---
title: Manage Affiliate Referrals and Commissions
description: Review referral evidence, approve and pay commissions safely, reconcile failures, and end affiliate relationships without losing the audit trail.
audience:
  - group_admin
product_area: monetization
topics:
  - Affiliates
  - Referrals
  - Commissions
  - Payouts
synonyms:
  - admin
  - administrator
  - owner
  - creator
  - referral payout
  - affiliate commission
routes:
  - /affiliates
  - /groups/:groupId/admin/settings/monetization?tab=affiliates
related_articles:
  - admins/discovery-invites-affiliates-and-metrics
  - admins/pricing-and-access
  - admins/review-course-progress-sales-and-revenue
  - admins/launch-checklist-and-troubleshooting
status: published
---

Configure the program policy before processing referrals. Open **Creator console → Settings → Monetization → Affiliates** to confirm enablement, commission rate, automatic-payment policy, eligibility, and the support/appeal process.

![Focused Affiliate settings with program enablement, commission choices, and automatic-payment controls.](/help/images/admins/settings-affiliates.png "Publish the eligibility, commission, reversal, and payout policy before approving a referral.")

## Use the operational dashboard

Open **Affiliates** for the selected community:

- **Overview** — referrals, commissions paid and owed, active affiliates, conversion, revenue, and period comparison.
- **Referrals** — referrer, referred member, referral/conversion dates, membership state, commission total, and status.
- **Commissions** — searchable/filterable commission records and the available approve, pay, cancel, bulk, preset, and export controls.
- **Analytics** — aggregate affiliate and conversion performance for the selected window.
- **Affiliates** — the active affiliate directory and relationship controls.

Names, email addresses, referral relationships, revenue, and payout states are private. Limit access and redact them from documentation, screenshots, and broad channels.

## Review a referral and commission

1. Confirm the community, affiliate, referred member, offer, attribution window, conversion record, currency, and amount.
2. Verify the membership/payment state and applicable commission policy.
3. Separate **pending**, **approved**, **paid**, and **cancelled** records; do not pay a pending or disputed commission.
4. Record the reason and reviewer when approving or cancelling.
5. Preserve the commission and provider identifiers needed for reconciliation.

A referral or conversion row is evidence to review, not permission to expose the parties or infer intent. Resolve duplicate, self-referral, refunded, disputed, or chargeback cases under the published policy.

## Pay and reconcile safely

Pay one approved commission when possible before using a bulk action. Confirm the payout provider is ready, the amount/currency are correct, and sufficient funds are available. For **Pay all approved** or a bulk selection, review the exact count and total in the confirmation dialog.

After processing:

1. compare the succeeded, warning, and failed counts;
2. store provider transfer identifiers with the internal records;
3. retry only a confirmed failed item, once;
4. reconcile warnings before treating them as paid; and
5. export the filtered evidence required by accounting.

Do not refresh, click Pay again, or start a second bulk run while the first result is pending. A timeout does not prove that no transfer occurred.

## End an affiliate relationship

Confirm the affiliate, community, reason, effective date, outstanding approved commissions, active referrals, and communication plan before cancelling. Ending the relationship does not automatically reverse a completed payout, cancel a referred member's subscription, or delete records required for tax, accounting, fraud, or dispute handling.

If totals differ, align filters and dates with the course-sales and payment-provider reports. Escalate with redacted evidence and the referral, commission, transfer, and transaction identifiers.

## Legal

- [Privacy](/privacy)
- [Terms](/terms)
- [Data rights and deletion](/data-deletion)