Transaction queries are lodged by approved affiliates that would like you to approve a transaction for inclusion in your transaction list, hence being “commissionable". This is normally due to an untracked or missed transaction. Often transaction queries will come from affiliates that conduct loyalty or cashback promotions, as a member has inquired to why they have not received the loyalty points or cash back. Since the affiliate knows a conversion took place but did not track they are trying to seek payment of the commission.
What the affiliate has to do
The affiliate in their Commission Factory account uploads the details of the transaction. To avoid fraud, the affiliate needs to provide order information in order to prove the legitimacy of the transaction query in which you will see when reviewing it below. Commission Factory only allows trusted partners in our network to apply to have access to this functionality.
What happens next
Each transaction query has a Sale Date (the date that the order took place, which comes from the uploaded CSV file), and an Upload Date (the date that the affiliate uploaded the transaction query).
45 days after the Upload Date, the transaction query is auto-approved (if it is not manually approved or declined), and a new pending transaction is created. The transaction Date Created is set to the transaction query Sale Date, and the transaction Consumption Date is set to the transaction query Upload Date.
As with all transactions, the transaction will be locked X days after the transaction Consumption Date (where X is the advertiser's commission/validation approval period), and the normal billing/payment process will occur.
In most cases, 45 days would have already past by the time a transaction is created, which means:
- If an advertiser's commission approval period is less than 45 days, the transaction will be locked the very same day it is created.
- If the advertiser's commission approval period is greater than 45 days, the transaction will remain pending for a further (X - 45) days (where X is the advertiser's commission approval period).
What you need to do
Once an affiliate has lodged a transaction query they will appear in your dashboard under the Transactions - Transaction Query area. By default, the status of these transactions will be pending. You then have 45 days from the Upload Date to validate the query within the Transaction Query section of the dashboard. It is advised to check this section regularly to validate queries sooner rather than later.
Once approved they will show as "locked" and be entered as commissionable. However, if you decline them, they will show as "void" and the affiliate will be advised of the outcome in their account. Either way, they can see the transaction query status.
You should treat transaction queries in the same way you would your usual transaction validation process.
What about fraud?
It's important that before approving a transaction query you review the information provided and make sure it matches your system. You can amend the amount before approving the transaction query as the affiliate may have included shipping or a discount by mistake.
It should be noticed that not all affiliates have access to lodge transaction queries, only those who have passed a website verification process and are considered trustworthy are allowed this feature by Commission Factory.