Every commission in Affiliate and Referral Program for WooCommerce starts as a referral record waiting for your decision. This guide covers the Manage Referrals screen, what each status means, approving and rejecting singly or in bulk, automating approval by order status, adding a referral by hand, and what refunds do. Part of the plugin documentation.
The Manage Referrals screen
↑ Back to topGo to: WooCommerce > Affiliate & Referral > Manage Referrals. Each row is one commission record: Aff ID and Aff Name, Reference (the order), Order Status, Comm. Amount, Sale Amount, Customer Name, Date, Status and Actions. Direct sales, network commissions and bonuses all land here, so this one screen is the ledger of everything your program owes or has declined.
What each status means
↑ Back to top- Pending – recorded but not yet owed. Nothing is credited until you (or your automation) approve it.
- Approved – the amount has been credited to the affiliate’s wallet, ready for withdrawal. See Pay Affiliates with Store Credit and Wallets.
- Rejected – declined, with the reason you entered. The affiliate can read it on their dashboard.
- Paid – settled with the affiliate.
Approve or reject referrals
↑ Back to topEvery pending row carries its own Approve and Reject buttons: approving credits the affiliate’s wallet on the spot, and rejecting opens the Enter Your Reject Reason box so the affiliate knows why. For a batch, tick the rows and use Confirm All Marked Referrals or Decline All Marked Referrals.
Approval moves money: the commission is added to the affiliate’s wallet immediately, and rejecting a record later does not take it back out. Approve when you consider the sale final — many stores wait until the order is completed and any return window has passed.
Approve automatically by order status
↑ Back to topTo skip manual review for straightforward sales, go to: WooCommerce > Affiliate & Referral > Commission and set Affiliate Referral Automation to Processing or Completed. When a referred order reaches that status, its commission is approved for you.
Automation approves one pending record per order. When a single order generates several — a direct commission plus network commissions from a multi-tier network, for example — review the remaining rows on this screen. Bulk approval makes that quick.
Add a referral by hand
↑ Back to topFor a commission that did not track — a phone order, a make-good, a promotion you ran outside the store — click Enter Referral Manually:
- Pick the affiliate under Select Affiliate.
- Enter the Amount.
- Choose the Referral Status — Pending, Approve or Paid — and Save Changes.
A manual referral is not linked to an order, so it shows without an order reference — the amount you enter is the commission itself, not a sale to calculate from.
What refunds do
↑ Back to topWith Reject commission on refund enabled on the Commission screen, refunding a referred order rejects its commission — but only while the record is still Pending. A commission you have already approved stays in the affiliate’s wallet even if the order is refunded afterwards; recover it, if you need to, by agreement with the affiliate. This is the strongest reason to let orders settle before approving.
FAQ
↑ Back to topDoes rejecting a referral take money back from the affiliate?
↑ Back to topNo. Rejecting stops a pending commission from ever being credited; it does not reverse one that was already approved into the wallet.
Why did only one of an order’s commissions approve automatically?
↑ Back to topThat is how the automation works — one record per order. Orders that also create network commissions or bonuses leave those rows pending for your review; approve them in bulk from this screen.
Can affiliates see why a referral was rejected?
↑ Back to topYes. The reason you type is shown with the rejected row in their dashboard’s referral table. More questions are answered in the Affiliate and Referral Program: FAQ.