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(PRO) Commission Tracking and Payouts

Updated October 23, 2026

Explainer video and tutorial:

 

 

This article explains how Coupon Affiliates PRO tracks the commission your affiliates earn, how that commission becomes a payout, and what each setting on the "Payouts" settings tab does.

To set up your payment methods (PayPal, Stripe, Wise, bank transfer, store credit and custom methods) and pay your affiliates, see (PRO) Payouts – How to Pay Affiliates.

 

 

How Commission Tracking Works

  1. A customer places an order using an affiliate's coupon code.
  2. While the order is not yet completed (for example "Processing" or "On hold"), you can optionally show the affiliate this commission as "Processing Commission".
  3. When the order reaches the status that grants commission ("Completed" by default), the commission is added to the affiliate's "Unpaid Commission". If you have set a commission delay, this happens after that number of days instead.
  4. A payout request is created for the unpaid commission. This can be done by the affiliate with the "Request Payout" button, automatically on a schedule, or by an admin.
  5. You review and pay the request from the "Payouts" admin page. Once it is paid, it shows under "Completed Payments" on the affiliate dashboard.

Note: "Unpaid Commission" starts at 0, and only starts tracking after you install the PRO version and turn on the payouts features. To add commission for orders completed before then, see How to grant "unpaid commission" for past completed orders.

 

 

Turning on Payouts

Go to Coupon Affiliates > Settings and open the "Payouts" tab. At the top are two options:

  • Enable Payouts Features: Tracks "unpaid commission" for each coupon whenever new orders use it, and adds the "Payouts" admin page to the Coupon Affiliates menu.
  • Enable Payout Requests & Log Features: Shows a "Payouts" tab on the affiliate dashboard, where the affiliate can see their unpaid commission and request payouts. The tab is only shown to the affiliate user assigned to that coupon.

Turning off "Enable Payouts Features" also turns off "Enable Payout Requests & Log Features".

 

 

What Affiliates See

The "Payouts" tab on the affiliate dashboard shows:

  • Unpaid Commission: The commission they can currently request a payout for, with the "Request Payout" button.
  • Pending Payments: Payout requests that have not been paid yet.
  • Completed Payments: Payouts that have been paid.

If their unpaid commission is below the payment threshold, the "Request Payout" button is greyed out, with a "Payment Threshold Required" message showing the threshold amount.

If "Processing Commission" is turned on, it is shown as a small notice just above the "Unpaid Commission" amount.

Affiliates choose their payout method and enter their payment details in the "Settings" tab of the affiliate dashboard. See (PRO) Payouts – How to Pay Affiliates.

 

 

What Admins See

Go to Coupon Affiliates > Payouts to view and manage all payout requests. From this page you can:

  • Review and pay each payout request.
  • Use Bulk Pay to pay all pending requests across every payout method in one click.
  • Use Export Payouts to download payouts as a CSV or PDF file.

A payout request shows on this page once it has been created, either by the affiliate, by a scheduled payout request, or by you. To create one yourself, go to Coupon Affiliates > Create New Payout. See Manual Admin Payouts Requests.

For more on paying requests, Bulk Pay and Export Payouts, see (PRO) Payouts – How to Pay Affiliates.

 

 

Payout Settings

These settings are in the "Payouts Settings" and "Unpaid Commission" sections of the "Payouts" settings tab.

Setting What it does Default
Show "Request Payout" button on affiliate dashboard. Lets affiliates request payouts themselves. Turn this off if payout requests should only be made by admins or on a schedule. Affiliates still see their payout details on the "Payouts" tab. On
Require payment details to request payout. The affiliate must enter their payment details before they can request a payout. On
Allow affiliates to enter a custom payout amount. The affiliate can choose how much to request. The lowest amount is the payment threshold, and the highest is their total unpaid commission. On
Payment Threshold The amount of unpaid commission an affiliate needs before they can request a payout. 0
Delay Commission (Number of Days) The number of days after an order is completed before its commission is added to "Unpaid Commission". Set to 0 to add it straight away. 0
Order status for "unpaid commission" to be granted The order status that adds the commission to "Unpaid Commission". Completed
Advanced: Enable multiple order statuses. Lets you select more than one order status that grants unpaid commission. Only shown if your site has custom order statuses. Off

Delay Commission

A delay stops commission being paid out before an order could still be refunded. See What happens when an order is refunded or partially refunded? for how refunds are handled with and without a delay.

The delay needs WP-Cron (or a server cron) to be running on your site. We recommend replacing WP-Cron with a server cron, and testing that commission is added once the delay has passed. See Replace WP-Cron with a Real Cron Job and How to Check if Cron Jobs are Working in WordPress.

Order status for "unpaid commission" to be granted

Select the final status for your orders, once they have been paid and delivered. For most sites this is "Completed".

The "Pending payment", "Processing", "On hold", "Cancelled", "Refunded", "Failed" and "Draft" statuses cannot be selected.

If you have different order flows that end in different custom statuses, turn on "Advanced: Enable multiple order statuses." and tick each final status. "Completed" is always ticked. Only select final statuses, and make sure an order is never in more than one of them at the same time.

 

 

Other Settings on the Payouts Tab

 

 

Common Questions

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