Why your payment gateway fees don't match

Post to Xero by Hyve treats the gateway fees you enter as tax-inclusive — meaning the fee amount you type already includes any sales tax (GST, VAT, etc.). If you copy the headline rate from your provider, that rate is usually tax-exclusive, so the figure posted to Xero comes out lower than the fee your provider actually charged. The fix is to enter the tax-inclusive rate.

Why this happens

Most payment providers advertise their fee before tax. But in Xero, your fee expense is recorded with the tax already baked in. If you enter the pre-tax rate into a tax-inclusive field, the app calculates a smaller fee than reality, and your reconciliation won't balance.

How to enter the correct rate

1. Find the headline fee your provider advertises (e.g. a percentage + a fixed amount per transaction).
2. Add your region's sales tax rate to both the percentage and the fixed amount.
3. Enter that tax-inclusive figure into the fee fields.

Afterpay example (10% GST, Australia):

How to check you've got it right

After you save your payment gateway with the corrected fee amounts, go to Dashboard - Orders, select the affected orders, and repost them. This updates those invoices to recalculate the payment gateway fees.

Compare the fee posted in Xero against the fee on your provider's statement for the same transaction — they should match. If the Xero figure is consistently a little lower, your rate is likely still tax-exclusive, so go back and add tax to it.

Still stuck?

Contact us and we'll help you confirm the right rate for your region and provider.