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Commission status

The commission status is strictly linked to the order status.

When the order is submitted, the commissions are generated with the Not confirmed status. Then, when the order is paid and completed, the commission automatically gets the Pending status, which means that the commission is ready to be paid.

Here is a more detailed list with all the statuses that a commission can get and which order status can trigger it:

  • pending: if the order status goes to completed or processing
  • pending-payment: this status is not triggered by any order, it can only be triggered by automatic or manual payment and will be like this until the payment is confirmed by the gateway or set to completed by the admin manually.
  • paid: this is the status that the commission takes when the associated payment is set to completed status.
  • not-confirmed: this is the commission status when the order status goes to pending or on-hold.
  • cancelled: if the order status goes to cancelled or failed.
  • refunded: if the order status goes to refunded.

Please, note: when the commission is on pending payment or paid status, it can only be changed to Trashed. No other status change is allowed to prevent a commission is erroneously paid twice.

The commission can be paid only when it’s on Pending status.

Example: a commission standard life cycle

This is the default life cycle of a commission, and the statuses it takes on:

  • order created > commission not confirmed
  • order completed > commission pending
  • commission payment created > commission pending payment
  • commission payment completed > commission paid

The admin can anyway manually change the commission status regardless of the order status, so for example, a pending commission can be changed to not confirmed even if the order is completed.

For more details about how to create commissions payments, please, refer to the following page:

Commissions payments for the free version
Commissions payments for the premium version

Affiliate Dashboard – options

From this tab in the General options > Affiliate Dashboard, we can configure all the options related to the Affiliate Dashboard, which is the dashboard that will be displayed to the affiliates on the frontend.


Where to show the Affiliate Dashboard:

  • In a specific page using the shortcode: if you select this option, you will be able to select the page and what to show to guest users in the options below

Choose the Affiliate Dashboard page: use this shortcode [yith_wcaf_affiliate_dashboard] in the page you want to use as the dashboard.

To guest users in the Affiliate Dashboard show:

  • The affiliate registration form only
  • The affiliate registration form + the login form

These settings can also be changed through the shortcode attribute. For more details please see this page.

  • In a specific endpoint inside My Account page: select this option if you want to show the dashboard automatically in My account page


Show social share: enable to show social share buttons of referral URLs in Affiliate Dashboard > Link generator section.

Allow affiliates to share on: enable the social sharing options that you want to offer on your site. Their icons will be displayed in the Link generator section:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Whatsapp
  • Email

Social title: enter the title to use in Twitter and Pinterest sharing.

Social text: enter the text to use in Twitter, WhatsApp and Pinterest sharing. Use %referral_url% where you want to show the URL of your affiliate.

Pinterest image URL: enter the URL of the image to use in Pinterest sharing.

Join the Affiliate programme

Your users will be able to join the affiliate programme from any page where the affiliate registration shortcode is displayed or from the Affiliate dashboard if they are not registered as affiliates yet.

In case you use the affiliate registration shortcode, they will see a button that redirects them to the Affiliate dashboard once their accounts are approved.
→ Registration shortcode – premium version
Registration shortcode – free version

In case they land on the Affiliate dashboard page, they will see a dynamic content that will differ based on their profile.
Affiliate dashboard – premium version
Affiliate dashboard – free version

Let’s see some use cases.

1. guest user who wants to join

Based on how the admin decided to set up the affiliation programme, you have two options:

  1. Direct any user to a promotional page where the affiliate registration is printed
Registration shortcode on a custom page
  1. direct users to the Affiliate dashboard page


In both cases, the guest user will see the Affiliate registration form with the fields configured in the Registration settings and, optionally the login option.
Registration settings premium version
Registration settings free version

The admin can additionally choose to embed the affiliate registration options in the default WooCommerce registration form: in that case, whenever a new user registers, he/she will also apply for the affiliate programme.

To do that, you just have to enable the option displayed below. If this option is enabled, instead, whenever a person registers as a user will also send an application for the Affiliate Programme.

2. logged in user who wants to join

In case the user has already registered an account on your site and has logged in, both the affiliate registration shortcode [yith_wcaf_registration_form] and the Affiliate dashboard will show the Become an affiliate form, which will include only the affiliation related fields.

With the premium version, you can customize this form with custom fields, whereas with the free version you can only enable or disable the default fields. For more details, please, see the following pages:
Registration settings premium version
Registration settings free version

3. application sent

When the user submits his/her application request, there are two available options, based on the admin’s settings:

  1. users will see a message that informs them that their application will be reviewed. They will receive an email confirmation based on whether the application is approved or rejected.
  2. affiliate applications will be automatically approved and the affiliate will immediately see a button that redirects to the Affiliate dashboard. For this setting, just make sure you enable the “Automatically approve affiliates” option in the Registration options.
    Note: this automatic approval option is only available when using the premium version.
4. Affiliate rejected

In this case the affiliate will see a custom message that can either be set up globally for all rejected affiliates in the Registration settings or for each affiliate from the affiliate’s profile or the popup that shows when changing the affiliate’s status from the affiliates page.

5. Affiliate approved

If the affiliate request is approved and the user has applied through a custom page with the registration shortcode, this will be turned into a greeting message and a button that takes to the Affiliate Dashboard.

If the application has been sent through the Affiliate dashboard, it will automatically update and show the full content.

Affiliate dashboard

Let’s see what this looks like and what the user can do from the Affiliate Dashboard.

Affiliate dashboard – premium version
Affiliate dashboard – free version

How can the affiliate generate visits and sales

Each affiliate can generate visits and purchases on your site through their referral ID which is what allows associating the user to the affiliate and generating a commission for him/her in case an order is submitted.

Where to find the referral ID and how can an affiliate concretely drive sales?

The referral ID can be found in the Link generator tab in the Affiliate Dashboard.


For more details about how to customize the referral ID, please, see the Query var name option in the general options (premium version herefree version here).

The affiliate can choose one or more of the following ways to share his/her referral ID and generate traffic:

  1. generate a sharable link with the referral ID attached from the Link generator tab in the Affiliate Dashboard.
  2. share the referral ID that the user will add on the checkout page. You can enable the Allow users to enter a token at checkout option from the General options or and can also use the shortcode (premium version only).
  3. share one of his/her coupons: affiliates can have more than one coupon code associated to their profile that will generate commissions for them for every order where the coupon is used. For more details about the coupon, please, check these settings (premium version only).

Visible content shortcode

You can use this shortcode to show custom content that has to be visible to the affiliates only. It works like an opening and closing tag set, so the text goes between the tags.

Example:

[yith_wcaf_show_if_affiliate] This content will only be visible to affiliates [/yith_wcaf_show_if_affiliate]

Or if you use blocks, you can add the opening shortcode in one block, then add a block with your content, and finally add another shortcode block with the closing shortcode.

If you are not an affiliate, you will not be able to see the content.

Attributes

The shortcode can also be used for more complex cases, thanks to the included attribute that allows you to show the content to specific affiliates only.

The attribute is show_to and the following are the accepted values:

  • valid_affiliates: shown only to valid affiliates, that is enabled affiliates and hidden to banned ones.
  • enabled_affiliates: shown only to enabled affiliates.
  • all_affiliatesshown to all affiliates.
  • {user role}if you enter a valid user role name, such as shop_manger, the content will be shown just to users with both the shop manager role.
  • logged_in_users: shown only to logged users.
  • anyone: all users.

You can also combine more than one conditions separated by commas and the content will be displayed if at least one of those is true.

Additionally, it is possible to deny one condition by applying a ! before the condition. This could be useful, for example, if you want to show the content to everyone but affiliates.

Example with attribute:

[yith_wcaf_show_if_affiliate show_to="enabled_affiliates"]
CONTENT FOR AFFILIATES ONLY
[/yith_wcaf_show_if_affiliate]

[yith_wcaf_show_if_affiliate show_to="all_affiliates"]
CONTENT FOR NON-AFFILIATES ONLY
[/yith_wcaf_show_if_affiliate]

Admin dashboard

As soon as you click on the YITH > Affiliates menu item, you will see the admin Dashboard where you can always keep track of all your affiliate details. Let’s see what you can track on this powerful page.

You will find two filters on top, one to select the dates and compare time intervals and the other one to choose if showing the data of all affiliates, one specific affiliate or compare two of them.

Leaderboards – products and affiliates

In the second part of the dashboard, you will find two leaderboards, one for the top products and the other for top affiliates.

Affiliates list

Go to YITH > Affiliates > Affiliates list to check all your registered affiliate users. You will see here everyone who applied as an affiliate and you can also filter this view by affiliate status.

From this screen, you can filter by name, email addres or token ID (minimum 3 characters) to find one specific affiliate.

Additionally, you will also be able to change the affiliate status either from the bulk actions or from the actions available for single affiliates:

  • Delete affiliate
  • Change status to approved
  • Change status to rejected
  • Ban affiliate
  • Unban affiliate


When you change the affiliate status to rejected or banned from the affiliate’s actions, you will be able to set a custom message for this specific affiliate from a dedicated popup and explain why the affiliate’s profile is being rejected or banned.
Please, note, this option is only available if you do not set any general message from the Registration options.


This message can also be set and updated in the Affiliate’s profile.

Finally, you can also quickly create a payment record from this screen for the whole balance by clicking on the Pay now button. This payment will be available in the Commissions Payments tab.

Create a new affiliate

By clicking on the + Add affiliate button, you can create a new affiliate. You will have two options, either select an existing user or create a new user and enable it as an affiliate without leaving the page.

CSV Export

From this page, you can also export a CSV file with all your affiliates or the filtered ones, for example, if you filter by Accepted affiliates only or by one specific affiliate.

Affiliate’s profile

If you want to see and update the details of an affiliate’s profile, go to the Affiliates list page and click on the pencil icon in the affiliate row.

From this page, you will be able to see a comprehensive summary of your affiliate’s activity.

Affiliate’s details


Here you can see:

  • total earnings: this is the total earnings of the affiliate and it includes both paid commissions and the active balance (not paid commissions)
  • total paid: this is the total of commissions paid so far
  • refunds: this is the total of refunded commissions, that is commissions generated from orders that have been refunded (please, note, paid and pending payment commissions cannot be refunded).
  • active balance: this is the total earnings that are still to be paid. You can quickly create a payment record from this page by clicking on the “Pay now” button.

Referral link generator


This is a compact version of the link generator that the affiliate sees on the affiliate dashboard on the frontend. The admin can generate the affiliate referral link in just one click.

Latest commissions, payments, associated users

In this section, you will find three tabs:

1. the latest 5 commissions generated by the affiliate and their current status


2. the latest 5 payment records and their status


3. the associated users: these are the users whose purchases will always generate commissions for this affiliate. These users are associated if the permanent commissions option is enabled. For more details, please, refer to this page.

Affiliate options


From this section, you can change the status of your affiliate between:

  • New request: this is when the affiliate submits an application, so, no options are available yet, no commissions are generated and so on.
  • Accepted and enabled: the affiliate will be able to see the dashboard and fully take advantage of the affiliate program
  • Rejected: this is the status of an affiliate whose application has been rejected. No way to use the affiliate program.
  • Banned: this is the status of an affiliate who is no longer allowed to use the affiliate program and will not be able to submit an application again. Some of the sections of the affiliate dashboard can be hidden from Affiliate registration > Registration options.

Also, you can see and update the affiliate token, which is by default the user ID. It supports also alphanumeric characters, so, for example, you can replace this ID with meaningful text, like a name. This is the affiliate ID that the user will see in the Affiliate Dashboard > Link Generator tab.


Finally, you can also update the affiliate rate and override the general rate. Leave it empty, if you want to use the default rate. If you want to update the affiliate rate, we highly recommend creating a rule from the Affiliates > Rates page, so you can combine more rules and easily understand how they are prioritized.

Affiliate info

Here you can edit the affiliate’s info that includes both the information added through the affiliate registration form and the payment info for each available gateway activated. This info can also be edited by the affiliate from the Settings tab in the Affiliate dashboard on the frontend and in the affiliate’s info in the payment details.

Rates

From this page, you can create some rules that will override the general affiliate rate (that you set up in the Commissions & Payments options tab), and so create very specific rates based on the selected product, role or user.


Thanks to the rules, you will be able to create custom percentage rates based on specific conditions:

  • User: you can set custom rates for one or more affiliate users
  • Product: you can set custom rates for one or more products, variations included
  • Product category: you can set custom rates for one or more product categories
  • User role: you can set custom rates for one or more user roles
  • User/product: you can set custom rules for a combination of product and affiliate user, so for example, apply a 50% rate only for affiliate “Susanne” when somebody buys “Luxury watch” product through her affiliate link. Product variations are supported too.

Priority

As you can see, the rules are of different types and based on this, the priority of the rules will be set. The rule priority order is the following (sorted from highest to lowest priority):

  1. User/product variation
  2. User/product
  3. Product variation
  4. Product
  5. Product category
  6. User
  7. User role

Example: a product rule will always have priority over a category rule, but a product rule set on a variation will have priority over a rule on the parent product.

Please, note:
excluded products and affiliates (from the General options tab): these will never be considered in the priority rule calculation and will win over any other rule.
Also note that you can override the affiliate’s rate from the affiliate’s profile, but this will not create a visible rule on this page. Make sure you keep that in mind when setting your affiliate’s rates both from the affiliate profile and from this page. All other product rules will win also on affiliate rates set in the affiliate’s profile.

Manual order among rules of the same type.

You can also set a custom priority value in the rule settings or leave it empty and automatically sort it by dragging and dropping from the rules list, which will update this number.
Yet, please, be aware that with this value you can only define the priority among the rules of the same type.

Example. You have the following rules:

  • priority 1 – 15% on Luxury watch (product rule)
  • priority 2 – 30% on Luxury watch for affiliate Susanne (user/product rule)

If someone purchases the Luxury watch through affiliate Susanne’s referral link, Susanne will get a 30% commission, regardless of any priority value that you set, because it’s two different rule types and user/product rules have always higher priority than product rules. Other affiliates will get a 15% instead.


Yet, if you have:

  • priority 1 – 15% on Luxury watch (product rule)
  • priority 2 – 30% on Luxury watch and Silver earrings (product rule)

In this case, it’s two rules of the same type, so if the Luxury watch is purchased, a 15% will apply because it has a higher priority value set (1).

Visits

On this page, you find the list of all visits made through an affiliate link. You find here:

  • the date
  • the referrer (the name and email of the affiliate to whom the visit is associated)
  • the order ID and user who submitted the order (if any)
  • the followed URL: this is the referral URL to the website
  • the origin URL: this is the origin URL where the referral URL was embedded, for example, it can be a blog post where the affiliate promotes your site and has added his/her referral link;
  • conversion time
  • if the visit was converted into a sale or not.


You can filter the visits by the affiliate user and per date.

Also, from this page you can also bulk delete the visits from the Bulk actions.

The affiliate user will be able to see a similar table with all the visits generated by him/her on the Affiliate dashboard on the frontend.