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This cookbook is for payment and fintech teams tracking merchants, transactions, fraud, chargebacks, and settlements. The examples use PayStream, a fictional payment gateway.

Who this is for

Company typePayment gateway, fintech, merchant services
ConnectorPostgreSQL
TeamsRisk, treasury, merchant success, compliance

Get started

1

Add PostgreSQL

Connect your payments ledger or warehouse. See Add connectors.
2

Index and mark key tables

Flag transactions, payments, fraud scores, chargebacks, and settlements.
3

Ask your first question

Try: What is payment approval rate by payment method for the last 30 days?
4

Build the dashboards below

Give risk and treasury teams a shared view of volume and operational health.

See it in Vizkraft

Your data

TableWhat it holds
merchantsMerchant profile, category, tier, region
accountsLedger balances by merchant
transactionsAll payment attempts — amount, method, status
paymentsSettled payments and fees
chargebacksDisputes — reason, amount, status
fraud_scoresRisk score and flagged transactions
settlement_batchesPayout batches and status

Tables to mark during indexing

  • Transactions and payments — volume and approval rate
  • Fraud scores — flagged rate and model performance
  • Chargebacks — dispute ratio by category
  • Settlement batches — treasury operations
  • Merchants — tier and segment analysis

Dashboards to build

Payment volume and success rate

Answers: Is payment volume growing and are authorizations healthy? Include volume, approval rate, and average transaction value KPIs; daily volume trend; and breakdown by payment method.

Fraud and chargebacks

Answers: Where is risk concentrated? Include flagged rate and chargeback ratio KPIs; chargebacks by reason; and a table of flagged transactions.

Merchant performance

Answers: Which merchants drive GMV and who needs support? Include active merchants and GMV KPIs; volume by merchant tier; and a top merchants table.

Settlement operations

Answers: Are payouts on time? Include pending settlement and average lag KPIs; batch volume over time; and overdue batches table.

Questions to ask by role

RoleQuestions to try
Risk analystWhat is the flagged transaction rate by payment method and merchant tier?
TreasuryWhat is settlement lag and total pending batch amount?
Merchant successWhat is approval rate by payment method?
ComplianceWhat is chargeback ratio by merchant category?

Example conversations

Approval rate

Ask: What is approval rate by payment method for the last 30 days? Compare methods by both rate and volume so low performers are not hidden behind small sample sizes.

Metrics worth defining

Add to Connector memory as needed:
  • Approval rate — successful payments ÷ transaction attempts
  • Chargeback ratio — chargeback amount ÷ settled volume
  • GMV — gross merchandise value from settled payments
  • Settlement lag — days between payment and batch settlement