Affiliates judge a program by two things: how fast their sales are approved, and whether they get paid. This guide covers the whole money side from the store's point of view: sale statuses, approving and rejecting, what to do about refunds, payment terms, payment requests, payouts, fast payment, and what all of it means for your Affiracle bill.
Who pays whom
On Affiracle the store pays its affiliates. Affiracle tracks the sales, calculates the commissions and manages the paperwork, but the money for your program's commissions goes from you to the affiliate. That is why approving and paying are your steps, and why affiliates watch them closely.
Sale statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | The sale was tracked and is waiting for your decision. The affiliate sees the commission but cannot request it. |
| Approved | You confirmed the sale. The commission counts toward the affiliate's balance in your store and can be requested. |
| Rejected | You declined the sale, with a reason. No commission is owed. |
| Cancelled / Refunded | The order did not hold. No commission is owed. |
| Paid | The commission was paid and the payout was closed. |
Approving and rejecting sales
Open Sales. The Pending conversions tab lists everything waiting for you. You can approve or reject a single sale, tick several and use Approve selected, or use Approve all.
To reject, you choose a reason: product not available, customer requested cancellation, fraudulent transaction, invalid payment information, customer dissatisfaction, technical issue, or Other with your own text. The affiliate is notified with the reason, so choose the true one. A clear reason ends the conversation. A vague one starts it.
Manual or automatic approval
The store setting Manual conversion approval decides how sales arrive. When it is on, every sale waits as pending until you act. When it is off, sales are approved the moment they are tracked.
- Manual fits stores with cancellations, returns or cash on delivery, where an order is not final on the day it is placed.
- Automatic fits stores where an order is almost always final, such as digital products.
Approval is either manual or immediate. If you approve manually, pick a fixed rhythm that matches your return window, for example every Sunday for orders older than 14 days, and tell your affiliates what it is.
Why speed matters more than you think
A pending sale is money the affiliate can see and cannot touch. Across Affiracle, sales left pending for months are one of the main reasons affiliates who were selling well stop promoting a store, and they rarely say so first. They simply move their links to a store that approves.
You do not have to approve quickly. You have to approve predictably. "We approve 30 days after the order, once the return period is over" is a perfectly good rule when the affiliate knows it in advance.
On plans that are billed as a percentage of sales, such as Almost free, the platform fee is billed on sales you approved, and also on sales that are still pending 30 days after the order. A sale that should not count has to be rejected, not left waiting. On Standard and Premium you pay a fixed monthly fee, so this does not apply.
Refunds and cancelled orders
Affiracle does not receive refunds or cancellations from your store platform. When an order is cancelled or returned, open the sale and reject it with the matching reason. This is the main reason to keep manual approval on if your store has returns: it gives you a window to reject before the commission becomes payable.
If a commission was already paid and the order is refunded later, nothing changes automatically. Settle it with the affiliate directly, for example by agreeing to offset it against a future payment.
Payment terms and minimum payout
Two store settings tell affiliates what to expect, and they are shown to them:
- Payment terms - Net +1, +7, +15 or +30. When a payment request is opened, Affiracle shows the affiliate an expected payment date: the request date plus that number of days, moved forward to the 1st of the following month. Pay by the date the affiliate sees.
- Minimum payout - the approved balance an affiliate needs in your store before they can request payment.
Set a minimum that is worth a bank transfer for you, and no higher. A high minimum leaves small affiliates with money they can never collect, and they notice.
Paying affiliates, step by step
Payment requests live under Payment requests. An affiliate sends one when their approved balance passes your minimum. You do not have to wait for them: Available Commissions on the same page lists affiliates with approved commissions who have not asked yet, and Initiate payment opens the request for them.
- Request invoice. The affiliate is asked to issue an invoice or the document that fits their tax status. The request moves to Invoice requested.
- Add to payout. Once the invoice is in, add the request to a payout. A payout groups several affiliates' payments so you can handle them in one session.
- Pay outside the system. Open the payout and use Download excel to get the list with each affiliate's bank details, then make the transfers from your bank.
- Mark payout as Finished. This marks every item in the payout as Paid. It cannot be undone, so do it only after the money has left.
If you transfer money to an affiliate and never close the payout, their dashboard keeps showing an unpaid balance in your store. To the affiliate that looks like a store that does not pay, even when you did. Closing the payout is what tells them, and every report, that the debt is settled.
Fast payment
Fast payment lets you pay one affiliate or several through Affiracle with the credit card saved on your account. Affiracle issues you an invoice right away and transfers the money to the affiliates, so you skip collecting an invoice from each one. A service fee applies per affiliate, and the exact amount is shown on the confirmation screen before you approve. Fast payment is part of the Standard and Premium plans.
Reminders you will get
When sales have been pending for a week or more, Affiracle emails you a reminder. It is a prompt to open the Sales page, nothing more: Affiracle never approves or rejects a sale for you.
Once a week: approve or reject everything past your return window. Once a month: open Payment requests, initiate payment for anyone who has not asked, request invoices, build one payout, pay it, and mark it finished. Write both rules in your campaign description.
FAQ
Can I change the commission on a single sale?
Yes. Open the sale and edit its commission, for example when part of an order was returned. Tell the affiliate why.
An order was partly returned. Approve or reject?
Edit the commission on the sale to match what the customer kept, then approve it.
Do I have to wait for an affiliate to request payment?
No. Use Initiate payment under Available Commissions to open the request yourself.
What if an affiliate cannot issue an invoice?
Affiliates state their tax status in their account, and the document they send depends on it. If you only want to work with affiliates who can issue a tax invoice, turn on Accept affiliates with TAX ID Only in the store settings. Fast payment is the other route, since Affiracle issues the invoice to you.
Does Affiracle pay my affiliates for me?
Only through Fast payment, which you start and pay for with your card. In the regular flow you pay affiliates directly and mark the payout as finished.