Teaching · For Tutors · Money in

What the fees take,
payment by payment.

List the ways families pay you and what each one charges. The calculator shows the fee and what arrives on every payment, adds it up for the year, and works out the price that would net the full amount.

Work out my feesWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Tutoring business kit, $69 for 64 items.

The fee calculator

The worked example is made up: a tutor paid $260 a month by twelve families for eleven months, mostly by card. The fees are illustrations, not any company’s current prices. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

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What you get

Teaching · For Tutors$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
The fee and the amount that arrives on one payment for every way you are paid, the effective rate, your fees for a year at your mix, the cheapest way to be paid and the price that nets the full amount. It prints as a one-page summary and downloads as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
Independent tutors and small tutoring businesses choosing how families pay, setting prices or deciding whether to offer a bank-transfer discount.
Format
Browser calculator for a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Up to eight payment methods. Prints a summary; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Tutoring business kit ($69) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The For Tutors space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Type the usual amount of one payment and how many come in a month.
  2. List each way families pay with the fees from your processor’s pricing page and the share of payments it gets.
  3. Read your fees for the year and the fee on each payment.
  4. Use the last column if you decide to build the fee into your price.
  5. Print the summary or download the spreadsheet.

Work out my fees

How the fees are worked out

A percentage, a fixed fee and one formula people often get wrong.

One $260 card payment at 2.9% + $0.30Percentage part$7.54$260 × 2.9%Plus the fixed fee$7.84the whole feeArrives$252.163.02% effectiveCovering the fee: the percentage applies to the higher price tooPrice + fee? No$267.84arrives $259.77, short 23¢(260 + 0.30) ÷ (1 − 0.029)$268.07arrives exactly $260.00$260 by card, 2.9% + $0.30Percentage part$7.54$260 × 2.9%Whole fee$7.84plus $0.30Arrives$252.163.02% effectiveCovering the feePrice + fee$267.84short 23¢Divide instead$268.07nets $260.00
Why adding the fee to the price falls short: the processor takes its percentage of the higher price as well. Dividing by one minus the rate fixes it.

The arithmetic

Each payment’s fee is the amount times the percentage, plus the fixed fee. What arrives is the amount less the fee, and the effective rate is the fee divided by the amount, which is why small payments lose a larger share to a fixed fee. Fees for a year are the fee times the payments in a year times the method’s share. To net the full amount, divide the amount plus the fixed fee by one minus the percentage.

Passing fees on

Adding a fee for paying by card is a surcharge. The card networks require you to tell the payer before they pay, cap the surcharge and do not allow one on debit or prepaid cards, and some states limit surcharging. Offering a lower price for bank transfer or check is a discount, which is generally simpler. Raising your price for everyone is the plainest option of all. Your processor’s agreement says what it allows.

Sources

  1. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Regulation II (Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing), 12 CFR Part 235: the federal rules on debit card interchange.
  2. Federal Trade Commission, consumer guidance on paying with credit and debit cards (consumer.ftc.gov), and 15 U.S.C. 1666f, which lets a seller offer a discount for paying by cash or check.
  3. Visa and Mastercard merchant surcharging rules, as published by each network and summarized in a processor’s merchant agreement: notice, a cap, and no surcharge on debit or prepaid cards.
  4. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business: processing fees are a deductible business expense; report the full amount paid as income.

The worked example and its fees are made up. Use the rates your processor publishes for your account; this page does arithmetic on them and is not legal advice. Your figures stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.