Merchant of record (MoR)
A merchant of record is a company that legally sells your product to your customer, collecting payment and handling sales tax, VAT and invoicing, then paying you the rest. It removes tax registration in dozens of countries for a small team, at the cost of a higher fee than a plain payment processor, which matters when you compute profit.
Formula
your revenue = customer price − MoR fee − tax collected and remittedThe customer pays the full price including tax; the merchant of record keeps its fee and the tax it remits, and pays out the rest to you.
Worked example
| Customer pays | $59 including $10 VAT |
|---|---|
| MoR fee | $3.20 |
| Payout to you | $45.80 |
- $59 − $10 − $3.20 = $45.80
Net revenue for this payment is $45.80, not $59.
How ProductLense shows it
ProductLense connects Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Dodo Payments, all merchants of record. For Paddle the fee is grand total minus earnings, so net revenue equals your payout; for Dodo it is total minus settlement amount. Lemon Squeezy does not expose its fee, so ProductLense records 0 there.
ProductLense needs an API key and a webhook secret from the merchant of record, entered in Settings, Billing connections. It reads only; nothing is created or refunded.
MoR: questions
- What is MoR?
- A merchant of record is a company that legally sells your product to your customer, collecting payment and handling sales tax, VAT and invoicing, then paying you the rest. It removes tax registration in dozens of countries for a small team, at the cost of a higher fee than a plain payment processor, which matters when you compute profit.
- How do you calculate MoR?
- The customer pays the full price including tax; the merchant of record keeps its fee and the tax it remits, and pays out the rest to you. For example, a $59 sale with $10 VAT and a $3.20 fee leaves $45.80 of net revenue.
- Where does ProductLense show MoR?
- ProductLense connects Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Dodo Payments, all merchants of record. For Paddle the fee is grand total minus earnings, so net revenue equals your payout; for Dodo it is total minus settlement amount. Lemon Squeezy does not expose its fee, so ProductLense records 0 there.
- What does ProductLense need to calculate MoR?
- ProductLense needs an API key and a webhook secret from the merchant of record, entered in Settings, Billing connections. It reads only; nothing is created or refunded.
- How is MoR different from processor fees?
- A payment processor such as Stripe charges a fee and leaves tax to you; a merchant of record charges more but takes on tax and invoicing. Both reduce what you keep, which is why ProductLense subtracts fees before computing profit.
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