Commissions

A commission is what you’ve earned from a single attributed conversion. Every conversion event on your share link generates a commission row computed from the program’s rule (e.g. 20% of $100 invoice = $20 commission).

Commissions in the sidebar shows them grouped by status.

Lifecycle

A commission starts in accrued and moves through:

accrued ──► approved ──► paid
   │            │
   └────────────┴──► reversed   (if the brand reverses it, e.g. refund)

accrued

The default state when a commission is first computed. The brand can review it, approve, or reverse before it becomes payable.

You see accrued commissions but can’t withdraw them — the brand controls whether they approve.

approved

The brand approved the commission. It’s payable on the next payout run.

Most brands auto-approve commissions older than N days (e.g. “approve everything past the 30-day refund window”) so nothing stays in accrued forever. Some brands require manual approval for every commission.

paid

The commission is in a payout, and its paidAt timestamp is set. When the brand pays you itself (PayPal, bank transfer), that happens as soon as the payout run creates the payout, before the brand has sent the money. The payout’s status on the Payouts page shows whether the brand has marked it sent. When the brand pays through Stripe Connect, it happens once the transfer is made, and Stripe typically settles within 1–2 business days. See Getting paid.

reversed

The brand reversed the commission before it was paid, usually because:

The conversion got refunded
Fraud was detected after the fact
The conversion was attributed to the wrong partner (rare)
It was a recruiter commission and the recruit’s commission it was a share of was reversed

Reversed commissions don’t pay out. A commission that’s already paid is never reversed; see Refunds for what happens instead.

When commissions appear

Within a few minutes of the conversion event firing on the brand’s site. The flow:

User clicks your share link → cookie set
User signs up / converts → brand’s SDK reports event
Attribution engine matches the event back to your click
Commission row created from the program’s rule
Shows up in your dashboard

If you have clicks but no commissions, either:

No conversions happened yet (clicks ≠ conversions)
Conversions happened but didn’t fire the SDK event correctly (brand-side bug — flag to the brand’s admin)
The customer’s first conversion happened outside the attribution window (60 days by default) and doesn’t count

Renewals

Once you win a customer, their repeat payments stay with you, however old your click is and even if they later click someone else’s link. Past the attribution window, only commission rules the brand marked recurring keep paying, up to any months cap in the program’s terms. A one-off bonus pays only while your click is inside the window.

Brands can turn this off per program, for example a retail program where every order should follow the latest click. Check the program’s terms if you’re unsure.

Refunds

When the customer gets a refund or a chargeback, your commission on that payment follows it.

Before you’re paid (accrued or approved): a full refund reverses the commission. A partial refund reverses it and creates a smaller one for the share the customer kept. For example, a $50 refund on a $100 invoice turns a $20 commission into $10. The new commission keeps the original’s status and date, so its holdback doesn’t start again.
After it’s marked paid: on payouts the brand sends itself, that’s as soon as the payout is created, before the money goes out. On Stripe Connect, it’s once the transfer succeeds. If a Connect transfer is still in progress, the brand applies the refund after it settles. Once marked paid, the commission stays paid, and OpenPartner records the amount you were paid on refunded revenue. It usually comes off your next payout from that brand. If it’s at least what you’re due, you aren’t paid that run, and you’re paid once your new commissions add up to more. Stripe Connect payouts on hosted OpenPartner don’t deduct it. There, if the brand wants it back, that’s between you and the brand, under their program terms.

Most brands hold commissions for at least their refund window before approving them, so refunds rarely reach paid commissions.

Recruiter commissions

Some programs pay you for the partners you recruit. If a partner joined through your recruit link, or the brand named you as their recruiter, you earn the program’s share of the commissions they earn there. At 10%, their $50 commission earns you $5. It’s paid on top of their commission, never out of it.

Each one is listed as Recruiter commission: <recruit’s name>, <what they earned it on>, for example “Recruiter commission: Ben Ortiz, invoice paid”. Payout statements use the same words.

A recruiter commission follows the recruit’s commission it’s a share of:

It’s approved when theirs is, not on a holdback of its own. Until their commission is approved, yours stays accrued.
A refund on their sale cuts yours by the same share, the way refunds work on any commission: before you’re paid, a full refund reverses it; after, it stays paid and the refunded share is recorded against you.
If the brand reverses their commission, yours is reversed too. If yours was already paid, it stays paid and OpenPartner records a clawback for it, handled like a refund after you’re paid. On your payout statement it reads “Clawback, recruit’s commission reversed”.

You earn on the commissions your recruits earn from their own referrals, not on their bonuses or bounties, and nothing on partners your recruits bring in.

Reading the dashboard

The Commissions page shows:

Total earned (across statuses)
Total approved (pending payout)
Total paid (lifetime payouts received)
Total reversed (write-offs)

Plus a paginated table of every individual commission with status, amount, accrual date, the link that drove it, and (for paid ones) the payout it was included in.

Disputes

If you think a commission is wrong (missing, wrong amount, incorrectly reversed), reach out to the brand directly — they control the records. OpenPartner doesn’t arbitrate; we’re the infrastructure, the brand is the merchant.

If you suspect a platform-level bug (attribution misfiring, SDK not firing for conversions you can verify happened), email [email protected].