$ FairRate Audit
I run a:Retail storeRestaurantQuick-service / caféHotelGrocery / convenienceServices / salon

Interactive tool · Canadian small business

What should your tech stack cost?

Pick your sector, tell us about your business, and build your stack item by item. Every figure comes from published pricing and is labeled by confidence — then see what the numbers say and get a free audit of your real costs.

Start building your stack

1 · Pick your sector

The catalog, suggestions, and floor-plan map reconfigure for each sector.

Estimate is fine — or skip it. If you enter it, every cost below is also shown as a % of revenue, benchmarked against sector norms.

2 · Answer 3 quick questions

We build a realistic starting setup from your answers — every number stays adjustable below.

Drives handhelds, POS stations, kitchen screens.
Adds a bar POS station.
Apps add aggregator tablets + commission math.

Your business basics

These drive per-location / per-employee pricing — not the auto-build above.

Auto-set from your answers — editable.
Auto-set from your answers — editable.
From your processor statements if you have them.
Your effective rate. Don't know it? 2.65% is a typical flat rate — an estimate, not your number.

3 · Build your stack

Tick what you have (or plan to get). Quantities adjust per item.

Official vendor's own price Reported reputable third-party Estimate our reasonable estimate Illustrative purchase ÷ 36 mo
Zero-effort path: fills in a normal configuration for your sector. A starting point — not a recommendation. Adjust to match yours.

✅ What you actually need

The core stack — real, verified, useful. Start here.

🔌 Infrastructure — the network layer

Wires, Wi-Fi, firewall, internet. Upfront costs shown as monthly equivalents (÷ 36), clearly labeled.

How things connect — handled for you
There's no single right answer — so choose per zone in the network plan below. The default is hybrid: the devices that take money get cables; the devices that move get Wi-Fi. Guest Wi-Fi is on or off depending on what's normal for your sector (toggle it below). Cable runs and switch ports follow your plan automatically — every auto-added item tells you why it's there.

🧸 Toys — nice to have

Genuinely useful for some, a luxury for most. Same honest pricing, visually de-emphasized.

Estimated total$0/mo

Estimates from published pricing (see confidence labels). Hardware shown as illustrative monthly equivalents (purchase ÷ 36). Not quotes — your free audit measures your real numbers.

🦈 Margin eaters \u2014 cost of sales, not IT

Commissions and platform cuts scale with your revenue \u2014 they\u2019re cost-of-sales, not technology. They\u2019re kept out of your IT stack total on purpose: mixing them in hides how much damage they do.

🛵 Delivery-app commissions

🏠 Your own ordering instead

Flat-fee courier or your own driver \u2014 enter your number. No guesswork.
Published flat-fee options (2026-09-28): Uber Direct from CA$7.99/delivery (official); DoorDash Drive $6.99\u2013$10.99/order (official, currency as printed); SkipGo ~CA$7\u20139 (reported).

🧾 Other platform cut

Booking platforms, marketplaces, app stores \u2014 anything that takes a % of your revenue. Name it and price it.

Your floor plan

Schematic — icons appear as you add items. Not to scale.

Illustrative — not a promise

What you're paying in processing fees right now

$0 / month

Based on the volume and rate you entered above. A 0.5% saving is a common audit finding used here only to show the math — your statements decide the real number.

Know your real numbers?

This simulator runs on published prices and estimates. Your statements tell the true story — send us 3–6 months and we'll measure exactly what you're paying, free.

Get your free processing audit