Daily and Weekly Payment Tasks
- Daily, 5 minutes: confirm the deposit landed and check for new chargebacks
- Weekly, 10-15 minutes: chargeback ratio, decline rates, and reconcile sales against deposits
- Under 100 transactions a month? Do the daily check and skim the rest. Come back when you're busier
- None of this takes hours. Skipping it is what takes hours later
Running payments isn't just about accepting cards. There's a small set of tasks that keep your money flowing, your processor happy, and your customers not calling their bank. Most of this takes minutes, not hours.
If you're just starting out, focus on the daily tasks. Add the weekly and monthly tasks as your volume grows. Under 100 transactions a month? Skim this page and come back when you're busier.
Daily Tasks (5 Minutes)
1. Check that deposits arrived
Your processor batches your transactions and deposits them into your bank account, usually 1-2 business days after the sale. Check that yesterday's batch arrived.
- Log into your bank account
- Compare the deposit amount to what your processor dashboard shows
- If there's a mismatch or a missing deposit, check your processor dashboard for holds or errors
Where to check deposits:
- Stripe: Dashboard > Balances > Payouts
- Square: Dashboard > Balance > Transfers
- Shopify Payments: Settings > Payments > View payouts
- PayPal: Activity > All transactions > filter by "Money received"
Friday sales won't hit your bank until Monday or Tuesday. This is normal. Batches don't process on weekends or bank holidays. For help planning around settlement delays, see Cash Flow Forecasting.
2. Check for new chargebacks or disputes
Most processors send email notifications for new disputes, but don't rely on email alone. Log in and check.
Where to check disputes:
- Stripe: Dashboard > Payments > Disputes
- Square: Dashboard > Balance > Disputes
- Shopify Payments: Orders > Disputed (or Settings > Payments > View payouts > Disputes)
- PayPal: Resolution Center
If you have a new dispute, note the response date on your notice. Visa, Mastercard and Amex allow 20 to 45 days for representment; Discover doesn't publish its window, and your processor can set an earlier date. Start gathering evidence immediately. Don't wait until the deadline. See Responding to a Dispute for how to handle it.
3. Process any pending refunds
Refunds waiting in a queue cost you money the longer they sit. Frustrated customers file chargebacks instead. Process refunds the same day they're requested when possible.
Weekly Tasks (10-15 Minutes)
1. Check your chargeback ratio
This is the most important number in your payments operation.
Chargebacks this month ÷ Transactions this month = Chargeback ratio
Use that simple ratio to track your trend. Your processor or network may count different events or months. Get your processor's limit and calculation in writing, then set an earlier alert with time to respond. See Monitoring for Fraud.
2. Review decline rates
Your processor dashboard should show your authorization (approval) rate. Compare the same channel, country and customer mix with your own recent history. See Payments Metrics for the calculation.
| Auth Rate | Status | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Stable on comparable traffic | No new change to explain | Keep tracking completed payments and losses |
| Falling on one segment | A local issue may be developing | Check its common decline codes |
| Falling across segments | A wider issue needs investigation | Test checkout and contact your processor |
3. Reconcile sales to deposits
Once a week, compare your total sales (from your sales system or processor) to your total bank deposits for the same period. They won't match exactly. Processor fees, chargebacks, and refunds create differences. But large unexplained gaps need investigation.
Quick reconciliation:
Expected deposit = Gross sales - Processing fees - Refunds - Chargebacks
If your actual deposit is significantly lower than expected, check for:
- Holds or reserves your processor placed on your account
- Fees you weren't expecting
- Chargebacks you missed
For detailed reconciliation workflows, see Settlement & Reconciliation. If you use QuickBooks or Xero, see Payment-to-Accounting Integration for mapping processor data to your books.
Monthly Tasks (30 Minutes)
1. Review your processor statement
Your processor sends a monthly statement with all fees charged. Read it. See Reading Your Statements for what to look for.
2. Calculate your effective rate
Effective rate = Total fees paid ÷ Total volume processed × 100
This is the real cost of accepting payments. Track it monthly. If it's creeping up without explanation, something changed.
Compare fees with your own agreement and sales mix. Keep in-person, online and keyed sales separate; ticket size changes the weight of each fixed fee. Reading Your Statements walks through that check.
Check your published rate before you treat a high number as a problem. Square's Free plan is 2.6% + 15c in person and 3.3% + 30c online (squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees, verified 2026-08-02), so a small online store with a $50 average ticket sits at 3.90% by design. That's a pricing decision to revisit, not an anomaly to investigate.
3. Check for pattern changes
- Is your average transaction size changing?
- Are you seeing more international cards?
- Has your refund rate changed?
- Any new customer complaints about billing?
Setting Up Alerts
Don't rely on remembering to check. Most processors let you set up alerts for:
- New chargebacks: set to email immediately
- Deposit failures: set to email immediately
- Account holds: set to email immediately
- Large transactions: set to email for orders above your typical range (possible fraud signal)
Where to set up alerts:
- Stripe: Dashboard > Settings > Emails (disputes, payouts) + Radar > Alerts
- Square: Dashboard > Account & Settings > Notifications
- Shopify Payments: Settings > Notifications (disputes are emailed automatically)
- PayPal: Settings > Notifications > Transaction notifications
If your processor doesn't offer these, check your dashboard daily until you can switch to one that does. See the Alerts Configuration Guide for a detailed setup walkthrough.
Tasks You Can Skip (For Now)
If you process under $100K/month, these can wait:
- Multi-processor strategy (you only need one processor)
- Interchange optimization (savings are minimal at low volume)
- Automated reconciliation tools (a spreadsheet works fine)
- Fraud scoring models (processor defaults are enough)