Affiliates
Give someone a code, credit the business they send you, and keep a clear record of what you owe them and what you have paid.
Overview
Affiliates gives you:
- A partner list, each with their own code.
- A share of each sale or a fixed amount per sale, set per partner.
- A commission record that moves from waiting, to approved, to paid.
- Totals for what is owed and what has been paid out.
This is for your partners. It is separate from Refer & Earn, which is how you earn credit for referring other businesses to SoftSolz.
Add an affiliate
Choose Add affiliate, enter their name and optionally their email, then decide how they are paid:
- A share of each sale - a percentage, worked out per sale.
- A fixed amount per sale - the same figure each time, whatever the sale is worth.
How codes work
Leave the code empty and one is made from their name. Codes are stored in capitals with spaces removed, so ada ref becomes ADAREF and a customer typing it in lowercase still works.
A code can only belong to one partner. If you try to reuse one you are told which.
Crediting a sale
When a sale comes in with a partner's code, record it against them. The commission is worked out from their rate and starts as waiting.
The same sale can never be credited twice. If the same order is submitted again, we recognise it and leave the original commission alone rather than paying for it twice.
A commission is also never more than the sale itself, however the rate is set.
Approving and paying
A commission moves through three states:
- Waiting - recorded, not yet agreed. Approve it or reject it.
- Approved - you agree it is owed. This is the figure in "Owed right now".
- Paid - you have sent the money.
Paid is final. A commission marked paid cannot be reopened, edited or rejected, so your payout history cannot be rewritten after the fact. Approve carefully; that is the reversible step.
You also cannot skip straight from waiting to paid - it has to be approved first.
Pausing someone
Pause an affiliate and their code stops earning commission, while everything they have already earned stays exactly as it is. Reactivate them and the code works again.