Margin Recovery for independent retailers
Find hidden money in card fees and vendor invoices.
Send one card-processing statement and a sample of vendor invoices. MarginHero identifies correctable costs, cites every finding, and helps you pursue the recovery.
20-minute first look
No POS login required
$200/month guarantee
Example deliverable
Margin Recovery Check
Source-referenced findings
Card Fee X-Ray
Markup, junk fees, and rate changes
Every finding points back to your statement.
Vendor Leak Check
Price changes, shorts, duplicates, and missing credits
Invoice lines stay attached to the finding.
Next step
Fix in place, compare alternatives, or file the credit
The path follows your economics, not a processor commission.
Built by an operator
Recover the visible money first. Strengthen the controls next.
Blake Smith brings 20 years of big-box and specialty-retail asset-protection experience to a remote process built for independent operators. Start with statements and invoices; move into register controls, documentation, and training only after the trust is earned.
New: Margin Recovery Check
Your statements and invoices may be hiding correctable costs.
Card swipe fees are now the convenience industry's second-highest operating cost — ahead of rent and utilities, per NACS — and industry research found errors on roughly one in five direct-store-delivery invoices. Bring one card statement and a week of vendor invoices from the drawer: we identify the issues, cite the evidence, and help you pursue the recovery.
Free margin scan
Get a practical Margin Recovery Scorecard in under 5 minutes.
Start with your current concern, answer practical operating questions, and unlock a scorecard that ranks the controls to tighten first.
Start free scan1Choose the retail issue that is already on your mind.
2Answer each control question and watch the risk ranking update.
3Unlock the scorecard and choose the right kit or starter pack.
Services
Choose the next step only after the first evidence is clear.
Independent retailers can move from recovery into POS exception review. Multi-location AP and operations teams can test one governed AI use case through a contained pilot. Every MarginHero engagement is delivered remotely.
Virtual Assessment
$750
Remote Profit Leak Audit
A remote read of 90 days of POS data to surface refund, void, no-sale, discount, paid-out, and cash variance patterns that may point to possible theft, fraud, or process breakdowns.*
- Exception patterns ranked by likely margin impact and investigation priority
- Validation questions for receipts, cameras, manager notes, and employee context
- Detailed analysis and guide for owner or operator
Credit
* POS data is handled confidentially and used only for the audit review.
100% credited toward a pilot.
For AP and operations teams
$2,500
AP Knowledge Agent Pilot
Make one approved policy or procedure library answerable with citations through a fixed-scope, read-only Stage 1 pilot.
- One repository and one named operating use case
- Source-cited answers and a focused evaluation
- Access and governance brief with a clear go or no-go
Stage 1 timing
2-3 wk
Normally delivered in about three weeks.
Next decision
Read-only, approval-first, and no production integration in Stage 1.
Stage 2 is separately scoped only after the pilot passes.
Money back, or free
$499
Margin Recovery Check
One card statement and a sample of vendor invoices. Correctable fees, rate changes, invoice errors, and missing credits are tied back to the source. If the completed review cannot support $200/month, the fee is waived.
Urgent issue
$1,500
Incident Response
For owners who just caught a serious issue and need neutral documentation, evidence organization, and next-step controls.
Founder-led advisory
$2,500/mo
Fractional AP Director
Monthly asset-protection leadership for operators who need ongoing review, coaching, controls, and accountability without a full-time AP hire.
Limited Availability.Use selected statements and invoices to establish value without opening POS access.
Add POS exception review, documentation, or training only when the first result supports it.
Margin Guard monitors the agreed statement and invoice volume with written limits.
Future add-on
Hero Mode is being shaped by operator interest.
The Essentials Kit is the launch product. Hero Mode is the future associate-facing training layer for teams that want short missions, recall checks, and completion proof after their core controls are in place.
Start with the Essentials Kit.
Get the procedures, logs, quick cards, training video, and incident tool first.
Tell us if Hero Mode matters to your team.
Interest signals help decide when associate missions move into the release queue.
Turn real requests into mission topics.
Refunds, cash control, chargebacks, safe response, and incident documentation.
Built from 20 years of asset protection work across big-box, specialty retail, and service environments.