Commissions and their statuses
How a sale becomes a commission, what Pending, Approved, Paid and Canceled mean, and how to approve, cancel, filter and export commissions.
Every time someone buys through an affiliate's link or coupon code, PageShift records a commission for that affiliate. Find them all in Leads & Growth → Affiliates → Commissions.
How a sale earns a commission
- A visitor clicks the affiliate's link. PageShift remembers them for the days you set (60 in our example), even if they buy later.
- The visitor buys: a product, a service, a form payment, a course or a membership. Or someone uses the affiliate's coupon code, even without the link.
- When the order is paid (automatically online, or when you mark it Paid), the commission is recorded as Pending. The affiliate gets a "You earned …" email.
The order's Details in Store → Orders show who referred it and the commission:
The commission is worked out on what the customer actually paid for the items, after discounts. Tax and shipping are left out (you can change that in Settings).
The statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | In the waiting period (for example 30 days). A refund or a canceled order lowers or cancels it |
| Approved | The waiting period is over. It counts toward the affiliate's next payout |
| Paid | You paid it and marked the payout as paid |
| Canceled | The order was refunded or canceled, or you canceled it. The affiliate sees the reason |
Pending commissions are approved automatically after the waiting period. If you untick Approve commissions automatically after the waiting period in Settings, each one waits for you.
Find commissions
- Click a status (1) to see only those commissions.
- Choose an affiliate (2) and a type (Sale, Bonus, Adjustment, Lead, Renewal or Refund taken back), or search by what was bought, the affiliate or the customer, and click Filter.
- The total at the bottom doesn't count canceled commissions.
- Export CSV (5) downloads the list for your bookkeeping.
Approve or cancel by hand
- Tick the commissions (3).
- In Bulk actions (4), choose Approve, or Cancel (not approved).
- For a cancel, type the reason (the affiliate sees it).
- Click Apply.
Only pending commissions can be approved, and paid ones can't be canceled here.
Rules PageShift applies for you
- No self-referrals: an affiliate buying through their own link or code earns nothing. Their page's History notes it.
- Refunds: a refund in the waiting period lowers the commission (partial refund) or cancels it (full refund). A canceled order cancels it too.
- Refunds after payout: you choose in Settings whether to Take it back from the affiliate's next payout (a "Refund taken back" line) or Keep it (you absorb it).
- Two affiliates: if a visitor clicked two affiliates' links, The last click gets the sale (or the first, if you choose The first click keeps the visitor).
- Other currencies: sales in another currency are converted to the program currency.
Different rates
The program rate applies unless you set another one:
- Per product: on the product's edit screen, the Affiliate commission box. Choose a percentage or A fixed amount per item.
- Per affiliate: on the affiliate's page, Commission (see Applications and adding affiliates).
- Per course or form: in Settings → Commission per item.
- Top sellers: Higher rates for top sellers in Settings → Commission gives a higher percentage from a number of sales in the same month.
When rates overlap, the item's own rate wins over the affiliate's and the program's.