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Industrial & MRO SupplyDemo Case Study

MRO Supplier Repeat-Order Payments: A Sample Scenario

An MRO supplier with very high transaction counts found its cost was in manual keying and per-transaction fees, not the discount rate.

Level 3 OptimizationCost ReductionAR AutomationERPAccounting
Client
Ashgrove Industrial
Client type
Industrial and MRO consumables supplier
Company size
50–100 employees
Locations
1 distribution center
Processing volume
$1.9M / month
Average savings opportunity identified: 18%7–14 day onboardingUnder 24-hour support responseDemo proof points — verify before final launch.

Executive summary

This is a hypothetical example created to illustrate how this service could work for a business with these needs. It is not a description of an actual client engagement. The company is invented and every figure below is an illustrative assumption, not a measured result. Assume the following scenario. Ashgrove sells the same consumables to the same plants week after week, mostly on purchasing cards issued to maintenance staff. The transaction count was high and the tickets small, so per-transaction cost and manual keying mattered more than the headline rate.

  • Line-item data reaching the networks on every commercial card transaction.

  • Qualification reported monthly.

  • AR out of the standalone terminal.

Client profile

Industry
Industrial & MRO Supply
Locations
1 distribution center
Monthly volume
$1.9M / month
Average ticket
$680
Software used
ERPAccounting suiteStandalone gateway

The challenge

Very high transaction counts collected by hand, with p-card volume downgrading.

  • Commercial card volume downgrading to non-qualified.
  • Required Level 3 fields absent from the transaction record.
  • No visibility into cost to collect by customer.

Why the previous setup was failing

Previous setup
  • • Payments keyed into a standalone virtual terminal.
  • • Tiered pricing obscuring qualification.
  • • No line-item data reaching the card networks.
Why it failed
  • • A virtual terminal cannot transmit Level 3 line-item data.
  • • Tiered pricing hid downgrades inside a qualification bucket.
  • • No single owner was accountable for payment cost.

Our assessment

  • Twelve months of statements normalized to one baseline.
  • Transaction-level downgrade analysis by card type.
  • Field mapping of ERP data against Level 3 requirements.

The recommended solution

  • Move to interchange-plus so qualification is visible.
  • Integrate payments with the ERP.
  • Monitor qualification monthly.

Implementation Process

  1. 1

    Week 1 — Statement review

    Three months of statements plus a sample invoice, normalized to a single interchange-plus baseline so every line is comparable.

  2. 2

    Week 2 — Downgrade analysis

    Transaction-level review identifying which card types downgraded and which required data fields were missing.

  3. 3

    Weeks 3–4 — Connector and field mapping

    Payment connector installed against the existing ERP; invoice fields mapped to the Level 2 and Level 3 requirements.

  4. 4

    Week 5 — Test transactions

    Live test transactions confirmed qualification per card type before any production volume moved.

  5. 5

    Week 6 — Cutover

    Cutover between billing cycles, with the previous setup kept available for rollback for one full cycle.

  6. 6

    Weeks 7–10 — Verification

    First full month compared against projection; qualification reported by card type and customer.

Technology and integrations

Integration changes

  • • ERP payment connector installed.
  • • Line items, freight and tax mapped to Level 3 fields.
  • • PO and customer reference populated from the order.

Processing changes

  • • Tiered pricing replaced with interchange-plus.
  • • Qualification reported by card type.

Obstacles and resolutions

Obstacle

Freight billed separately, missing from the transaction.

Resolution

Freight would move onto the invoice as a line item.

Obstacle

AR staff accustomed to the virtual terminal.

Resolution

Integrated flow would be piloted with a fallback available for one cycle.

Measurable results

Illustrative only — modeled at 40 to 70 basis points on p-card volume, with the larger gain coming from eliminating manual keying.

Operational improvements

  • • Payments taken against the invoice rather than re-keyed.
  • • Settlement written back to the ledger daily.

Reporting improvements

  • • Qualification rate by card type.
  • • Cost to collect by customer.

Funding improvements

  • • Consistent settlement timing.
  • • Deposits reconciled to invoices automatically.

Customer experience improvements

  • • Customers pay against an invoice rather than reading a card over the phone.

Before and after

Before and after comparison for Ashgrove Industrial
MeasureBeforeAfter
Commercial card qualificationNon-qualified on most volumeLevel 3 where card and data support it
PricingTieredInterchange-plus
AR workflowKeyed into a standalone terminalTaken against the invoice in the ERP

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Related industries

industrie
Industrial & MRO Supply

Repeat orders, standing accounts and the interchange cost of getting paid on every one.

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industrie
Wholesale Distribution

High invoice counts and thin margins, where interchange is a genuine line item.

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Related insights

Insight

How to Read a Merchant Statement Line by Line

Finding the downgrades yourself before anyone quotes you a rate.

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Insight

What Is Level 3 Processing, and Who Actually Qualifies

The line-item fields that decide your interchange.

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Frequently asked questions

Are these results guaranteed?+

No. This engagement is demonstration content built on realistic scenarios. Actual outcomes depend on your volume, mix, software, and current pricing — which is exactly what a review establishes.

How long did the Ashgrove Industrial engagement take?+

The implementation ran across 6 phases; most comparable environments cut over in 7 to 14 business days once scope is agreed.

Do we have to change software to see similar results?+

Usually not. Most of this work happens in merchant structure, pricing, data capture, and integration configuration around software you already run.

Can we see a version of this analysis for our business?+

Yes. A payment review returns the same structure — assessment, recommendation, projected impact — against your own statements.

Want this analysis for your business?

Send us your current setup and we'll return a written assessment covering cost, integrations, reporting, and funding.

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Related solutions and references

The pages that explain the payment methods, integrations and account structure behind this engagement.

GuideCard acceptanceYour customer's AP department pays by purchasing card because it suits their process. Whether that suits yours depends almost entirely on what data you can send with it.Open Case studya worked example in wholesale distributionA wholesale distributor with commercial-card-heavy customers found the interchange difference was moving net profit, not just cost of sales.Open Case studya worked example in manufacturingA custom equipment manufacturer was losing interchange on every milestone payment because its progress invoices carried no line-item detail of their own.Open Resourceour calculatorEstimate the annual gap between what your commercial card volume costs today and what it would cost qualifying at Level 3. Enter monthly card volume, average ticket, commercial card share and your current effective rate.Open QuestionHow do I work out what I really pay for card processingYour effective rate is total processing fees divided by total processing volume for the same period, expressed as a percentage. It includes every fee on the statement: interchange, assessments, markup, monthly fees, PCI fees, gateway fees, batch fees and statement fees. It is the only number that describes what you actually pay, and it is almost always higher than the headline discount rate you were quoted.Open QuestionWhat does Level 3 credit card processing meanLevel 3 processing is the transmission of detailed line-item data alongside a commercial card transaction so it qualifies for the lowest interchange rate the card networks offer. It requires product codes, item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, freight and duty on top of the Level 2 requirements of sales tax and a purchase order reference. It applies only to commercial, corporate, purchasing and government cards, because consumer cards have no Level 3 category.Open

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