Analytics
Overview
The Reporting > Analytics section provides charts and summaries that help you understand your payment trends over time, including processing volume, value, authorisation rates, declines, payment method splits, and more.
The Analytics section presents summarised, aggregated data and not individual transaction records. Use it to spot trends and patterns; to investigate a specific payment, for example why a particular order declined, use the Transactions section instead.
The Analytics section provides business intelligence; it is not a real-time monitor. It helps you understand historical trends and is not designed to track live transaction processing as it happens.
View your analytics
Only certain roles can view Analytics.
By default, the Analytics page shows data for your business. If you've got access to multiple businesses in the same organisation, a Businesses filter appears at the top of the Analytics page. Use the filter to view combined analytics for one or more of the businesses that you have access to:
- On the Analytics page, click the Businesses filter.
- In the Business filter window that appears, search for and select the businesses whose analytics you want to view. To view analytics for all the businesses that you have access to, select the All businesses check box.
- Click Apply.
The Analytics page updates to show combined analytics for all the selected businesses.
View your analytics as follows:
- Log in to the Peach Payments Dashboard.
- In the Reporting section, click Analytics.
- Select the tab that you want to view.
What each tab shows
Summary
The Summary tab shows:
- Key metric cards for total processing volume, gross merchant value, and authorisation rate for the last completed month, each with the change from the prior completed month.
- Authorisation rate for combined payment methods, daily for the last 60 days.
- Top 10 decline reasons for combined payment methods, for the last 30 days.
- Approvals compared to declines for combined payment methods, daily for the last 60 days.
- Payment method split by volume and by value, for the last 30 days.
- Top 15 issuers by total processing volume for combined payment methods, for the last 30 days.
- Total processing volume and gross merchant value for combined payment methods, daily for the last 60 days.
Decline insights
The Decline Insights tab shows:
- Decline rate trend for combined payment methods, monthly for the last 12 months.
- Decline rate for combined payment methods, daily for the last 60 days.
- Decline rate per issuing bank, monthly for the last 3 months.
- Decline category cards showing the number of soft declines, hard declines, failures, and customer errors for the last completed week, each with the change from the prior completed week.
- Soft, hard, customer error, and failure volume, daily for the last 60 days.
- Declines details by payment method, for the last 7 days.
Sales performance
The Sales Performance tab shows:
- Gross merchant value trend for combined payment methods, as a month-on-month comparison for the last 3 years.
- Transaction value for combined payment methods by day of the week, for the last 6 completed weeks.
- Lowest, highest, average, and median basket value, weekly for the last 12 weeks.
- Median basket value per payment method, monthly for the last completed month.
- Median basket value per payment method, weekly for the last 12 weeks.
Payment method performance
The Payment Method Performance tab shows authorisation rate per payment method, daily for the last 60 days, so you can see whether a specific payment method is underperforming.
Metric definitions
Analytics uses governed metric definitions that are consistent across Peach Payments reporting. These definitions can differ from figures that you calculate yourself, so review the definitions below when you compare Analytics with your own records.
Value metrics
Value metrics measure the monetary value of the transactions that you process.
| Metric | Definition | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Gross merchant value (GMV) | The total monetary value of all successful payment transactions (debits and captures) processed in the merchant's local currency, prior to any refunds or deductions. For example, this will sum ZAR for South African merchants and KES for Kenyan merchants. | Sum of all successful payment amounts (debits and captures) |
| Median basket value | The exact midpoint of all successful payment amounts (debits and captures) for a chosen time range when arranged from lowest to highest. Unlike the average (mean), the median represents the most "typical" customer spend because it is not distorted by massive one-off purchases or extremely small test transactions. | The 50th percentile (median) of successful payment amounts |
Volume metrics
Volume metrics measure how many transactions you process.
| Metric | Definition | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Total processing volume (TPV) | The absolute count of all transaction attempts, regardless of the payment type (for example, debit, preauthorisation, refund) or the final outcome (for example, successful, failed, declined). This represents the total raw firehose of activity passing through the platform. | Total count of all transaction attempts |
| Total decline volume | The absolute count of all unsuccessful transaction attempts, regardless of the payment type (for example, debit, preauthorisation) or the specific reason for the failure. This includes customer errors, hard declines, soft declines, and technical failures. These categories can overlap, so their volumes might not add up to the total decline volume. | Total count of unsuccessful transaction attempts |
| Customer error decline volume | The absolute count of all unsuccessful transaction attempts where the root cause is attributed to the customer. This includes scenarios such as insufficient funds, exceeded daily card limits, expired cards, or incorrectly entered payment details (like a wrong CVV or card number). | Total count of declines flagged as customer error |
| Hard decline volume | The absolute count of all declined transaction attempts categorised as hard declines. A hard decline is a permanent rejection by the customer's issuing bank. Trying the transaction again with the exact same payment method will not work because of a terminal issue such as a closed account, or a cancelled, lost, or stolen card. | Total count of declines flagged as hard declines |
| Soft decline volume | The absolute count of all declined transaction attempts categorised as soft declines. A soft decline is a temporary rejection by the customer's issuing bank or the payment network. Unlike hard declines, the transaction might be successful if it is tried again later, or if the customer resolves a temporary issue (such as transferring funds to cover a low balance or confirming an SMS OTP to clear a temporary fraud hold). | Total count of declines flagged as soft declines |
| Failure volume | The absolute count of all unsuccessful transaction attempts caused by technical errors or system glitches. A technical failure occurs when there is a breakdown somewhere in the payment pipeline, such as a timeout at the processor, the card network, or the issuing bank. This typically happens due to missing data payloads, incorrectly formatted API requests, or server communication breakdowns. | Total count of unsuccessful transactions flagged as technical failures |
Payment performance metrics
Payment performance metrics measure how many transactions succeed and how many fail.
| Metric | Definition | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Authorisation rate | The percentage of payment attempts (specifically debits and preauthorisations) that are successfully authorised by the issuing bank, excluding declines caused by customer error (such as insufficient funds, exceeded limits, or invalid card details). This isolates the technical performance of the payment processing pipeline and the bank's decision-making from preventable customer mistakes. | Successful authorisations (debits and preauthorisations) ÷ all authorisation attempts (excluding customer errors) |
| Overall decline rate | The percentage of all transaction attempts that were unsuccessful, regardless of the underlying reason. This includes hard and soft declines, and technical failures and customer errors. This is calculated by dividing the total number of unsuccessful transactions by the overall total number of attempted transactions. | Total decline volume ÷ total processing volume |
Limitations
Keep the following limitations in mind when you use Analytics:
- Summarised data only. Analytics shows aggregated data. You cannot click a chart to see the individual transactions behind it. Use the Transactions section to investigate a specific payment.
- Fixed time ranges. Charts use fixed ranges, such as the last 30 days, 60 days, 12 weeks, 12 months, or 3 years. You cannot set a custom date range.
- Completed periods. Most charts include a day, week, or month only after it ends.
- Not real-time. Depending on the chart, the most recent data is from the previous completed period.
- Independent charts. Each chart works on its own. Filtering one chart does not update the others.
- Time zone. Analytics reports in South African Standard Time (SAST), which can differ from the time zone in your own records.
- Local currency. Analytics shows values in your local currency. South African merchants see South African rand (ZAR), Kenyan merchants see Kenyan shilling (KES), and Mauritian merchants see Mauritian rupee (MUR).
FAQ
Why doesn't a number match what I see in my own system
A few things can cause small differences:
- Analytics reports in SAST, while your own records might use a different time zone.
- Most charts include a day, week, or month only after it ends.
- Analytics uses governed metric definitions that can differ from the definitions and calculations in your own systems.
What counts as an approval compared to a decline
An approval is a successful payment attempt. A decline is any unsuccessful attempt, whether the issuing bank declined it, the customer cancelled it, or it failed for a technical reason. The plain-English reason for a decline, for example "insufficient funds", is what you see labelled as the decline reason in the charts.
How is authorisation rate calculated
Authorisation rate is the share of payment attempts (debits and preauthorisations) that succeeded. Because it uses a governed definition that can exclude certain return codes, it can differ from a rate that you calculate yourself from the transactions list.
What currency are the values shown in
Analytics shows all figures in your local currency.
What is median basket value
Median basket value is the middle value when all your successful payments for the period are sorted from smallest to largest. A small number of unusually large or small payments has little effect on the median, so it gives a reliable read on a typical payment.
What is an issuer bank
For card payments, the issuer bank is the bank that issued your customer's card.
Can I see the individual transactions behind a chart
No. Analytics shows summarised, aggregated data rather than individual transaction records. To investigate a specific payment, for example why a particular order declined, use the Transactions section.
Can I choose my own custom date range
No. Analytics uses fixed ranges, such as the last 30 days, 60 days, 12 weeks, 12 months, and 3 years, rather than a custom date picker.
Is this real-time data
No. Analytics helps you understand trends and patterns over time rather than monitor live transaction processing. Depending on the chart, the most recent data is from the previous completed period.
Can I filter one chart and have the others update to match
No. Each chart on a tab works independently.
Who else can see my data
Only your users with the appropriate permissions can see data for your business.
I think a number is wrong; who do I contact
If you think a number is wrong, contact support.
Can I request a new chart
Contact support to request a new chart. Peach Payments reviews every request and prioritises new charts based on demand, amongst other factors.
Updated about 2 hours ago