Affiliates

Affiliates are partners, influencers, local businesses, or past customers who send bookings your way in exchange for a commission. Each affiliate gets a tracked booking link and QR code, optional promo codes, and a ledger that shows what they have earned, what has been reversed, what has been paid, and what is still owed.

Getting started

Navigate to Marketing > Affiliates from the sidebar. The page has two tabs, Affiliates and Tiers, with a create button on the right of the tab rail.

The affiliate program is in limited release. If the Marketing section is not in the sidebar, it is not enabled for the company yet.

How it works

Start with a commission tier. A tier defines what an affiliate earns on each attributed sale: a percent of the sale, a flat amount per sale, or both, calculated on either the subtotal after discounts or the total without tips. Every affiliate is assigned one tier, and the Create affiliate button stays disabled until at least one active tier exists.

Sales reach an affiliate's ledger in three ways. A customer books through the affiliate's tracked link or QR code, a customer uses a promo code linked to the affiliate, or a staff member adds a paid sale by hand. In every case the sale earns commission only once it is paid in full, and a sale can belong to one affiliate only.

Commission is recorded on a ledger with three kinds of entries. An earned entry is added when a fully paid sale is credited to the affiliate. A reversed entry cancels an earned entry when that sale is later cancelled or fully refunded. A paid entry records money sent to the affiliate outside the platform. The amount owed is earned minus reversed minus paid.

Step-by-step guide

Create a tier

1. Open Marketing > Affiliates and select the Tiers tab.
2. Click Create tier.
3. Enter a Name, for example Gold.
4. Enter a Percent of sale, a Flat amount per sale, or both. When both are set they add together, for example 10% plus a 5.00 bonus on every sale.
5. Choose the Commission base: Subtotal after discounts or Total without tips.
6. Click Create tier.

Tiers are listed in the order they are dragged into using the handle on the left of each card. Each card shows the commission and the base. The card menu offers Edit tier and Archive; archived tiers move below the active list, greyed out, with Restore in their menu. An archived tier stays on any affiliate that already has it but cannot be chosen for new affiliates.

Create an affiliate

1. Select the Affiliates tab and click Create affiliate.
2. Under Details, enter the Name (a person or business name) and the Email.
3. Choose the Type: Influencer, Local business, or Player.
4. Select a Tier.
5. Under Attribution, enter a Source or click Generate to create one. The source is the code that identifies this affiliate in the booking link. It must be 3 to 64 characters using lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes, cannot be a reserved word such as internal, booking_site, organic, direct, email, sms, google, facebook, or instagram, must be unique within the group, and cannot be changed later.
6. Optionally change the Medium and Campaign (both default to affiliate). These label the affiliate's bookings in reports, use lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores up to 64 characters, and cannot be changed later.
7. Review the Booking link preview.
8. Optionally select Linked promo codes (optional). Bookings that use a linked promo code earn commission for this affiliate even without the tracking link. A promo code can belong to one affiliate only.
9. Click Create affiliate.

Share the booking link or QR code

Each affiliate card lists the name, type, tier, email, source, amount owed, and any linked promo codes. The card menu offers View performance, Copy booking link, QR code, Edit affiliate, and Archive (or Restore for an archived affiliate).

1. Click Copy booking link to copy the affiliate's tracked link to the clipboard. The link opens your booking site with the affiliate's source, medium, and campaign attached.
2. Click QR code to open a drawer with a scannable code for the same link and a Download button that saves it as a PNG image.

Give the link or QR code to the affiliate. Any booking that starts from it is tracked as a visit and, once paid in full, credited to the affiliate.

Edit or archive an affiliate

Choose Edit affiliate from the card menu to change the name, email, type, tier, or linked promo codes. Changing the email relinks the affiliate to that identity and leaves history unaffected. Source, medium, and campaign are shown read only. Click Save.

Choose Archive to stop the affiliate from earning further commission. A confirmation dialog explains that archived affiliates stop earning commission while their history and any amount owed stay on record. Click Archive to confirm or Keep it to cancel. Archived affiliates appear greyed out at the bottom of the list with a Restore option.

View performance and the ledger

Click an affiliate card, or choose View performance from its menu, to open the affiliate drawer. It has four sections.

Overview shows the type, tier, email, source, medium, campaign, linked promo codes, and a Copy booking link link. The tier can be changed directly here by clicking the tier badge and choosing another tier from the dropdown.

Performance shows Tracked visits (the number of times the booking link was opened), Attributed sales (count and total value of sales credited to the affiliate), Earned, Reversed, Paid out, and Owed.

Ledger opens with the same Earned, Reversed, Paid out, and Owed totals, then lists every entry, newest first. Each entry shows its type badge (earned, reversed, or paid), the amount, and the date. Earned and reversed entries show the transaction number, the sale amount, and the tier the commission was calculated at; the transaction number is a link that opens the transaction details page in a new tab. Paid entries show the payout method, the reference, and who recorded it. Entries added by hand also show who added them, and reversed entries created by staff show who removed them. Earned entries that can be removed show a small trash icon after the transaction number, and once an earned entry has been reversed its amount is shown struck through. When at least one earned entry has not been reversed, a Change tier link appears next to Add transaction at the top of the section.

Add a sale to the ledger by hand

Use this when a customer booked without the affiliate's link or promo code, for example over the phone, and the sale should still be credited.

1. Open the affiliate drawer and expand Ledger.
2. Click the Add transaction link at the top of the section.
3. Enter the transaction number in the Transaction number field (with or without the leading #).
4. Click Add transaction, or Cancel to close the form.

The sale is added as an earned entry with the commission calculated at the affiliate's current tier, and the totals update immediately. The same thing can be done from the transaction itself: on the transaction details page, click Attach to affiliate next to the source badge, choose the affiliate, and click Attach. Once credited, the transaction page shows an affiliate badge next to the source badge.

A sale can only be added when it is active, paid in full, and not fully refunded. If the sale is already on any affiliate's ledger, or came through another affiliate's link or promo code, the add is refused and the message names that affiliate.

Remove a sale from the ledger

Use this when a sale should not count toward an affiliate's commission, for example a test booking or a sale credited to the wrong affiliate.

1. Open the affiliate drawer and expand Ledger.
2. Find the earned entry and click the trash icon after its transaction number. Hovering the icon shows Remove from ledger.
3. Review the confirmation. It names the transaction, the commission being removed, and what Owed will be after removal.
4. Click Remove, or Keep it to leave the entry as it is.

Removal adds a reversed entry for the same amount and shows who removed it. The earned entry stays in the ledger with its amount struck through, and the Earned, Reversed, and Owed totals update immediately. The trash icon only appears on earned entries that have not already been reversed by a cancellation, a full refund, or an earlier removal.

A removed sale cannot be added back to any affiliate's ledger. If the commission had already been paid out, Owed goes negative until new commission covers the difference, and no payout can be recorded in the meantime.

Change the tier on ledger entries

Use this when sales were credited at the wrong tier, for example an affiliate who accrued commission at a higher tier than agreed. Each selected entry's commission is recalculated by the chosen tier's rule using the sale's totals, and the affiliate's Earned and Owed figures update to match.

1. Open the affiliate drawer and expand Ledger.
2. Click the Change tier link at the top of the section. A checkbox appears on every earned entry that has not been reversed, and a toolbar appears with a tier selector, a Change tier button, Cancel, and Select all.
3. Tick the entries to change, or click Select all. The Change tier button shows the number of selected entries in parentheses.
4. Choose the new tier in the selector. Only active tiers are listed, and the affiliate's current tier is preselected when it is active.
5. Click Change tier. The confirmation names the tier and the number of entries, and states the commission total before and after the change and what Owed will be afterward.
6. Click Change tier to apply, or Keep as is to leave the entries unchanged.

The change applies to all selected entries or none of them. If any selected entry has been reversed in the meantime, or would earn no commission at the chosen tier, nothing changes and the message says why. Each entry keeps its date and who added it, and now shows the new tier name and amount. The change is recorded in the activity log with the entries, the tier, and the totals before and after.

Changing the tier is allowed after a payout has been recorded. Lowering the commission on entries that were already paid out takes Owed below zero until new commission covers the difference, and the confirmation says so when that applies. Reversed and paid entries cannot be changed.

Record a payout

Payouts happen outside the platform, for example by Zelle, PayPal, or Venmo. Recording one reduces the amount owed.

1. Open the affiliate drawer and expand Record payout.
2. Enter the Amount. It defaults to the full amount owed and cannot exceed it.
3. Choose the Method: Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, or Other.
4. Optionally enter a Reference (optional) such as a confirmation number and a Note (optional).
5. Click Record payout.

The payout appears in the ledger as a paid entry showing the method, reference, and who recorded it. The Record payout button is disabled when nothing is owed.

Reference

Affiliate types

Commission base

Ledger entry types

How a sale is credited

Good to know

• Commission is earned only when the sale is paid in full. A sale with a balance due does not appear on the ledger until the balance is cleared, and a sale cannot be added by hand until then.
• A sale belongs to one affiliate. If a booking matches both a tracked link and a linked promo code from different affiliates, the tracked link wins.
• Automatic crediting only counts sales made after the affiliate was created and within the last 180 days. Adding a sale by hand has no such limit, so older sales can be credited that way.
• Commission is calculated at the tier the affiliate has at the time the sale is credited and is stored with the entry. Changing the affiliate's tier in Overview does not change existing entries; use Change tier in the Ledger section to recalculate specific entries.
• A cancelled or fully refunded sale is reversed automatically. Partial refunds do not change the commission.
• Removing a sale by hand works the same way as an automatic reversal: the earned entry stays on record and a reversed entry cancels it. Removal is recorded with the name of the staff member who did it and cannot be undone.
• Archived affiliates stop earning but keep their history and amount owed, so payouts can still be recorded for them.
• Payouts are limited to the amount owed and are recorded, not sent. Money moves outside the platform.
• Reports and dashboards that filter by source, medium, or campaign can single out an affiliate's bookings using the values on the affiliate card.
• Admins and managers can manage affiliates. Custom roles use the affiliates permissions in Custom roles and permissions when they are enabled for the company.

FAQ

Q: A customer booked through an affiliate's link, so why is the sale not on the ledger yet?

A: Sales are credited automatically on a recurring schedule and only once paid in full. Check that the order has no balance due, then allow a little time for the next run.

Q: A customer called to book and mentioned an affiliate. Can the sale still be credited?

A: Yes. Open the affiliate's drawer, expand Ledger, click Add transaction, and enter the transaction number. The sale must be paid in full first.

Q: Can a sale be moved from one affiliate to another?

A: Not from the console. A sale stays with the affiliate it was credited to, and adding it to a second affiliate is refused. Removing it from the first affiliate does not free it up for another.

Q: A test booking landed on an affiliate's ledger. How is it taken off?

A: Open the affiliate's drawer, expand Ledger, click the trash icon after the transaction number on the earned entry, and click Remove in the confirmation. A reversed entry cancels the commission and the earned entry shows struck through.

Q: An affiliate's sales were credited at the wrong tier. Can they be corrected?

A: Yes. Open the affiliate's drawer, expand Ledger, click Change tier, tick the entries (or Select all), choose the right tier, and confirm. Each entry's commission is recalculated by that tier's rule and the totals update. Entries that have already been reversed cannot be changed.

Q: What happens to commission when a booking is refunded?

A: A full refund or cancellation adds a reversed entry that cancels the earned commission. A partial refund leaves the commission unchanged.