Take Rate Analysis Dashboard tracks the portfolio's blended take rate, effective rate, fees, and margin over time, and breaks performance down by acquirer, MOP type, and fee category.
It answers a narrower question than the Fees dashboard: not "what did processing cost" but "of everything charged to the merchant, how much did we keep." Those two move independently, and this page is built to show you which one changed.
This dashboard displays settled data by default. Use the Funding Method filter to access conveyed data.
The three rates, and why they differ
The dashboard carries three rate metrics and lets you swap between them on the Effective Rate by Acquirer chart. They are not variants of the same number — they measure three different things against the same denominator.
|
Rate |
What it measures |
|---|---|
|
Discount Revenue Rate |
What is charged to the merchant for card acceptance, as a share of net sales. The gross rate, before any cost comes out |
|
Effective Rate |
What processing costs, as a share of net sales — interchange, network, and acquirer fees combined |
|
Take Rate |
What is retained, as a share of net sales. Margin divided by net sales — the net rate, after cost |
Read them as a chain: Discount Revenue Rate is what came in, Effective Rate is what went out, Take Rate is what was left. A Take Rate that falls while Discount Revenue Rate holds steady is a cost problem, not a pricing problem, and belongs in the Fees or Interchange Savings dashboards rather than here.
Discount Revenue Rate depends on the pricing arrangement, so what the revenue component contains varies. It is reliable for tracking one merchant's trend over time, but two merchants on different pricing terms cannot be compared on it directly.
KPI Section
Eight KPI cards lead the dashboard, each with a trend sparkline and percent change versus the prior month. They fall into three rows, and reading a row across tells you more than reading any single card.
Volume
|
KPI |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Sales |
Total dollar value of sales less refunds — the denominator for all three rates |
|
Transactions |
Total number of settled transactions |
The KPI card reads Sales, but the same measure is listed as Net Sales in the Data tab's Measure control — two labels for one figure, so the numbers will tie out.
The dollars
|
KPI |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Discount Revenue |
Total charged to the merchant for card acceptance |
|
Total Fees |
Processing fees paid out — interchange, network, and acquirer |
|
Margin |
Discount Revenue net of processing fees. What was actually retained in dollar terms |
This row is the most useful one on the page. Because Margin is Discount Revenue net of fees, reading the three together tells you immediately whether Margin moved because revenue rose or because fees fell — a distinction the rates alone will not give you.
The rates
|
KPI |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Discount Revenue Rate |
Discount Revenue as a share of Net Sales |
|
Effective Rate |
Total Fees as a share of Net Sales |
|
Take Rate |
Margin as a share of Net Sales |
A dollar figure and its matching rate can move in opposite directions. Margin rising while Take Rate falls means volume grew faster than what you retained on it, which reads as growth on one card and erosion on the other. Check both before drawing a conclusion.
Below the KPI cards and the Date Period control, the rest of the dashboard sits behind two tabs, CHARTS and DATA. The two sections below are those tabs — switch to DATA to reach the table rather than scrolling for it.
Chart Section
Fees & Margin Revenue Over Time
A combination chart: stacked dollar bars with a rate line drawn over them.
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Left Y-Axis: Dollar amount ($)
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Right Y-Axis: Rate (%)
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X-Axis: Month
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Bars: Total Fees and Margin, stacked — together they make up Discount Revenue
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Line: Take Rate, plotted against the rate axis
The line is the point of this chart. Bars alone tell you the dollars moved; the line tells you whether the share you retain moved with them. Bars growing with a flat line is ordinary growth. Bars growing while the line falls means you are processing more and keeping less of it, which is the case worth investigating.
Date Granularity defaults to Monthly, switchable to Yearly, Quarterly, Weekly, or Daily.
Effective Rate by Acquirer (title follows the Measure control)
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Y-Axis: Rate (%)
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X-Axis: Month
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Lines: One per Acquirer in the current Group / Top N selection
Measure defaults to Effective Rate and can be switched to Take Rate or Discount Revenue Rate. The chart title follows the Measure control, so it opens as Effective Rate by Acquirer and renames itself to match whichever measure you select — read the title to confirm which rate is on screen. Group defaults to MID : Acquirer, Top N defaults to 10, Date Granularity defaults to Monthly.
Switching the Measure control is how you isolate the cause of a portfolio-level move. The chart opens on Effective Rate, so start there and run the same view across the other two measures: if an acquirer's Effective Rate line is climbing while its Discount Revenue Rate line stays flat, the acquirer's cost has risen rather than your pricing having changed, and the Take Rate view shows that squeeze landing on what you retain. The Group control also accepts dimensions other than Acquirer, so the same comparison works across MOP type or merchant division.
Data Section
The Data section is a fully configurable table for benchmarking take rate performance rather than reading trends off a chart:
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Measure: multi-select across the eight measures — Net Sales, Transactions, Discount Revenue, Discount Revenue Rate, Total Fees, Effective Rate, Margin, and Take Rate. An All option selects every measure at once rather than being a measure in its own right
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Groups: sets how many levels the table drills through, each chosen independently
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Group 1 / Group 2 / Group 3: each level set independently — for example MID : Acquirer, then Card : MOP Type, then Fee : Fee Category
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Date Granularity: defaults to Monthly
Use this section to benchmark a specific acquirer's fees or margin against others, or to drill into which MOP type or fee category is driving a change in take rate.
Selecting a dollar measure alongside its matching rate is what makes this table worth using over the charts. Margin next to Take Rate, or Total Fees next to Effective Rate, distinguishes a group that is genuinely underperforming from one that is simply small — a poor rate on a low-volume acquirer rarely justifies the same response as the same rate on your largest.
Filters
The FILTERS button at the top of the page opens the filter panel, which scopes the KPIs, both charts, and the Data section together.
Funding Method is the one to know about here. The dashboard is pre-set to settled data, so conveyed transactions are excluded from every figure on the page until you change it. Since margin and the rates are calculated on settled volume, a portfolio with significant conveyed activity will show a different picture here than in a report built on total volume.
The panel also carries the standard merchant, card, and fee filters used across Harmonize — scope the page to an acquirer, division, MOP type, or fee category before drilling, rather than filtering after the fact.
Filtering Tips
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Date Period: defaults to the last 6 months including the current month. The most recent period is usually partial, so the final point on either chart often sits below trend simply because the month is incomplete
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Funding Method: the dashboard defaults to settled data only — open Filters and adjust Funding Method to include conveyed transactions
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Group and Top N: the Effective Rate by Acquirer chart defaults to MID : Acquirer with Top N 10. Raise Top N if a mid-volume acquirer you are looking for is being cut off
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Date Granularity: defaults to Monthly, switchable to Yearly, Quarterly, Weekly, or Daily. Each chart and the Data section carry their own control, so they can be set differently
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Measure: the acquirer chart defaults to Effective Rate and can be switched to Take Rate or Discount Revenue Rate. The chart title changes with it
Use Case Example
"We noticed our overall Take Rate jumped this month and want to know which acquirer is driving it."
Check the Take Rate KPI card to confirm the shift at the portfolio level, then read Discount Revenue Rate and Effective Rate beside it to see which side of the chain moved
On the CHARTS tab, open the acquirer chart and switch its Measure control to Take Rate — it opens on Effective Rate — then find which acquirer's line is climbing. A smaller acquirer with a fast-rising rate can move the portfolio average even with lower relative volume
Cross-check Fees & Margin Revenue Over Time to see whether the increase is coming from Margin or from Total Fees, and whether the Take Rate line moved with the bars or against them
Use the DATA tab to drill from Acquirer into MOP Type and Fee Category to identify exactly where the extra margin or fee is coming from