How to read a First Data (Fiserv) residual report

First Data, now part of Fiserv, is one of the largest processors behind independent sales organizations, and its residual reports are among the widest you will meet: close to sixty columns per merchant. Almost all of them are detail. Once you know which handful matter, a month that looks overwhelming becomes quick to check.

This guide describes the workbooks sent to ISOs on First Data's Canadian platform, which is where we work with them every month. Layouts vary between programs and countries, so your columns may be named or ordered differently. The structure, and the traps, are the same.

What arrives each month

Processing residuals and everything else come separately. A typical month is five files:

That is one processor and five reports, in three different shapes. It is the main reason First Data month-ends take longer than they should.

How the Visa and Mastercard workbooks are laid out

Each card brand has its own workbook covering the whole year.

• A Summary tab, headed Agent Analysis, with totals.
• One tab per month. All twelve exist from January onward. Months that have not happened yet are present but empty.
• The column headers are on the second row, not the first. The first row holds a label. Anything that assumes headers on row one will misread the sheet.
• One row per merchant, open or closed. Closed and inactive merchants still appear, with zeros.

The same workbook is sent again each month with one more tab filled in. Remember this when we get to the traps.

The columns, in five groups

Reading left to right, the columns fall into five groups. You will use the first and the last constantly, and the middle three only when something looks wrong.

1. Who the merchant is

Pdate, Merchant Number, SCP_Number, DBA Name, SIC Code, Date Open, Date Closed, Account Status, AccountExec, Alliance IND, Duality Ind and Card_Type.

• Merchant Number is the key. Match merchants to agents on this, never on DBA Name, which changes and repeats.
• AccountExec is the sales code the account was boarded under. It is how the processor attributes a merchant to a rep, and it appears on every First Data file, including the Clover ones. It is a good starting point for assigning merchants to agents, but it is not always who you pay today. Accounts get reassigned and shared, and the code does not follow.
• Date Closed and Account Status tell you why a merchant went quiet. A closed date is attrition. An open account with no volume is a merchant to call.
• Pdate is the processing month. Check it before anything else.

2. Volume

Gross Volume, Credit Volume, Visa Debit Volume and OptBlue Volume. Useful for spotting a merchant whose sales are fading before their residual shows it.

3. Transaction counts

Gross, credit and debit transactions, other bankcard transactions, IVR and voice authorizations, and chargeback and retrieval counts. A rising chargeback count is an early warning worth watching.

4. What the merchant was charged

The widest group, more than twenty columns: Discount, Interchange Fee, Transaction Fee, Terminal Maintenance Fee, Statement Fee, Assessment Fee, Internet Trans Fee, Month Bill, the authorization and funds transfer fees, Chargeback Fee, the non-qualified interchange columns, membership and minimum fees, Annual Fees, the card brand fee columns, the eCommerce columns and a few more.

Each is a line from the merchant's statement. You rarely need them individually. They exist so that you can explain a change in one merchant's profit, or check that a fee you expected is actually being billed.

5. The result

The last five columns are the ones that matter.

GPR is the number month-end starts from. On the files we process, GPR equals Total Revenue minus Interchange minus Assessments on every row, to the cent. It is the merchant's profit before your office's own arrangements. What share of GPR reaches your office depends on your agreement with the processor, and what each agent receives depends on their agreement with you. The report applies neither. For what happens after this number, see How to calculate ISO residuals.

How the Clover reports differ

The three Clover files are narrower and need different handling, because a merchant appears on more than one row.

Clover rental income has one row per device. A merchant renting three terminals is three rows. The columns are the merchant, the AccountExec, the billing method, the amount billed (TranAmount), First Data's cost (FD COST), RENTAL INCOME, and the equipment details. RENTAL INCOME is the profit column. Add it up per merchant.

Clover apps and third-party apps revenue share have one row per app per merchant, with the app name, developer, status, gross amount and Partner Revenue Share. Partner Revenue Share is your profit column. Add it up per merchant.

In one month we looked at, the rental file had nearly twice as many rows as merchants. Anything that counts rows, or reads only the first row for each merchant, will be wrong by about half.

These are also different kinds of income from processing, and many offices pay agents a different percentage on them. Keep each file tagged with its income type rather than merging everything into one number. The reasons are in ISO commission split structures explained.

Five traps in these reports

1. The wrong month's tab. The workbook holds every month of the year, and a new copy arrives each month. Read the first data tab instead of the current one and you pay agents on an old month, with totals that look entirely plausible. Check Pdate against the month you are closing, every time.
2. Headers on row two. A tool or formula expecting headers on row one picks up the label row and shifts or drops columns.
3. Rows are not always merchants. One row is one merchant in the Visa and Mastercard tabs, but not in any of the three Clover files. Always add up by Merchant Number.
4. Visa and Mastercard are separate files. A merchant's processing profit for the month is the sum of both. Pay from one and you underpay.
5. AccountExec is not your agent assignment. It reflects how the account was boarded, not who owns it now or how it is shared.

A five-minute check before you calculate

1. Pdate on every file matches the month you are closing.
2. The count of unique Merchant Numbers is close to last month's.
3. Total GPR across both card brands is in line with last month. A large swing is a data question before it is a business one.
4. Every Merchant Number with a non-zero GPR has an agent.
5. Clover totals are summed per merchant, not per row.

Frequently asked questions

What does GPR mean on a First Data residual report? GPR is the profit column on the Visa and Mastercard month tabs. On the reports we process it equals Total Revenue minus Interchange minus Assessments for each merchant, and it is the figure agent splits are calculated from.

What is AccountExec on a Fiserv report? AccountExec is the sales code a merchant account was boarded under. It appears on the processing, Clover rental and app revenue files, and it is how the processor attributes merchants to reps. It does not update when an account is reassigned or shared inside your office.

Why does a merchant appear more than once in the Clover rental report? The rental report has one row per device, not per merchant. A merchant with several terminals has several rows, and the rental income has to be added up per Merchant Number.

Why is there a tab for every month in the workbook? First Data sends a year-to-date workbook, with one tab per month and the latest month added each time. Future months are present but empty. It makes history easy to find and makes reading the wrong tab an easy mistake.

Do US First Data and Fiserv residual reports look the same? Not exactly. Column names and order vary by program, reseller and country. The groups are consistent: merchant identity, volume, transaction counts, fees charged, and a final profit figure after interchange and assessments.

Can software read these reports directly? SplitRun reads the Visa and Mastercard workbooks, the Clover rental file and both app revenue files as they arrive, picks the month's tab, adds up the multi-row files per merchant, and keeps each as its own income type. See Upload a report and the sample agent report.