Managing your store's currency is a core part of your business operations, but it also has a direct impact on how your affiliate earnings are calculated and displayed. This guide explains why changing your store currency affects your affiliates and the best practices to ensure a smooth financial transition.
Why Store Currency Affects Affiliate Earnings
In Simple Affiliate, every referral and its associated commission are recorded in your active store currency at the moment the sale occurs. Because the system prioritizes financial accuracy, earnings are "locked" to that specific currency.
If you change your store's primary currency (e.g., from USD to CAD), any unpaid earnings recorded in the original currency will no longer be visible to the affiliate in their dashboard. This technical safeguard prevents the accidental "mixing" of different currencies, which would lead to incorrect payout totals.
Potential Issues After a Currency Switch
If you change your store currency while you still have outstanding affiliate balances, you may encounter the following:
Loss of Visibility: Affiliates will see a $0 balance in their dashboard for the new currency, even if they were owed money in the previous one.
Reconciliation Complexity: Your internal reporting will be split. You will have to manually track what was owed in the "old" currency versus what is being earned in the "new" one.
Affiliate Confusion: Without prior notice, affiliates may believe their earned commissions have disappeared.
The Golden Rule: Settle All Payments First
To avoid any visibility problems or data discrepancies, we strongly recommend the following preventive step:
Clear your "Owed" balances entirely before changing your store's currency.
By paying out all pending commissions while your store is still in the original currency, you ensure a clean slate. When the currency switch happens, both your dashboard and your affiliates' dashboards will start from $0 in the new currency, with no "ghost" balances left behind in the old one.
Important Rules to Remember
No Automatic Conversion: Simple Affiliate does not automatically convert "Old Currency" earnings into "New Currency" earnings. Each currency is tracked as a separate financial ledger.
Communication is Key: If a currency switch is necessary, notify your affiliates at least a week in advance. Explain that you are clearing all balances to prepare for the transition.
Timing: Plan your currency change for the end of a fiscal period or a "slow" sales day to minimize the number of overlapping referrals.
What Happens Next?
Once you have settled your payments and updated your Shopify currency settings, the next referral tracked in Simple Affiliate will automatically appear in the new currency. Your affiliates will see their new earnings accumulate in the correct denomination immediately.