At a glance
The total amount that successfully flowed through Helcim in the period, gross of refunds, gross of interchange-plus markup, gross of disputes. Money that touched Helcim’s processing rails (Helcim Online, Helcim Smart Terminal, Helcim Recurring, virtual terminal), not money that landed in your bank account.
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Helcim data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A Calgary-based outdoor-apparel SMB retailer (“Foothills Outfitters”) runs two Calgary stores plus a Shopify online store, and migrated from Square to Helcim 90 days ago specifically for the interchange-plus pricing. The 30-day window covers 03 Apr 26 to 02 May 26.- Interchange-plus economics show up in the gap between gross and net. On Square, the same CAD 350,600 gross would have cost roughly 2.65% blended (CAD 9,290) for in-person + 2.9% + CAD 0.30 for online (CAD 5,560), total ~ CAD 14,850. On Helcim, the equivalent blended cost on Foothills’ tier is ~ CAD 6,150 (interchange ~ 1.4% pass-through + 0.4% markup + per-tx fees). That CAD 8,700/month saving is exactly the migration thesis. This card tracks the gross; the saving lives in the Helcim monthly statement.
- POS dominates. CAD 259,200 of CAD 350,600 (74%) is in-store Smart Terminal. Foothills is a brick-and-mortar-led business, the Helcim Smart Terminal hardware was the precondition for the migration. A pure-online merchant would see the inverse split.
- CAD and USD displayed side-by-side, not converted. Foothills’ US online customers represent ~ USD 38,900 in this period. The card does NOT roll this into a CAD total; that conversion happens in the Helcim Statement using Helcim’s daily FX feed.
- Interac debit is invisible here as a separate line. Canadian Interac debit (the domestic debit network) flows through
card-transactionsascardBrand: INTERACand the per-transaction fee is structurally different from Visa/MC interchange. It still shows up in the gross figure; the per-network breakdown is inhel_top_payment_methods. - 3DS frictionless rate of 65% on online traffic is North-America-typical. Canadian and US issuers do not mandate 3DS for most card-not-present transactions, so Helcim only invokes 3DS where the issuer requests it (about 35% of attempts). EU/UK merchants would see 80%+ frictionless rates due to PSD2 SCA mandates.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Helcim Dashboard: Sign in at app.helcim.com and the closest comparable view is:Helcim Dashboard → Payments → All Transactions (filter by date range; Status: Approved)The headline tile on the Dashboard home also shows period sales. For the channel breakdown, use Reports → Sales by Source, which separates Online, Smart Terminal, Virtual Terminal, and Recurring. Other Helcim views that look similar but answer different questions:
- Deposits view (Payments → Deposits). This is post-fee, post-reserve settled balance, NOT gross transaction volume. Always lower than this card by the interchange-plus markup amount. Use the monthly statement to bridge.
- Disputes view (Payments → Disputes). Tracks chargeback / dispute cases, not transaction volume.
- Smart Terminal device reports (Devices → Terminals). Per-terminal end-of-day batches. These are a subset of this card (POS-only, one device).
- Recurring Payments view (Payments → Recurring → Plans). Tracks active payment plans and their next-rebill dates, not historical revenue.
Cross-connector reconciliation, what should match what:
Quick rule for support tickets: if a merchant says “Helcim Dashboard shows CAD 100k, your number shows CAD 80k” in the same period, walk through the table above in order. Time-zone is the most common cause for “today” complaints in Western Canada accounts (2-hour offset versus UTC); reserve-netting is the most common cause for newly-onboarded merchants comparing this card against the Deposits view.
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Reconciliation questions (“why doesn’t this match the Helcim Dashboard / my bank?”) are answered in the Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard section above. Below are the questions that aren’t reconciliation.“What is interchange-plus pricing and why does Helcim use it?” Interchange-plus means the merchant pays the actual scheme cost (interchange + assessments, set by Visa/Mastercard, typically 1.10, 2.40% depending on card type) plus a small processor markup (Helcim publishes 0.30% as the standard markup on smaller volume tiers, scaling down to 0.15, 0.20% for higher volume). The alternative is flat-rate pricing (Square, Stripe), where the processor charges a single rate (~ 2.65% in-person, 2.9% online) regardless of card type. Interchange-plus is mathematically cheaper for any merchant whose card mix is debit-heavy or has a healthy share of low-interchange consumer credit; flat-rate is simpler and sometimes cheaper for merchants whose mix skews to premium / rewards cards. Helcim publishes the full interchange table on every monthly statement, which is the “transparent” part of the pitch. “How does Helcim’s pricing compare to Square in plain numbers?” At ~ CAD 50,000 monthly volume with Canadian SMB-typical card mix (mostly Interac debit + Visa/MC consumer credit), Helcim’s blended effective rate is around 1.7, 1.9% all-in; Square’s flat rate is 2.65% in-person + 2.9% + CAD 0.30 online. The gap is structurally 70, 100 bps. On CAD 50k/month that is CAD 350, 500/month, CAD 4,200, 6,000/year. Below CAD 5,000/month volume the math reverses (Helcim’s monthly statement fees, optional add-ons, and admin overhead can outweigh the interchange-plus saving for very small merchants). The breakeven is broadly CAD 3,000, 5,000/month. “Does Helcim support 3DS 2 / SCA?” Yes, via the Helcim.js SDK and the
/v2/payment-intents flow. North American merchants typically don’t need it (no SCA mandate), but Helcim supports it for cross-border EU/UK card-not-present traffic and for merchants who want the chargeback liability shift. The 3DS abandon rate is tracked in hel_threedsecure_abandon_rate.
“What happens to Interac debit transactions in this card?”
Interac (the Canadian domestic debit network) flows through card-transactions with cardBrand: INTERAC and a different fee structure (per-transaction flat fee, no percentage). It still contributes to gross volume here. The per-network breakdown is in hel_top_payment_methods. US merchants will not see Interac.
“Helcim supports both CAD and USD merchant accounts, do I see both in this card?”
Yes, if you have a multi-currency Helcim account. CAD captures and USD captures appear as separate currency lines (no FX rolling). If you only operate in CAD but accept USD-denominated cards from US customers, those are converted to CAD at capture using Helcim’s daily FX feed and show up as CAD here.
“What about the Helcim Smart Terminal hardware, does it count separately?”
No, the Smart Terminal is just one channel that posts to the same /v2/card-transactions endpoint. POS captures, online checkout, virtual terminal, and recurring rebills are unified in this card. Use Reports → Sales by Source in the Helcim Dashboard for the per-channel split, or wait for the per-channel card on our roadmap.
“My recurring subscription rebills, do those count here?”
Yes. Helcim Recurring uses tokenized card-on-file (with network-token support where available) and rebills as type = 'purchase' linked via paymentPlanId. They’re indistinguishable from one-time captures in this card. A dedicated Subscription Revenue card is on the roadmap.
“Why is the customer-paid total higher than what arrived in my bank?”
Three deductions between this card and your bank deposit: (1) Helcim’s interchange-plus blended cost (typically 1.7, 2.0% for Canadian SMB), (2) refunds processed in the same window, (3) settlement timing (transactions on the last day of the period typically settle T+2, so they appear in the next deposit). Use the Helcim monthly statement to bridge precisely.
“Does Helcim work outside North America?”
Helcim is licensed as a payment facilitator in Canada and the US only. They will accept cross-border card payments from international customers (any Visa/MC/Amex card globally), but the merchant entity must be Canadian or US. Pan-North-American is fine; pan-global is not Helcim’s lane (consider Adyen or Stripe).