Commissions on your sales

If you run an affiliate program, partners earn a commission on the sales they send you. The Commissions tab under Sales points you to the Affiliate hub, where the referrals, the commissions, what you owe and your payout history are kept. This article explains how your sales connect to it; setting up the program itself is covered in Run an affiliate program.

Before you start

• An affiliate program switched on, with at least one approved partner.
• Stripe connected, so there are sales to credit.

Steps: see commissions

1. Open Sales and choose the Commissions tab.
2. Press Open Affiliate hub. You can also reach it from Marketing › Affiliate program.
3. Open the hub's Commissions tab to see each commission, the partner, the sale it came from and its status.
4. Open Payouts to see what you owe and what you have paid.

How a sale is credited to a partner

A sale is credited when either of these is true:

• The buyer came through the partner's link. When somebody opens your site through a partner's link (it carries their code, as in ?ref=code), your site remembers the partner, and a later checkout on that site credits them. A link can also carry a campaign tag (&sub=spring), so you can see which of the partner's links sold.
• The buyer used the partner's discount code. When a partner's profile has a discount code that matches one of your discount codes exactly, any order that uses the code is credited to that partner, even if the buyer never clicked their link.

The commission is worked out from the sale, using the rate in your program or the partner's own rate. For a subscription, the partner can also earn on renewals, depending on your program's rules.

What happens next

• A new commission starts as pending. After your program's holding period it becomes approved and is ready to pay. Once you pay it, it is marked paid.
• If an order is fully refunded or disputed, its commission is taken back: voided if it has not been paid yet, or recorded as a negative adjustment if it has.
• If an order is partly refunded, the same share of its commission is taken back.
• The partner is emailed when a commission is recorded and when they are paid.

For agencies

Each client can run their own affiliate program for their own sales. Open the client with Sub-accounts › Open and use their Affiliate hub.

Troubleshooting

A sale that used a partner's code was not credited to them. The code on the partner's profile must match the discount code exactly, and the partner must be approved. Check both in the Affiliate hub under Affiliates.

A buyer says they used a partner's link but the sale was not credited. The link is remembered on the site the buyer opened it on. If they clicked a link to one site and bought on another of your addresses, the partner is not known there. Ask partners to link to the page where people buy.

A commission disappeared after a refund. That is expected. A full refund or a dispute takes the commission back.

The Commissions tab under Sales shows no figures. The figures are kept in the Affiliate hub. Press Open Affiliate hub.

Related

• Run an affiliate program
• Create discount codes and automatic discounts
• Refunds and disputes
• Manage affiliate partners
• Pay your affiliates