Using the Fee Explorer

This section describes how to use the Fee Explorer to investigate individual fees. It also shows you how to find out summary information on fees.

Opening the Fee Explorer

To open the Fee Explorer:

  1. Click the Network Fees Quick Actions button from the main Automated Back Office dashboard. Or click on the left-hand side to bring up the menu, followed by Finance > Network Fees. The Network Fees screen appears.

  2. Click the Fee Explorer button. The Fee Explorer page is displayed.

Viewing Fee Summary Information

The Fee Explorer displays data boxes that show summary fee information based on statuses. The statuses can be any of the following:

  • New Fees — the sum of all newly-invoiced fees, and the respective number of occurrences.

  • Optional — services that you may not need and could opt out of.

  • Warnings — fees from new and previous invoices that were irregular or could not be classified. A fee classified as a Warning must be in any of the following statuses:

    • Suspicious — the system could not match the entity to a known program, or find a matching fee definition in its reference data.

    • Unusual — uses an event code that has not appeared in a previous invoice.

  • Non-Compliance — the number of fees and totals that haven't complied with Visa or Mastercard's policies. For example, this can include late fee submissions.

Clicking on the hyperlink for each data box shows a pre-filtered list for the categories.

Viewing Items in Event and Service View

For analysing fees, Fee Explorer consists of the following views:

  • Services View: — This shows a list of fees according to the service that they provide. Each item is linked to a Service Code, for example, Connectivity Fees are linked to the CF code. Service View is the default view in Fee Explorer.

  • Events View — This shows a list of fees according to the event that triggered each fee. For example, a fee can be linked to an authorisation event for a cardholder payment.

To view fees in Events and Services View,

  1. Observe the current default view as the Services View.

  2. To view invoice items in Event View, click the Events button.

Filtering Invoice Items

You can filter the list of fee invoice items. By default, the filters that you can set correspond to the available columns in the Service View. These include:

  • Invoice ICA — The unique identifier that is assigned by Mastercard to identify an Issuing bank. ICA means the Interbank Card Association.

  • Extracted Bin — The BIN number of the program. This is used for Visa programs only.

  • Affiliate — The affiliate organisation linking to a BIN Sponsor or BAAS Provider. This filter option only applies to BIN Sponsors or BAAS Providers,

  • Category Name — The category of the fee, such as an adjustment fee.

  • Service Code — Code that describes the type of fee related to the invoice line item.

  • Fee Category — The class of fee relating to how the fee is used or where it appears, for example, Systems & Tools.

  • Currency — The currency that is linked to the fee.

  • Status — The status of the fee.

You can also filter by the columns that appear in Event view by choosing further filter options (see Choosing Further Filter Options).

Choosing the Default Filter Options

To choose the default filter options:

  1. Click Filter. Drop-down lists appear for all the filters.

  2. Select individual filter options from the following drop-down lists:

    • Invoice Ica: All (Mastercard only)

    • Extracted Bin: All (Visa only)

    • Affiliate: All

    • Category Name: All

    • Service Code: All

    • Fee Category: All

    • Currency: All

    • Status: All

To clear any of the filter options, click Clear All.

Filtering by Invoice Ica/Extracted Bin

From the InvoiceIca: All / Extracted Bin:All drop-down, select an ID from the OPTIONS list or use the search field.

Filtering by Affiliate

From the Affiliate: All drop-down, select an affiliate category from the OPTIONS list or use the search field.

Filtering by Category Name

Select a Category Name from the OPTIONS list or use the Search field. This is based on the uploaded invoice. For example, you may see a choice of ACTIVITY_FEES or ADJUSTMENT_FEES.

Filtering by Service Code

From the Service Code drop-down, select a service codes entry from the OPTIONS list or use the search field. For a list of service codes, see Appendix 1: Service Codes.

Filtering by Fee Category

Select a Fee Category from the OPTIONS list or use the Search field. This is based on the uploaded invoice. For example, you may see a choice of Activity, Reporting, Systems & Tools, and Transactional.

Filtering by Currency

From the Currency drop-down, select a currency entry from the OPTIONS list or use the search field.

Filtering by Status

From the Status drop-down, select a status entry from the OPTIONS list or use the search field.

  • Accepted — a fee is approved in Automated Back Office. For more details, see Investigating Fee Invoice Items.

  • Escalated — a fee that is escalated to the Card Scheme (where an escalation email is sent).

  • Investigating — a fee is flagged for further investigation. For example, you do not wish to be charged for the fee.

  • New — Automated Back Office identified that the fee did not exist from previous invoices.

  • Optional — a fee where you are not required to pay the amount.

  • Penalty — a fee must be paid in order to abide by a rule or a contractual agreement.

  • Reopened — a fee that needs to be examined again because it was previously Accepted in error.

  • Suspicious — a fee does not appear legitimate, for example, the amount is excessively high.

  • Waived — a fee is no longer required.

  • Waiver Requested — a request has been given for the fee as it is no longer required.

Choosing Further Filter Options

To select further filter options:

  1. Click .

  2. Select any of the filter option categories that are unticked.

Fee Invoice Fields

Refer to the table below for a description of the fields provided for each fee item.

The field columns that appear depend on whether or not you are viewing the fields in Service View or Event View.

Field

Description

In Services View

In Events View

Service Code

The 2-letter Scheme service code. See Appendix 1: Service Codes.

Y

N

Service Name

The name of the Scheme service.

Y

Y

Total

The total fee amount for the invoice item.

Y

Y

Currency

The fee billing currency (e.g., USD).

Y

Y

Occurrences

Occurrence of a particular event or service item.

Y

Y

Events

The link to the invoice list in Event View

Y

N

Event Id

Event code or ID, indicating the type of event (e.g. TRP2217E). (Mastercard only).

N

Y

Event Name

Name of the event that triggered the fee.

N

Y

Last Invoice Date

The date of the last invoice

N

Y

New Fees

The number of fee invoices in the New status.

Y

Y

Occurrences

Occurrence of a particular event or service item.

Y

Y

New Fees

The number of fee invoices in the New status.

Y

Y

Type

The type of fee in the invoice item.

N

Y

Fee Recurrence

Indicates if the fee occurs repeatedly,

N

Y

Trend

Indicates whether the trend of the invoice amount is upwards or downwards. The system calculates an upward or downward trend by comparing the selected date range with the previous period.

N

Y

Details

This shows a link to Service information on the fee,

N

Y

Exporting Fee Records

You can export fee summary records from either the Services View or the Events View. Exporting allows you to provide the data to systems outside of Automated Back Office, such those used by developers for testing. The data that appears depends on the selected view.

  1. To export from the Services View, click the Services button. Invoice items appear in the Services View.

  2. To export from the Event View, click the Events button. Invoice items appear in the Event View.

  3. Click the Export button. A list of export options appear.

  4. From the Select Type list, choose a format for the export as:

    1. CSV

    2. JSON

    3. XML

      See below for the descriptions of export options for each format.

  5. Save your data to a suitable location.

Export to CSV

If you selected the CSV option, you can include the date format. You can also select the option for exporting all the columns that exist for a file, and not just those that appear in the Collections view.

To export to CSV:

  1. Choose a date format:
    • For spreadsheet compatible, select Spreadsheet Compatible. See second note.
    • For DDMMYYYY, select DDMMYYYY.
    • For a long date format, select Long.
    • For current locale, select Current Locale.
  1. To export all the columns in the file, select the Include all columns in export check box.

    If you do not select the check box, you only export those columns that appear in the Collections view.

  2. To preview, click Preview. The Response box shows how the date appears in the CSV file.
  3. To export, click Export.

Spreadsheet Compatible is where the date format is recognised by spreadsheets such as Excel and Google sheets for calculations, sorting, and formatting.

Export to JSON

If you selected the JSON export option, you can preview the export data.

  1. To preview the data, click Preview. The JSON response appears.

  2. To export, click Export.

Export to XML

If you selected the XML export option, you can preview the export data. Or, you can just export the data.

  1. To preview the data, click Preview. The Response box shows the report in XML format.
  2. To export, click Export.

Export Fields for Services

The following show export fields for Services.

Field

Description

Service Code

The 2-letter Scheme service code. See Appendix 1: Service Codes.

Service Name

The name of the Scheme service.

Total

The total fee amount for the invoice item.

Currency

The fee billing currency (e.g., USD).

New Fees

The number of fee invoices in the New status.

Occurrences

Occurrence of a particular event or service item.

Export Fields for Events

The following show export fields for Events.

Field

Description

Event Id

Event code or ID, indicating the type of event (e.g. TRP2217E). (Mastercard only).

Event Name

Name of the event that triggered the fee.

Service Name

The name of the Scheme service.

Total

The total fee amount for the invoice item.

Currency

The fee billing currency (e.g., USD).

Last Invoice Date

The date of the last invoice.

Occurrences

Occurrence of a particular event or service item.

Last Invoice Date

The date of the last invoice

Occurrences

Occurrence of a particular event or service item.

New Fees

The number of fee invoices in the New status.

Type

The type of fee or invoice item.

Fee Recurrence

Indicates if the fee occurs repeatedly,

Refreshing Fee Data

To clear the screen and receive the most recent fee data, click the Refresh button. This button is located towards the top of the screen.