Commissions and payouts

Open an affiliate and use the Commissions tab to work with the entries they earned. Each commission points back to a verified payment from one attributed customer. The same commission rules apply whether the payment arrived through Stripe automatic or API/SDK advanced mode.

Commission states

Validation period means the payment was accepted, but the product’s refund and dispute delay has not ended. The line shows when it becomes payable.

Ready for payout means the delay has ended and the commission can be selected without manual approval.

In payout means the line belongs to a prepared payout. It cannot be placed in a second payout.

Paid means you confirmed that the affiliate was paid outside AffiHQ.

Stripe automatic payment lifecycle

For a one-time Stripe Payment Link, an immediate successful Checkout creates the payment. An asynchronous Checkout creates a commission only after Stripe reports payment success; an asynchronous failure creates no commission.

For a subscription Payment Link, Checkout locks the attribution. Each successful invoice.paid creates a recurring payment, using the monthly or annual cadence of the selected link and the product’s commission duration. An unpaid or failed invoice is not a successful payment.

Payments that cannot be matched to the product, connected account, selected Payment Link, customer and affiliate click are not credited automatically. Recheck the Stripe automatic configuration before treating a payment as eligible.

Refunds and disputes

Only a refund with a successful Stripe status changes financials. Pending, action-required, failed or canceled refunds do not create a correction yet.

Partial refunds and several refunds for one payment are cumulative. AffiHQ allocates the tax portion deterministically, reduces the commissionable amount and never corrects more than the original payment amount. Refunds and lost disputes share that same cap.

An open dispute can reserve or correct the related amount at most once. A won dispute resolves without an additional financial correction. A lost dispute applies the correction, and the terminal outcome resolves once. These corrections are separate from changing current product rules; they explain why a previously created commission can be reduced after a payment or payout.

Prepare a payout

Review the affiliate’s ready commissions, select the lines you want and prepare the payout. AffiHQ groups only entries with the same affiliate and currency.

The payout receives a due date and a total. Review it, send the money through your chosen banking or payment service, then mark it as paid with the transfer reference.

Cancel a payout

You can cancel an unpaid payout. Its commissions return to Ready for payout and can be selected again. A paid payout remains part of the financial record and cannot be deleted.

Corrections after payout

If a successful refund or lost dispute affects a payment after its commission was paid, AffiHQ records the correction as a negative balance for the same affiliate and currency. Future earnings offset that balance; AffiHQ does not debit the affiliate automatically.

For a plain-language explanation of the native lifecycle, read Stripe automatic payments. For API/SDK events, see Billing events.