Understanding commission validation

Overview

Commission validation is the process of reviewing and confirming whether each tracked commission payment in your Awin program should be approved or declined. Validating on time helps protect your budget, ensures partners are paid correctly, and keeps your program running smoothly.

How validation works

1. Tracking: When a customer completes a purchase through a partner link, the sale is tracked in Awin and appears as a pending commission payment.

2. Validation period: Each program has its own validation period. This is the time in which you must review and confirm whether each commission is valid. If a commission isn’t reviewed before the period ends, it will be automatically approved in line with your program’s auto-validation settings.

   During this period, you should check whether:

   1. The order was cancelled or returned.

   2. The payment was successful.

   3. The commission meets your program’s terms and conditions.

3. Validation: For each pending commission, you can either:

   • Approve it - The commission is confirmed and payable to the partner.

   • Decline it - The commission is cancelled and won’t be paid.

4. Payout: Approved commissions are added to the partner’s next payment cycle.

Why validation matters

• Partners have clear visibility on when they’ll be paid, which helps build trust.

• You only pay commission on genuine, completed orders.

• It keeps the network fair, transparent, and accurate for everyone.

When to decline a commission

Declining a commission should always be based on a clear, legitimate reason. Inaccurate or unexplained declines can damage partner relationships and lead to follow-up queries.

Valid reasons to decline include:

• Order cancelled or fully returned: The customer cancelled or returned the order after the commission was tracked.

• Wrong marketing source: The commission should have been awarded to a different channel or partner. You can prevent this from recurring by implementing de-duplication.

• Program terms violation, such as:

  • Illegitimate PPC activity

  • Unauthorized voucher code use

• Order cannot be fulfilled: For example, an out-of-stock item with no alternative.

• Fraudulent sale: The transaction shows signs of fraud.

Important

Make sure your program terms clearly outline what partners can and can’t do. Clear terms reduce disputes and make your decline decisions easier to justify.

Best practices

• Validate regularly - Don’t wait until the end of the validation period. Regular reviews prevent a backlog and reduce the risk of auto-approving invalid commissions.

• Be consistent - Apply the same criteria across all partners to ensure fairness.

• Provide accurate decline reasons - This supports strong partner relationships and reduces follow-up queries.

• Review your auto-validation settings - Make sure your auto-validation period aligns with your returns and cancellation window.

• Keep your program terms up to date - Clear, current terms make validation decisions straightforward for both you and your partners.