Retail
Retail businesses carry costs that repeat every month and every sale. Store leases, card processing, sales tax and supplier terms all follow contracts or rules that are easy to lose track of.
Fairview Audit connects you with a partner firm that can review these areas. The firm does the work. Fairview does not.
Where retail costs build up
A single store has rent, utilities, payment fees, shipping and inventory purchases. A chain multiplies each of these across many locations. Common cost areas include:
- Store leases, including percentage rent, shared-area charges and tax or insurance pass-throughs
- Card processing fees charged on every sale
- Sales and use tax collected, paid or accrued across locations
- Supplier agreements for merchandise, fixtures and store supplies
- Freight and parcel charges for inbound stock and online orders
- Waste and recycling pickup for each site
- Utilities for stores, stockrooms and signage
The cost of each item may look small. The pattern across many stores and many months is what a review examines.
Store leases
Retail leases often have terms beyond base rent. Many split common-area maintenance, property tax and insurance between landlord and tenant as the lease directs, and some add rent based on a share of sales above an agreed point. Charges are billed by the landlord, and the lease decides what the landlord may bill. A review compares billed charges with lease terms, including how shared costs were allocated and whether sales-based amounts were calculated as the lease describes.
Retailers also open, move and close stores. Each change creates lease questions about start dates, options and exit terms.
See Lease audit and compliance for retail for the retail version, and Lease audit and compliance for the general category.
Sales and use tax
A retailer collects tax at the register and passes it to the state or local government. It can also owe use tax on items it buys for its own use. Each state sets its own rates and decides which products are taxable. Errors can run in either direction: tax collected or paid when it was not owed, or tax owed and not reported. A review looks at how your transactions were treated. Any specific rule that applies to you depends on where you sell. [VERIFY: current sales and use tax rules for the states or regions where you operate]
See Sales and use tax for retail and the general Sales and use tax page.
Card processing fees
Retail depends on card payments. Processing statements list fees that are hard to read. The merchant discount is typically split among the card-issuing bank, the card network and the processor, and interchange varies with card type and how a sale was entered. A review reads the statement against your processing agreement and checks what each line represents.
See Merchant account fees for retail and Merchant account fees.
How matching works
Partner firms differ in the categories and business sizes they serve. The detail for retail is not yet published. [CONFIRM: partner industry detail]
- Choose a request path: larger business, smaller business, or not sure or another need. There is no fixed size cut-off. Fairview matches each request by hand.
- Submit the matching form.
- Your request goes to the matched partner firm, or to Fairview for manual matching.
- You then talk with the firm directly. The engagement and any fees are between you and the firm.
Questions about retail reviews
Do I need to review every store at once?
Not necessarily. You can discuss scope with the partner firm. Some businesses start with a few locations or one cost area.
Will a review change my vendors?
A review checks existing agreements. Whether you keep or change vendors is your decision. [CONFIRM: a partner firm supplies and approves this statement]
Who contacts the landlord or processor?
You agree with the partner firm how any correction is raised. You stay involved in that step.
Tell us what you need reviewed. We match you by hand with an independent partner firm. You keep your existing vendors.Find out what you are overpaying.