The AIME Blog
Vendor fees, audited in the open.
Practical, number-first guides to what your vendors actually charge: how to read the statements, benchmark every line, and recover the margin that drifted away. Written by the team behind AIME.
SoftwareThe True-Up: Where Enterprise Software Licensing Overcharges
Where Oracle and Microsoft licensing overcharges: support on shelfware, compounding support uplifts, EA true-ups that only go up, and the repricing trap.
Card processingMerchant Processing Agreements: Early Termination Fees, Auto-Renewal and Rate Changes
What to check in a credit card processing contract: early termination fees, liquidated damages, auto-renewal, terminal leases and rate increase notices.
FreightLTL Freight Bill Audit: Reweighs, Reclassification and Accessorial Charges
How to audit LTL freight invoices: NMFC class and density, reweighs, liftgate and residential accessorials, fuel surcharges and the 180-day dispute window.
Card processingInterchange-Plus vs. Tiered vs. Flat-Rate Pricing: Which Costs You More?
Interchange-plus, tiered, flat-rate, subscription and ERR bill-back pricing compared: how each credit card processing model works and where markup hides.
Card processingChargeback Fees: What a Dispute Really Costs, and How to Pay Less
What a chargeback really costs: the processor fee, the lost sale, fees charged on disputes you win, card network monitoring programs, and how to cut disputes.
FacilitiesCommercial Waste Hauling Invoices: Surcharges, Overages and the Auto-Renewal
How to audit commercial trash and recycling invoices: fuel and environmental fees, overage and contamination charges, oversized containers, and auto-renewals.
PayrollThe Payroll Invoice Nobody Reads
Payroll is quoted as one number and billed as a dozen. How to calculate your real cost per employee per month and find the gap against your contract.
UtilitiesYour Utility Bill Is Two Bills
How to audit a commercial electric or gas bill: find an expired supply contract, a wrong rate class, and a demand ratchet still charging you.
FacilitiesThe Standing Order: Auditing Linen, Janitorial and Food Invoices
Twice-weekly delivery invoices are the least reviewed spend in most businesses. How to audit a delivery ticket against the price file you agreed.
InsuranceThe Premium Audit: Where Commercial Insurance Billing Goes Wrong
Your premium is a calculation run on your own data. How to check class codes, the experience mod, the payroll basis and the fees underneath it.
ProductHow AIME Reads a Statement: From a Photograph to a Line-Item Ledger
What happens between uploading a processing statement and getting a savings report: text extraction, vision for scans, and line reconciliation checks.
RestaurantsWhat Restaurants Actually Pay to Take a Card
Tip adjustments, small tickets, delivery apps and all-in-one POS pricing: why restaurant effective rates run high and which parts are just markup.
Card processingInterchange, Explained: Where Your 2.9% Actually Goes
Interchange, card brand assessments and processor markup explained: who keeps each one, which you can negotiate, and how downgrades raise your rate.
ProductInside the Benchmarking Engine: How AIME Decides a Fee Is Too High
A fee is not high because it feels high. How AIME benchmarks each line, separates pass-through cost from markup, and finds what is recoverable.
EcommerceThe Ecommerce Payment Cost Stack: Gateway, Processor, Fraud and Chargebacks
Online sellers pay four vendors for one payment. How to separate gateway, processor, fraud and chargeback costs, and find the duplicated charges.
Card processingLevel 2 and Level 3 Data: The B2B Discount Most Merchants Never Claim
Commercial cards earn lower interchange when you send Level 2 or Level 3 data. What each level requires and why most B2B merchants send neither.
HealthcarePayment Fees in Medical and Dental Practices
What practices pay to take patient cards, HSA and FSA cards, payment plans and insurer virtual card payments, and which processing costs can change.
ComplianceSurcharging, Cash Discount and Dual Pricing: What Is Actually Allowed
Three ways to pass card fees to customers, three rule sets. What the card networks require, where state laws differ, and how to check your program.
ProductContract vs. Statement: The Comparison Nobody Has Time to Do
Your merchant agreement says one thing and your statement charges another. How to compare contract to invoice, spot rate drift, and catch rounding.
NonprofitsDonation Processing: What Nonprofits Hand Back to Their Processor
Charity interchange rates exist and many nonprofits are not on them. Platform fees, failed recurring gifts and the true cost of a donate button.
SoftwareThe SaaS Spend Audit: Seats, Shelfware and the Renewal Ratchet
How to audit SaaS spend: count real seat usage, find duplicate tools and shelfware, and stop an auto-renewal price escalator from compounding.
ProductContinuous Monitoring: Why a Fee Audit Has to Be a Subscription, Not an Event
One-off vendor fee audits decay within months. What a continuous monitoring loop checks each billing cycle, and how to keep a negotiated rate negotiated.
Card processingHow to Audit Your Merchant Services Statement, Line by Line
A line-by-line guide to auditing your merchant services statement: effective rate, interchange, processor markup, and the junk fees to challenge.
Card processingThe Junk Fees Hiding on Your Processing Statement
PCI non-compliance, batch, statement and regulatory fees: the field guide to junk fees on merchant processing statements and how to remove them.
BenchmarksWhat Is a Good Effective Rate for Card Processing?
How to calculate your effective rate for card processing, what drives it in-store, online and B2B, and when the number means you are overpaying.
BankingThe Bank Fee Audit: What Your Treasury Statement Isn't Telling You
How to audit bank and treasury fees: read the account analysis statement, check the earnings credit rate and per-item charges, and ask for the waivers.
Vendor managementVendor Fee Creep: Why Your Contracted Rates Quietly Rise Every Year
Fee creep is the drift between the price you negotiated and the price you pay. How it works in processing, banking, freight and software, and how to stop it.
FreightFreight and Parcel Invoice Audits: Where the Refunds Hide
Late delivery refunds, wrong accessorials, dimensional weight errors and lapsed discounts: where money hides on parcel and freight carrier invoices.
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