Notes on selling software, well.
Practical, factual writing on merchant of record, subscription billing, checkout design, and the tax rules that come with selling across borders.
PCI Scope and Why It Shapes Checkout Architecture
PCI DSS compliance isn't a certificate you buy — it's a scope of responsibility that depends entirely on how your checkout is built.
Choosing Between Self-Managed Payments and a Merchant of Record
There's no universally correct answer. There is a clear-headed way to work out which one is right for where your business actually is.
Webhooks, Idempotency, and Why Payment Integrations Break
Most payment-integration bugs aren't about the happy path. They're about retries, duplicate deliveries, and out-of-order events.
Selling Software Across Borders: What Actually Changes
The product doesn't change when you sell internationally. Everything around it — tax, pricing, payment methods, support expectations — does.
Why Reserves and Rolling Holds Exist (And How to Plan Around Them)
A reserve isn't a fee and it isn't arbitrary. It's insurance against a real, quantifiable risk — and it's plannable if you understand the mechanics.
The Anatomy of a Payment: Where Your Money Actually Goes
A $100 sale doesn't arrive as $100. Here's every leg of the journey between a customer's card and your bank account.
VAT, Sales Tax, and Digital Goods: A Practical Primer
Selling software across borders means running into tax rules that were never designed with software in mind. Here's the shape of the problem.
Designing a Checkout That Doesn't Lose Sales
Most checkout abandonment isn't about price. It's about friction, trust signals, and a handful of specific, fixable design decisions.
How Subscription Dunning Actually Works
A failed renewal charge isn't a lost customer — it's a state machine problem. Here's what a real dunning process looks like end to end.
Merchant of Record vs. Payment Processor: What's the Difference
A payment processor moves money. A merchant of record stands behind the sale. Confusing the two leads to picking the wrong tool for the job.
What 'Merchant of Record' Actually Means
The term gets used loosely in payments marketing. Here's what it actually changes about who's liable for what when a sale happens.