AutomatorWP AffiliateWP

You rewarded the commission and days later it was rejected

An affiliate brings in a sale and you give her special access as a reward. The next week the customer asks for a refund, the commission is rejected and the reward is still there, handed out for a sale that no longer exists. Nobody got the numbers wrong: the reward came at the wrong moment.

In an affiliate program, a commission is a journey with several stops, and each automation has to decide which one it acts on. AffiliateWP handles four statuses: pending, unpaid, paid and rejected. A pending commission is not confirmed yet, and a paid one has already left your account.

This add-on connects AffiliateWP with AutomatorWP, the automation plugin for WordPress. It lets several moments in the life of an affiliate and their commissions start automations, and it lets you create commissions as a result of what happens in other plugins.

Four events and two commission actions

These are the triggers:

• New affiliate: a user becomes an affiliate.
• Commission earned: a user earns a commission of the type you choose.
• Commission paid: a user gets a commission of that type paid.
• Commission rejected: a user gets a commission of that type rejected.

And these, the actions:

• Add a commission to the user.
• Add a commission to the user's affiliate.

In addition, commission tags carry data such as amount, currency and campaign into other steps.

Pick the right stop for each reward

The three commission triggers answer different questions:

• Earned, for what costs nothing if it later falls through, like a congratulations notice.
• Paid, for rewards with real value. One example is granting a MemberPress membership when a commission is paid.
• Rejected, for reacting. AffiliateWP has an option that rejects unpaid commissions when the order is refunded, and this event can then notify the person or your team. A commission already paid cannot be rejected.

The new affiliate trigger serves to start the relationship, such as adding the person to a BuddyPress group. The actions work the opposite way: when a user completes a LearnDash course, a commission can be added to them. Before trusting a combination, test it with a trial commission and see what status it ends up in.

Where the add-on's work ends

Creating a commission through an action commits money with no sale behind it, because whoever receives that commission expects to collect it. Scope the trigger carefully and review those commissions in AffiliateWP before paying them.

Commissions are still managed in AffiliateWP. Among this add-on's actions there is none to approve, reject or mark a commission as paid, or to make payments to your affiliates.

For the result to happen in another plugin, such as LearnDash or MemberPress, you need the AutomatorWP add-on for that plugin.

Your first automation with commissions

You need AutomatorWP and AffiliateWP active, plus the add-ons for the plugins you want to connect.

1. Install and activate this add-on.
2. Create a new automation in AutomatorWP.
3. Choose AffiliateWP as the integration and select the trigger, for example commission paid.
4. Set the commission type. AffiliateWP handles types such as sale, opt-in or lead.
5. Add the action and insert the tags you need.
6. Activate it and run a full test with a trial account before putting it to work with real affiliates.

The engine and the surrounding pieces

This add-on relies on AutomatorWP, which provides the trigger and action system.

If you already automate with recipes, Uncanny Automator Pro also works with triggers and actions, and it is worth checking what it offers for AffiliateWP before choosing.

If what you want is to pay a fixed amount per signup, without building an automation, Signup Referrals is an AffiliateWP add-on dedicated to that.

Payouts and rewards already given

Does it pay my affiliates?

No. It creates commissions and reacts to them, but payments are managed in AffiliateWP.

Can it remove a reward already given?

You can start an automation from the rejected commission, and what it does depends on the actions available in the other plugin. Verify it with a test.