Monthly Payment Review

The ShareASale Monthly Payment Review is a time-saving report that provides Merchants with vital information about commissions that will be paid to Affiliates on the upcoming payment day.

We strongly recommend Merchants use this report to review all upcoming transactions and commission payouts to make sure they are accurate and valid. While transactions can be edited or voided any time before they are locked, the Monthly Payment Review allows Merchants to more readily spot red flags or potential issues, and take action accordingly before commissions are locked and paid to Affiliates.

• The payout day for locked transactions occurs on the 20^th of every month as detailed in How Do Payments Work?
• The Monthly Payment Review is available from the 15^ththrough the 20^th of each month.
• The report provides a summary of all transactions that will be paid on the 20^th of the current month.
• All payments are grouped by Affiliate so that the Merchant can see the total commission amount each individual Affiliate will be paid.
• A Tracking Number Summary is provided so that Merchants can spot check for multiple transactions with the same tracking number that might require a closer look.
• Transactions are also grouped by HTTP Referrer (in most cases the Merchant’s confirmation page on which tracking code resides) in the HTTP Referrer Summary section. This allows Merchants to single out transactions that might need further investigation.
• The IP Address Summary groups transactions by the IP Address of the customer. Multiple transactions coming through the same IP might require further investigation.  

Summary of the above diagram:

Step1 –  All sales/commissions are generated in real-time.

Step 2 – The transaction data will be available in various reports (i.e.Transaction Detail Report) inside the ShareASale Merchant Account Manager. Transactions can be edited/voided as needed up until the lock date.

Step 3 – The Monthly Payment Review is available during the 15^th and 20^th of every month.

Step 4 – Any transactions scheduled to lock do so on the 20th of the month.

Step 5 – All locked commissions go out to Affiliates via check or direct deposit on the 20th of the month.

#RealLife example:

Let’s say a retailer enters in several test orders using their computer at the office. If someone at the office using the same computer had previously clicked on Affiliate links while testing out links on their Affiliates’ sites, a commission will be generated to the cookied Affiliate whose links had been previously clicked.

The Monthly Payment Review would come in handy for catching these test transactions because the IP Address Summary lists duplicate consumer IP addresses tied to the same individual Affiliate. Instances of a large number of duplicates or an internal IP address would indicate a red flag. The retailer would then be able to review and void these test transactions if need be.

Please keep in mind that transactions can be edited any time before they are locked. The Monthly Payment Review simply provides a detailed “filter and audit” period leading up to the lock date during which Merchants can check for red flags or anomalies, and edit transactions as needed before they are locked.