s the catch: the processor charges its fee on the total amount your client actually pays, not on your original invoice amount. And once you add a fee, you’ve made that total bigger — so the fee gets calculated on a number that already includes the fee. It’s a little circular, and it takes a bit of algebra to untangle.
Let’s walk through it with a round, illustrative rate. Say your invoice is $1,000 and the processing fee were a flat 3% (your real rate is always shown on the invoice itself — this is just for the math).
The obvious approach:
Fee on $1,000: $1,000 × 3% = $30
Charge the client: $1,000 + $30 = $1,030
Looks right — but watch what the processor actually takes:
The processor’s cut is 3% of what the client pays ($1,030), not of your original $1,000: $1,030 × 3% = $30.90
You receive: $1,030 − $30.90 = $999.10
You’re $0.90 short. The fee was figured on a smaller number than what was actually charged, so a sliver of it comes out of your pocket. On a small invoice that’s nothing; on a big deposit it adds up.
The Gross-Up, Done for You
To land exactly on your invoice amount, you have to work backwards: find the amount the client should pay so that after the fee is taken out, you’re left with precisely your invoice total.
In plain terms, instead of multiplying your invoice by the fee, you divide it by what’s left after the fee. With our illustrative 3%, that means dividing by 0.97 (that’s 1 minus 3%):
Client pays: $1,000 ÷ 0.97 = $1,030.93
Processor’s cut: $1,030.93 × 3% = $30.93
You receive: $1,030.93 − $30.93 = $1,000.00 ✓
That extra penny of precision is exactly what the naive approach missed. The good news: you never have to do any of this. Eano runs the gross-up automatically, so the pass-through is calculated to leave you with your full invoice amount after the standard card processing fee, and the exact dollar figure is shown on the invoice before your client pays a thing.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
The fee only applies if your client actually pays by card. ACH bank transfers and checks don’t add anything for your client — which is why ACH is the better choice on large invoices.
On a progress payment requested straight from a milestone with Request Progress Payment, the card fee is absorbed by you rather than passed along. Bill the progress on a manual invoice instead if you want to pass it on.
If part of an invoice has already been paid and your client pays the rest by card, the fee is worked out on the remaining balance, not the original total.
Occasionally you may receive a few cents less than your invoice amount. Stripe screens every card payment for fraud and can add a small screening charge on top of the standard processing fee, plus another one each time a declined card is retried or the client is asked to verify the card with their bank. These charges are set by Stripe at the moment of payment, so they can’t be included in the fee your client sees in advance. You can see the full fee breakdown for any payment in your Stripe dashboard.
Want the Full Picture?
This covers the mechanics of the pass-through itself. For what your client sees before they pay, how refunds work (the processing fees aren’t returned — an important one to know), and what happens if a client disputes a charge, see Credit Card Fees and Refunds: How They Work for You and Your Clients.