Residual Audit
Straata rebuilds the Merchant → Processor → ISV residual chain from source evidence, quantifies the claim, and packages the recovery path.
Legacy ISO and referral relationships often leave the processor’s export as the only apparent source of truth. PE owners inherit the same blind spot across an entire portfolio.
“The only reason a processor emits an opaque CSV is to make the calculations hard to follow.”The operating premise, lightly adapted
The formula that turns merchant economics into partner residual.
The contract reference that authorizes each deducted cost.
The merchant-level join that collapses duplicate MIDs and rails.
ISVs and resellers still paid through older ISO or referral agreements.
PE owners who need one comparable monitoring cadence across multiple holdings.
Confirmed dollars, not estimates: every figure separates what is proven now from what is pending one named missing report.
The back-claim supported inside the contractual recovery window, period by period and line by line.
Every amount tied to the source files already present.
Held outside the confirmed claim until one named report arrives.
The broader historical pattern plus the active-merchant run rate that continues until the formula is corrected.
The proven periods and the ongoing formula behind them.
The expanded history that remains explicitly assumption-free.
Correct the payout and credit the documented in-window variance.
Use the pattern and run rate to reset economics and controls.
Escalate when the agreement and evidence support that posture.
The supporting package includes the reconciliation summary, line-item recomputation, anomaly log, exposure summary, and recovery posture.
The rail is sequential. Contract parsing runs beside it, while the canonical merchant join keeps dual MIDs and dual rails from fragmenting the same economic relationship.
Grade coverage across residual reports, the contract and Schedule A, transaction detail, and merchant statements. Every limit is named in the claim file.
Recompute every residual line from first principles. A fee not authorized by Schedule A cannot quietly become an allowed cost inside the split.
Test fee bases, pricing tiers, revenue-share logic, merchant assignments, and impossible rates against the applicable published ceiling.
Sample six to nine merchants across size tiers, then rebuild volume, buy rate, and event count to verify what merchants were actually charged.
Separate the in-window refund from cumulative systematic exposure, and confirmed-now dollars from amounts pending one named data source.
Package the finding for a retroactive credit, a renegotiation lever, or a material-breach posture supported by the agreement.
Proof / Public-Safe And De-Identified
Each figure carries its evidence state. Executed means money recovered. Identified means a claim sized as owed from the available evidence.
Recovered in one de-identified ISV residual audit.
Sized as owed, including roughly $302K per year of active-merchant underpayment.
Recovered across clients in 6 months.
In roughly half of audits we find a material error.
These are separate, anonymized outcomes. They demonstrate the method and its evidence states, not the size or result of any future audit.
The Residual Audit earns its depth when the agreement, payout report, merchant billing, and underlying activity have never been reconciled as one chain.
ISO or referral residuals assembled under an older agreement, with limited formula transparency.
Normally at least 12 months, and 24 or more months where the contract supports a larger back-claim.
PE owners who want an initial baseline and recurring Trend Tab monitoring across holdings.
Books already operating on modern, line-level reporting with clean source continuity.
Programs where every tested fee, rate, merchant assignment, and payout already reconciles cleanly to the agreement.
What Happens Next
Book a call if you already suspect a residual gap. If the claim still needs to be sized, begin with the Payments Diagnostic. If the finding is ready to become leverage, move into Contract Negotiation.