There are five statuses a transaction may be: pending, locked, void approved and paid. The status of your transaction will effect it's payment timeframe. To see the status of a transaction in the publisher interface, go to the ‘Transactions' section.
In December 2019 we changed the manner that we billed our advertisers to provide greater transparency and assurance to our publishers, around the status of transactions and for which transactions are being paid out.
The following article gives greater clarity into what the transaction statuses are, the flow of a transaction through its payment lifecycle, and how and when you can receive payment from Commission Factory.
Transaction Status
There are five statuses a transaction can be, these are as follows:
- Pending – a transaction that has been tracked and is open for validation or to be void by the advertiser.
- Locked - a transaction has been validated or passed the auto-validated period and will be billed to the advertiser on their next invoice.
- Void – a transaction that has declined. A void transaction will not be paid out to the publisher.
- Approved – a transaction which has been paid by the advertiser and is ready to be paid to the publisher on their next payment run.
- Paid – a transaction which has been paid to the publisher.
To see the status of a transaction in the publisher interface, go to the 'Reporting' section and select the ‘Transactions’ drop down.
Example:
> A transaction takes place on the 22nd March for a retailer with a 30 day validation time frame, it's status is 'pending'
> On the 21st of April the transaction is 'locked'
> The advertiser is invoiced monthly and has a 30 day payment term and so is invoiced for this transaction on the 1st May.
> The advertiser pays the invoice on the 30th May, the transaction is moved to 'approved'
> Payment to the publisher is released in the following weekly payment cycle
> The transaction status moves to 'paid' on payment to the publisher
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 Publishers 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 Publishers 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 publisher 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 Publisher, doing so in line with the payout frequency chosen, and via the payment method requested by the Publisher.
Payment Frequency & Method
Both the payment frequency and method can be set in the Publisher interface by going to:
Settings > Billing > within the user settings section.
Publishers 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 Publishers 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
Publishers 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.