Commissions

How affiliate commissions are calculated and tracked.

How Commissions Work

When someone you referred makes a purchase, you earn a commission. The amount depends on the program’s commission structure.

Commission Types

Type	How It Works	Example
One-time	Percentage commission on the initial purchase only	30% of a $99 sale =$29.70
Recurring	Percentage commission on each subscription renewal	20% of every monthly renewal
Recurring with limit	Recurring percentage commission capped to a set number of months	20% for the first 12 months

The commission type and rate are set by the merchant for each program.

Commission Lifecycle

Every commission goes through these stages:

Conversion Created → Pending → Approved → Paid

Status	Description
pending	Conversion recorded, waiting for approval period
approved	Commission confirmed, waiting for payout threshold
paid	Included in a payout, money sent to you
partially_refunded	Customer received a partial refund, commission reduced proportionally
refunded	Customer fully refunded, commission reversed

Why Pending?

Commissions start as pending to protect against refunds and fraud. The approval period varies by program – typically 14-30 days. This is standard practice in affiliate marketing.

Viewing Your Commissions

Dashboard

Your affiliate dashboard shows:

• Total commissions earned (all time)
• Pending commissions (not yet approved)
• Available for payout (approved, waiting for threshold)
• Commission history with per-conversion detail

Via API

Use GET /me/earnings for the cross-program overview and GET /me/earnings/{programId} when you want line-item detail for one program.

Node.js

const headers = {
  Authorization: 'Bearer ak_aff_YOUR_KEY',
};

const overview = await fetch('https://www.agentref.co/api/v1/me/earnings', { headers }).then((r) => r.json());
const details = await fetch(
  'https://www.agentref.co/api/v1/me/earnings/PROGRAM_UUID?period=30d',
  { headers }
).then((r) => r.json());

Recurring Commissions

Some programs offer recurring commissions on subscription products. If a customer you referred stays subscribed, you earn a commission on each renewal – not just the first payment.

Whether a program offers one-time or recurring commissions is set by the merchant. Check the program details when you join.

Refunds

If a customer receives a partial refund, the commission is reduced proportionally and the conversion can move to partially_refunded. If the customer receives a full refund, the conversion status changes to refunded and the commission is reversed.

Refunded commissions that were already paid out are deducted from your next payout.