Short answers to the questions merchants ask most often about Affiliate and Referral Program for WooCommerce — how affiliates join, how referrals are tracked, when money moves, what changes in version 3.0.0, and what the plugin does and does not do. Each answer links to the guide that covers the topic in full. Part of the Affiliate and Referral for WooCommerce documentation.
Affiliates and signup
↑ Back to topDo affiliates need a special user role?
↑ Back to topNo. Affiliates are ordinary WooCommerce customer accounts with affiliate status attached, so an existing customer can become one without a second account and keeps their order history.
Can I review applications before someone starts promoting?
↑ Back to topYes — turn on Affiliate Verification on Advanced Features > General and every application waits for your approval on the Affiliates screen. See Affiliate Registration Form Setup in WooCommerce.
Can I ask my own questions on the signup form?
↑ Back to topYes. Custom Form Fields adds your own fields — a website, a social handle, an audience size — and stores the answers on the affiliate’s profile for you to read when reviewing them.
Do affiliates get their own coupon?
↑ Back to topYes, if you switch it on. Create a coupon for every new affiliate under Advanced Features > Coupons gives each new affiliate a coupon built from their referral code, and Create coupons for existing affiliates covers the ones who joined earlier. You can also assign any WooCommerce coupon to an affiliate by hand. See How to Track Affiliate Sales with Coupon Codes.
What is the difference between affiliate groups and levels?
↑ Back to topYou put affiliates into groups yourself, and they stay there until you move them. Levels are earned: affiliates reach them automatically as they perform, unless you lock a level by hand. Commission rules can pay either one its own rate. See How to Approve and Manage Your Affiliates and Performance-Based Affiliate Commission with Affiliate Levels.
Who can manage the affiliate program?
↑ Back to topAnyone who can manage WooCommerce, such as administrators and shop managers, can use the Affiliate & Referral screens. Two controls outside those screens are for administrators only: the Affiliate Referral Details box on orders and the affiliate tick box on the Users screen.
Tracking referrals
↑ Back to topHow long does a referral stay credited to an affiliate?
↑ Back to topFor the number of days set in Cookie Expiration on Advanced Features > General. Left empty or set to 0, a referral lasts 30 days. See How Referral Tracking and Attribution Work.
Will every click be tracked?
↑ Back to topAlmost all, but not literally every one. The click is recorded by a small script in the visitor’s browser, so a strict script blocker, or a page cache that serves the same copy for referral link addresses, can stop it being recorded. Plan your affiliate terms around tracked visits rather than promising perfect capture. See Troubleshooting: Referrals Not Tracking.
Can an affiliate be credited without a link click?
↑ Back to topYes, two ways: their affiliate coupon, or their referral code typed into the checkout’s Affiliate Referral Code field, which you turn on with Enable checkout referral field under Bonuses > Bonus settings.
Which wins, an affiliate coupon or a referral link?
↑ Back to topThe coupon. The affiliate whose coupon is on the order is credited, whichever came first; only a lifetime pairing outranks it. See How Referral Tracking and Attribution Work.
Does the referral code field work on the classic checkout?
↑ Back to topNo — it appears on the block-based checkout. Stores still using the classic checkout shortcode can rely on referral links and affiliate coupons, which work on both.
Commissions and money
↑ Back to topWhen does an affiliate actually get their money?
↑ Back to topIn two steps: approving a commission credits the affiliate’s wallet, and sending a payout moves the money. Nothing is paid automatically — see Pay Affiliates via PayPal, Stripe and Bank.
Can I schedule payouts to run automatically?
↑ Back to topNo, by design. Every payout run is started by you, which keeps timing and cash flow under your control. What is automated is the sending: one action pays every selected PayPal request at once.
Does a refund take the commission back?
↑ Back to topIt depends on Commission handling on refund, on the Settings tab of the Commission screen. Off leaves commission alone, Automatic recovers the share of commission that belongs to the refunded items, and Manual lists each refund in Refund Reviews for your decision. A wallet never goes below zero; anything it cannot cover is settled from later commission. See Refunds, Return Periods and Commission Recovery.
What is the return period?
↑ Back to topA number of days an order must stay in a status you choose before its commission can be approved — time for returns to come in first. Turn on Hold approval until the return period ends, and optionally Approve automatically once the period has passed. See Refunds, Return Periods and Commission Recovery.
Can an affiliate earn commission by buying through their own link or coupon?
↑ Back to topYes, unless you turn on Restrict commission on own referral on the Settings tab of the Commission screen. With it on, a purchase through their own link earns nothing and their own affiliate coupon is refused at checkout.
Can an affiliate’s commission rate rise automatically as they perform?
↑ Back to topYes. Create Affiliate Levels with the targets an affiliate must reach, such as referred sales or approved referrals, and add a commission rule that pays each level its rate. Affiliates move up automatically as they meet the targets. This raises the affiliate’s own direct commission and is separate from multi-tier (MLM) commission. See Performance-Based Affiliate Commission with Affiliate Levels.
Which bank details do affiliates enter?
↑ Back to topThe account holder’s name, the bank name and an account number or IBAN, with the country of the bank deciding which national bank code is asked for, such as an IFSC code, sort code or routing number. SWIFT / BIC, branch and phone are optional. See Pay Affiliates via PayPal, Stripe and Bank.
Does it handle multiple currencies?
↑ Back to topCommissions are calculated from order totals and recorded in your store’s base currency. If you sell in several currencies through a switcher, treat the recorded amounts as base-currency figures rather than converted ones.
Updating to version 3.0.0
↑ Back to topWhat changes when I update to 3.0.0?
↑ Back to topYour commission is calculated exactly as before until you choose to convert. The update keeps every setting, affiliate, referral and wallet balance, transfers ranks and sales-threshold bonuses into performance bonuses, and turns the old refund switch into Commission handling on refund. Converting to commission rules is a separate step you run when ready. See Upgrading to Version 3.0.0 and Converting to Commission Rules.
Can I undo the conversion to commission rules?
↑ Back to topNo. There is no button to switch back, so preview the conversion and check its order comparison before you run it. Afterwards, change commission by editing the rules. See Upgrading to Version 3.0.0 and Converting to Commission Rules.
Compatibility
↑ Back to topDoes it work with high-performance order storage?
↑ Back to topYes. The plugin declares compatibility with WooCommerce’s high-performance order storage, and referral tracking, commissions and subscription renewals all work with it enabled.
Which languages are included?
↑ Back to topNine translations ship with the plugin: German, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese, plus a template file for translating into any other language.
Is there a REST API for developers?
↑ Back to topNot at present — the plugin does not register REST endpoints, so there is no public API for reading referrals or creating affiliates from outside WordPress.
Can I move my affiliates from another affiliate plugin?
↑ Back to topYes, by bringing them into this plugin: they register as affiliates, or you add them. The plugin generates its own referral code and link for each affiliate. Links created by your previous plugin are not guaranteed to keep working, so affiliates should share their new links and update active promotions. See Switching from Another Affiliate Plugin.
Data and privacy
↑ Back to topWhat personal data does the plugin store?
↑ Back to topVisit records include the IP address, device type and browser of people who arrive through referral links, and affiliates supply payout details — a PayPal or Stripe email address, or bank account details — which are stored on their user profile. Include this in your store’s privacy policy.
Does uninstalling remove the affiliate data?
↑ Back to topNo — deliberately. Affiliates, referrals, wallet balances and payout records are kept if the plugin is removed, so an accidental removal cannot destroy your program’s history. Removing that data is a manual job, and one to plan for if you are handling an erasure request.
Is affiliate data included in WordPress personal-data exports?
↑ Back to topNo. WordPress’s built-in export and erase tools do not reach the plugin’s records, so handle requests that touch affiliate data yourself.
Questions and Feedback
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