Paying your affiliates

Once commission has cleared your hold period it is ready to pay. The Payouts tab shows you what you owe, lets you bundle a partner's earnings into a single payment, and keeps a record of every payment you have made.

Go to Affiliates in the main menu, then open the Payouts tab.

Know what you owe

Three cards sit across the top.

• Approved (payable) is money that has cleared your hold period and is waiting to be paid. This is the number that matters.
• Accrued (on hold) is money earned but still inside the refund window. It is coming, but it is not payable yet.
• Paid to date is everything you have already sent and recorded.

How paying a partner works

TribeNest keeps the ledger and works out the amount. You send the money the way you normally pay people, then come back and record it. There are three steps.

1. Create the payout

This bundles a partner's approved commissions into one pending payment.

1. Click Create payout.
2. Enter the affiliate's ID in the Affiliate ID field. You take this from the partner's panel on the Affiliates tab.
3. Click Create payout.

The amount is worked out for you: every approved commission the partner has, minus anything carried over from a past refund. Those commissions are attached to the payout so they cannot accidentally be paid twice.

The payout appears in the list with the status Pending.

2. Send the money

Pay the partner outside TribeNest, using whatever you agreed: a bank transfer, PayPal, anything else. Their preferred method and details are on the Payout tab of their panel, and partners can fill that in themselves from their own dashboard.

Keep the transaction reference from your bank or payment app. You need it for the next step.

3. Record it

1. Find the pending payout in the list.
2. Click Mark paid.
3. Enter the Payment reference. This is your bank reference or transaction ID, and it is required.
4. Add a Note if you want a reminder of anything unusual about this payment.
5. Tick the confirmation that you have paid the affiliate.
6. Click Record payout.

Three things happen at once. The payout becomes Paid, the commissions inside it are marked paid, and the payment is written into your income records as an expense so your profit figures already account for it.

The partner is emailed to say the payout has been recorded, including the amount and your reference, so nobody has to chase you to confirm it landed.

Reading the payouts list

Each row shows the date it was created, the partner and their code, the amount, the period the commissions were earned across, the status, and your payment reference.

Statuses are simple:

• Pending is created but not yet sent.
• Paid is done and recorded.
• Canceled was called off before payment.

Use the Status filter to narrow the list, and Clear to see everything again.

Paid rows carry an arrow button that takes you to the matching entry in your income records.

Cancelling a pending payout

If you created a payout by mistake, or you need to hold off:

1. Find the pending payout.
2. Click Cancel.
3. Confirm.

The commissions inside it are released back into the approved pool, so they will be picked up next time you create a payout for that partner. Nothing is lost.

A payout you have already marked paid cannot be cancelled. If a paid payout was genuinely wrong, sort it out directly with the partner and reflect it in your next payment to them.

What partners see

From their own dashboard, an approved partner sees their approved balance, a progress bar towards your minimum, and their full payout history with amounts, dates, statuses and references. Once you record a payment it shows up there straight away.

That transparency is worth more than it looks. Partners who can see exactly where they stand ask you far fewer questions and stay motivated between payouts.

A payout routine

Most creators run payouts on a fixed rhythm, monthly is common.

1. On payout day, open the Commissions tab and clear any flagged rows.
2. Come back to Payouts and check the Approved (payable) card.
3. Create a payout for each partner who has cleared your minimum.
4. Send the money in one sitting.
5. Record each payment with its reference.

Telling partners which day you pay, and then hitting that day, is the single easiest way to keep good ones promoting you.

Next steps

• Adjust your minimum and hold period in setting up your program.
• See how payouts land in your books in Finance.