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, and what the plugin does and does not do. Each answer links to the guide that covers the topic in full, in the plugin 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. The form builder 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.
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, referral links are credited for 30 days.
Will every click be tracked?
↑ Back to topAlmost all, but not literally every one. Tracking runs in the visitor’s browser with JavaScript, so a strict script blocker, or a cache that strips the referral part of the URL, can stop a visit being recorded. Plan your affiliate terms around “tracked visits” rather than promising perfect capture.
Can an affiliate be credited without a link click?
↑ Back to topYes, two ways: give them a coupon code, covered in How to Track Affiliate Sales with Coupon Codes, or turn on Enable checkout referral field so shoppers can type an Affiliate Referral Code as they check out.
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 should hand affiliates coupon codes instead, 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.
What happens to a commission when an order is refunded?
↑ Back to topWith Reject commission on refund enabled, a commission still awaiting approval is rejected automatically. A commission you already approved stays in the affiliate’s wallet — review refunds on recently approved orders yourself.
Can affiliates earn commission on their own purchases?
↑ Back to topYes by default, which surprises most merchants. Turn on Restrict commission on own referral on the Commission screen to prevent it.
Can an affiliate’s commission rate rise automatically as they perform?
↑ Back to topYes. Set Commission Based On: to Users and build levels on the User Levels screen — each with its own percentage or fixed rate, reached at a referral count or a sales total. This is performance-based direct commission: the affiliate’s own rate, separate from MLM network commission. See Performance-Based Direct Commission with Affiliate Levels.
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.
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 import my existing affiliates and referrals?
↑ Back to topAffiliates, yes — in one click from your previous WordPress affiliate plugin, with their existing referral links intact. Referral history and balances do not transfer, so the new ledger starts clean, and commission rules are set up again here. Exports go the other way too: affiliates, referrals, an affiliate’s downline and a product feed as CSV. 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 deactivation 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
↑ Back to topHave a question before you buy? Please fill out this pre-sales form.
Already purchased and need some assistance? Get in touch with a Happiness Engineer via the Help Desk.
