Q: Why did an affiliate's commission decrease or their balance become negative?
A: An affiliate's commission can decrease, or their total "Amount Owed" can become negative, but these happen for different reasons. This guide explains both scenarios.
It's important to note that a commission for a single referral can be reduced (e.g., due to a partial refund) or canceled entirely, but it will never go into the negative. However, an affiliate's overall balance can become negative.
Scenario 1: A Commission is Decreased or Canceled
A commission from a specific order will only decrease or be canceled if the associated referral is reversed. There are three reasons this can happen:
The Order Was Canceled: The customer's entire order was canceled in your Shopify admin.
The Order Was Refunded: The customer's order was refunded. A full refund will cancel the entire commission, while a partial refund will decrease the commission amount proportionally.
The Referral Was Manually Canceled: You, the merchant, manually reversed the referral from within the Simple Affiliate app.
Scenario 2: An Affiliate's "Amount Owed" Becomes Negative
An affiliate's total "Amount Owed" balance can become negative if a commission is reversed after it has already been paid out to the affiliate.
Here is the typical sequence of events:
An affiliate earns a commission on a successful sale.
You pay the affiliate their owed commission through Autopay or manually.
After the payout is complete, the original order is refunded or canceled.
The system then cancels the original commission. To balance your records, this canceled amount is debited from the affiliate's "Amount Owed" balance, resulting in a negative value.
This negative balance will automatically be deducted from any future commissions the affiliate earns until their balance is settled.
If you have reviewed these scenarios and still have questions about a specific commission, please reach out to our Live Chat support with the order details.