New: OpenRetain, free merchant retention for ISOs

Keep the merchants you are about to lose.

OpenRetain finds who you can keep and tells you who to call. Drag in your processor's monthly residual report. Free, open source, and your reports never leave your computer.

Sept 2026 · Fiserv North · sample data3 months of history

You could lose $61,920 a year across 14 merchants.

Merchants checked412

Showing a warning sign14

At risk, a year$61,920

Calls this week9

Harbor GrillDown 3 months in a row$7,080 a yr

Quarry Road DinerFee increase, up 22 bps$6,600 a yr

Bluff DentalLikely using a second system$5,160 a yr

OpenRetain · run log

00:01Read residual_0926.csv, 412 merchants

00:02Matched layout: Fiserv North

00:03Added September to 3 months of history

00:04Checked 8 warning signs per merchant

00:05Flagged 14, biggest first

00:06Wrote action reports for 3 agents

Open this week's calls

Harbor Grill · down 3 months in a row · $7,080 a yr Quarry Road Diner · fee increase · $6,600 a yr Harborview Inn · volume drop · $6,300 a yr Northgate Pediatrics · new merchant below plan · $6,240 a yr Tidewater Fitness · likely using a second system · $5,520 a yr Oak St Market · no sales this month · $3,900 a yr Sample run

What losing merchants costs an ISO

The first two figures are from TSG's attrition research. The third is our math for a typical ISO.

Industry average1 in 5

small merchants leave their ISO every year. TSG measures it at 20% to 24%.

Industry estimateUp to half

of them could have been kept. TSG estimates 8 to 10 points of that loss are merchants who switched to a competitor, not merchants who went out of business.

Example math$40k

a year. That is what keeping those merchants is worth to an ISO earning $500,000 a year in residuals.

OpenRetain$0

Free. Other retention tools either do not publish a price or only work with one processor.

OpenRetain finds who you can keep and tells you who to call.

A watchlist that shows its work.

Every flag names the warning sign, shows the number behind it and tells you what to do. No black-box score.

01 ReadAny processor's reportExcel, CSV or text from the portal. Start with three months. It builds a history of every merchant.

02 CheckEight warning signsVolume, transactions, average sale and fees. Every merchant, every month.

03 RankBiggest risk firstSorted by what each merchant pays you a year, with why it is flagged and what to do.

04 ActCall, log, keepA call script for every warning sign, a weekly action report for every agent, and a record of every merchant save.

Eight warning signs. Each one tells you what to do.

01Volume dropThey may be moving business elsewhere, or business is slow. What to do: call and ask what changed.Down 20% vs last 3 months

02No sales this monthThey may have switched or closed. Next month you earn nothing from them. What to do: call today.No transactions this month

03Down 3 months in a rowA slow decline never sets off a volume drop, and it ends the same way. What to do: call before it gets worse.Lower 3 months running

04Likely using a second systemSame number of sales, but smaller ones. Their bigger sales are probably going through Square, Toast or another system. What to do: ask which system, then match it or beat the price.Average sale down 25%

05Fewer transactionsFewer customers are coming in. A merchant under pressure cuts costs, and you are a cost. What to do: find out what changed.Transactions down 25%

06New merchant below planNew merchants leave most often. The fix is usually quick: equipment, training, or an old contract still running. What to do: call or visit this week.Under 50% of plan at 90 days

07Fee increaseThey just got a bigger bill. A competitor will use it to win them. What to do: call first and make an offer.Rate up 15 bps in a month

08Down from last yearFor seasonal businesses, last year is the fair comparison, so normal slow seasons are not flagged. What to do: ask why this season is weaker.Down 20% vs same month last year

Does it read your processor?

Pick the one that pays you. Not mapped yet? A few months from you move it to the front.

Fiserv North (PASO) Ready at launch

Built from the processor's published file spec. Drop in your report on day one.

Get early access

Ready at launch Partly mapped Needs a sample report

Proven.
Better.
New.

We kept what the paid retention tools get right. We fixed what they get wrong. Then we added what none of them have.

Proven4Things the paid tools do well. OpenRetain does all four. Better6Ways OpenRetain beats them, starting with a $0 price and reports that never leave your computer. New2Things no retention tool offers today: a call script for every warning sign and a weekly action report for every agent.

What it doesOpenRetainArcum RevMaxCardConnect CoPilotSpreadsheet

Proven4 of 4What the paid tools do well. We kept all of it.

A ranked list of at-risk merchantsBy hand

Alerts when volume drops or sales stopInside the scoreInside the scoreBy hand

Assign each merchant to an agentBy email

Track what happened after the callSaved, lost or false alarmSometimes

Better6 advantagesWhere OpenRetain beats the paid tools.

Price$0Not publishedFree to Fiserv partnersStaff time

Processors it works withAnyUpload or NMI connectionFiserv onlyAny, by hand

Where your data goesStays on your computerTheir cloudFiserv's cloudYour spreadsheet

How it flags a merchantEight warning signs you can readA score, method not shownA score, method not shownYour judgment

What you see per merchantDollars a year, why, and what to doA scoreA scoreA note

Source codeOpen, AGPLv3ClosedClosed

New2 firstsWhat no retention tool offers today.

A call script for every warning signWhat to say, three questions, the offer

A weekly action report for every agentWho to call and what to say, ready for you to send

Competitor details from public product pages and trade press, October 2026. Arcum publishes no price or method. A dash means not offered or not mentioned publicly.

Your reports stay on your computer.

OpenRetain runs in your browser. Turn off your wifi after the page loads and it still works.

Always stays with youResidual reports, merchant names and MIDs, agents, your notes and every call outcome.

You send every action reportOpenRetain writes each agent's weekly action report. Copy it, or open it in Gmail or Outlook, and send it yourself. OpenRetain sends nothing.

"ISO owners built this industry on hustle. I want AI working for them, so every hour goes into growing the business."

Ernest Rolfson, Fern CapitalFounder-CEO of Finexio for 11 years, over $7B in annual payment volume. 20 years in payments.