What does LeanLaw charge for credit card and ACH payment processing?

Credit card payments cost a percentage of the transaction to process; ACH payments cost less, typically capped rather than scaling with the amount. Exact current rates are quoted with your plan, not published as a single number, so the variable worth tracking is which account absorbs the fee.

Why card and ACH pricing work differently

A card payment runs through a card network, and the network and the processor both take a cut of the transaction, which is why card processing is priced as a percentage: cost scales with what’s charged. ACH moves money bank to bank, with no card network in the middle, which is why it’s typically priced as a flat or capped fee instead. That structural difference is true of payment processing generally, not something specific to any one vendor, and it’s the reason a $200 invoice and a $20,000 invoice paid by card don’t cost the same to process, while the ACH cost barely moves between them.

The account question matters more than the rate

The number that actually affects your books isn’t the rate — it’s which account the fee comes out of. A processing fee is the firm’s cost of accepting payment, so it debits the operating account, not the client’s trust account. That distinction matters because trust money is the client’s money until it’s earned; running a processing fee through trust would mean spending client funds on a firm expense, which is the kind of thing bar trust rules exist to prevent. For a fuller walkthrough of how that split shows up on the books, see when a client pays online, does the processing fee come out of trust or operating?

Can the fee be passed to the client?

Whether a firm can add a surcharge to cover the card fee is a separate question from what the fee is, and it isn’t a billing-software decision. Surcharging is governed by state law and by card network rules, both of which vary and change, so it’s worth confirming for your own jurisdiction before assuming it’s an option. See can I pass credit card processing fees on to my clients? for how that decision gets made.

What this depends on

• Which payment methods you offer clients, and whether ACH is set up as an option alongside card.
• Whether your state permits credit-card surcharging, and under what conditions.
• How your chart of accounts separates operating from trust, since the fee still has to land somewhere on the books.
• Your plan tier, since processing rates and included payment features are quoted with the plan rather than published as a flat menu.

Related questions

Do you know what the processing fee is? It isn’t published as a single number because both card and ACH pricing are quoted with your plan. Current published plan details are on the pricing page, and exact processing rates are confirmed at signup.

Is there a way to add an admin fee to the client based on which payment method they choose? Charging different amounts by payment method is a surcharging question, governed by state law rather than by any billing feature, and the rules differ enough by state that it’s worth confirming for your own jurisdiction rather than assuming.