Learn how transactions move through Commission Factory from tracking to affiliate payment, including billing cycles and payout timing.
Each transaction on the Commission Factory platform will pass through one of the following five statuses:
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Pending: The transaction has been tracked and is awaiting validation or voiding by the advertiser.
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Locked: The transaction has been validated—either manually or automatically—and is included in the advertiser’s next invoice.
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Void: The transaction has been declined by the advertiser and will not be paid.
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Approved: The advertiser has paid for the transaction, and it is ready to be included in the affiliate’s next payment run.
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Paid: Payment has been successfully made to the affiliate.
You can view the status of your transactions via Reporting > Transactions in the affiliate interface.
Example: Transaction and Billing Timeline
Scenario:
An advertiser has a 30-day validation period and is billed monthly, with a 30-day payment term.
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Transaction Date:
A customer completes a transaction on 1 March. -
Validation and Locking:
The advertiser has a 30-day validation period. After this period, the transaction is locked on 31 March. -
Invoicing:
Because the advertiser is on a monthly billing cycle, they are invoiced on 1 April for all locked transactions from March. -
Payment from Advertiser:
With a 30-day payment term, the advertiser pays the invoice on 1 May. Once payment is received, the transaction status is updated to approved. -
Affiliate Payment:
Payment is released to the affiliate in the next available weekly payment cycle. -
Final Status:
Once payment has been made to the affiliate, the transaction status is updated to paid.
Pending Trade
When a transaction has been tracked its status will commence as Pending. It will remain this way until the advertiser’s auto-validation period has passed or the advertiser has manually locked or void the transaction.
Whilst the validation period can change from advertiser to advertiser, this often sits at 30 days. To check and advertiser’s programme details click on the three dot icon on the right-hand side of the advertiser name within the ‘Marketplace’ section of the dashboard.
Locked to Approved
A key step in the payout process for affiliates is the status change of a from Locked to Approved. As mentioned in the Transaction Status section, once a transaction has been locked it is then billed to the advertiser, however, the time between those two points will differ from client to client.
Whilst the billing frequency may change for advertisers, a good indication of average payout times for an advertiser can be found within the ‘Advertiser’ section of the interface which provides an Average Payout Days column, this states the average length of time from the original sale date to when it has been paid by the advertiser to Commission Factory.
As a network, Commission Factory understands the importance of ensuring affiliates receive payment as early as possible after the sale date and make every effort to ensure that this happens.
As a network, we offer multiple different payment methods to advertisers including both Credit Card and Direct Debit which removes the administration work from the advertiser and allows us to take payment as soon as an invoice falls due for payment.
Advertisers can also be billed as frequently as weekly with payment terms as little as 7 days to ensure that we can pass funds on to the affiliate as quickly as possible.
The vast majority of advertisers on the network are billed either weekly or twice monthly.
Approved to Paid
Once Commission Factory has received payment, we will then pass these funds on to the affiliate, doing so in line with the payout frequency chosen, and via the payment method requested by the affiliate.
Payment Frequency & Method
Both the payment frequency and method can be set in the affiliate interface by going to:
Settings > Billing > within the user settings section.
affiliates can choose to be paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Payments are made every Thursday.
Those choosing to be paid monthly will be paid on the first Thursday of each month.
To ensure that affiliates receive payment in the most efficient and cost-effective manner as possible for them, we offer a range of payment options
- Australian Bank
- International Bank
- Paypal
- Payoneer
Paid Transactions
affiliates can download both their self-billed invoices and a .csv file of the related transactions from within Settings > Invoices using the symbols.
For information on Available and Pending Balances, please read another one of our Help Centre articles here.