Definition
Affiliate payout
A payout groups several payable commissions for one affiliate into a single payment. It is the last step of the chain, and the most visible one for them.
You group them for cost reasons: every transaction carries fixed fees, and one payout per commission would often cost more than the commission itself. Commissions therefore accumulate until a threshold or a date, then go out together.
Three payment methods cover almost every need. Manual — export a file, upload it to your bank or a mass-payment tool, mark the batch as sent. PayPal, universal and immediate but with its fees. And an automated bank transfer, which requires the affiliate to have verified their identity beforehand. The method you choose determines what you must ask the affiliate for, and when.
Two rules avoid most of the trouble. A failed payment must release its commissions back into the next batch, never leave them stuck in an intermediate state. And the affiliate must be told about the failure along with its cause — in the vast majority of cases it lies in their own details, and they are the only one who can fix it.
At earnwithaffiliate
Manual export from the Launch plan, PayPal and automated transfers from Growth, with an invoice generated on every paid payout.
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Related terms
Payout threshold
The payout threshold is the minimum amount an affiliate must accumulate before a payout is sent to them.
Commission approval window
The approval window is the delay between a commission being earned and becoming payable. It exists to cover the refund window.
Clawback
A clawback is the recovery of a commission already paid out, when the matching sale is refunded after the affiliate was paid.