name: Bolt FinOps
description: >
  Financial operations guidance for teams integrating with the Bolt API.
  Bolt's pricing is contract-based and transaction-driven. Cost management
  focuses on optimizing transaction volumes, avoiding unnecessary charges,
  and monitoring settlement statements.

url: https://help.bolt.com/dashboard/billing/fees/

cost_drivers:

  - name: Transaction Volume
    description: >
      Platform, processing, and fraud fees are all assessed per transaction.
      Higher GMV directly increases fee spend. Negotiate bundled pricing at
      scale to reduce per-transaction cost.

  - name: Fraud Losses
    description: >
      Lost chargebacks incur a fixed fee per dispute. Enabling Bolt's fraud
      protection and chargeback indemnification service can reduce net
      chargeback costs.

  - name: Integration Fee
    description: >
      One-time cost incurred during initial implementation. Budget for this
      during project planning; it is not an ongoing recurring expense.

  - name: Refund Handling
    description: >
      Platform and processing fees on refunded transactions may not be
      recoverable unless a complete void is issued before capture. Design
      order management workflows to minimize partial-capture refund scenarios.

  - name: BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later)
    description: >
      Bolt partners with Affirm as its default BNPL provider in the US.
      BNPL transactions may carry different fee structures; confirm with your
      Customer Success Manager.

cost_reduction_strategies:

  - name: Bundled Pricing Negotiation
    description: >
      Merchants with high GMV can negotiate bundled rates that combine
      checkout, processing, and fraud fees into a single all-in rate lower
      than itemized pricing.

  - name: Void Before Capture
    description: >
      Cancel orders before capture to avoid platform and processing fees on
      transactions that will not complete.

  - name: Chargeback Win Rate
    description: >
      The Lost Chargeback Fee is refunded when disputes are won. Maintaining
      strong evidence documentation improves win rates and reduces net costs.

  - name: Sandbox Testing
    description: >
      All development and QA work should be conducted in the sandbox
      environment (api-sandbox.bolt.com) to avoid incurring fees on
      non-production transactions.

monitoring:
  - "Bolt Payments merchants: review daily funding statements in the merchant dashboard at https://merchant.bolt.com"
  - "Gateway model merchants: reconcile monthly email invoices"
  - Use the Bolt Transactions API to pull financial statement data programmatically for internal cost reporting

contact:
  sales: sales@bolt.com
  support: https://support.bolt.com
  customer_success: Assigned CSM via merchant contract