Why this matters
Fee wording is a high-risk place for AI to overstate buyer cost
Small businesses often mention taxes, surcharges, card fees, delivery charges, and rush fees across pricing pages, quote emails, invoices, checkout screens, and policy pages. If those sources disagree, AI search tools can summarize the wrong total cost or imply a fee applies to every buyer.
This checklist gives owners a simple source-of-truth record before publishing fee language or asking AI to draft pricing-page copy.
Copy/paste artifact
Tax, surcharge, and fee source worksheet
Business / website:
[company name]
Reviewer / owner:
[name]
Review date:
[date]
Canonical fee / checkout / pricing page:
[URL]
1. Fee inventory
Fee or surcharge name:
[sales tax / local tax / convenience fee / card fee / delivery fee / rush fee / environmental fee / fuel surcharge / other]
Where buyers may see it:
[pricing page / checkout / quote / invoice / receipt / FAQ / ad / chatbot / support macro]
Exact buyer-facing wording:
[paste the wording]
2. Source of truth
Who must pay it:
[all buyers / specific location / specific payment method / specific job type / specific delivery zone]
How it is calculated:
[flat fee / percentage / tax rate / pass-through cost / quote-only / estimate-only]
When it is not charged:
[exceptions, waivers, included plans, pickup, cash/check, warranty, owner approval]
Internal proof source:
[tax rule, payment processor setting, POS/checkout setting, supplier invoice, policy doc, owner approval]
3. Conflict check
Does the website match checkout?
[yes/no/needs review]
Does quote/invoice wording match public page?
[yes/no/needs review]
Does support/chatbot wording avoid promises about waivers or exact totals?
[yes/no/needs review]
4. Safe public wording
Approved short answer:
[one cautious sentence AI tools can quote]
Approved exception wording:
[one cautious sentence for fee waivers, location limits, payment methods, or manual review]
Do not say:
[unsupported tax advice, guaranteed total, waived fees, universal surcharge, processor/legal claims, or exact charges without checkout/source proof]
5. AI-search audit prompt
Paste this into your AI/search QA tool:
"Review this fee, checkout, pricing, and policy page. List every tax, surcharge, convenience fee, delivery fee, rush fee, environmental fee, payment fee, and exception. Flag any fee that lacks a source URL, checkout proof, owner approval, effective date, or exception rule. Do not invent tax advice, legal requirements, waived fees, payment-method rules, or final buyer totals."
STOP PUBLISHING if:
- The fee name, amount, formula, or applicability is not verified.
- Public page, checkout, quote, invoice, receipt, and support wording conflict.
- The wording sounds like tax/legal advice without owner/professional review.
- AI/chatbot answers would promise waivers, exact totals, or fee exceptions without human review.
- The policy owner has not approved the wording for publication.
Customer-safe wording examples
- Checkout clarity: “Applicable taxes and approved fees are shown before checkout is completed. Some fees depend on location, payment method, or service type.”
- Quote-safe language: “Your final total may include verified taxes, delivery, or service fees shown on the quote or checkout screen.”
- AI-search guardrail: “Do not summarize fees as universal, waived, tax-required, or final unless the source page and checkout proof explicitly say so.”
Related Horizon Flow resource
This free checklist supports the paid SEO After AI playbook for turning public pages into source-of-truth assets that AI search tools can quote safely.