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When a paid order changes

Updated

Orders can change after you have paid an affiliate for them: a customer cancels, a refund is made, an order is deleted. This article explains how the plugin keeps the balance right without changing payments you have already recorded.

Recorded payments never change

A payment you recorded keeps its amount, its date and its list of orders. Instead of editing it, the plugin compares what each paid order earns now with what was paid on it, and puts the difference on the affiliate’s statement.

How a change shows up

On the affiliate’s statement, a paid order that now earns less appears as a line with a negative Due and the note “Changed after it was paid, taken off this payment”. This happens when a paid order is:

  • cancelled or fully refunded, so it earns nothing now;
  • partly refunded, when the rate is a percentage;
  • moved to a status that no longer counts as confirmed;
  • deleted or moved to the trash, shown as “Order deleted” or “In the trash”;
  • no longer using the affiliate’s coupon, shown with “no longer credited to this affiliate”.

These lines appear whatever the order’s date, so the Orders placed up to date never hides them.

A change can go the other way too. If a refund on a paid order is deleted, or a cancelled order is completed again, the order earns more than was paid, and the difference is added to what is due.

How the difference is settled

The next payment you record takes the differences into account: its amount is what is due on new orders minus what paid orders lost. The adjustment lines are recorded with the payment, so the balance is settled for good.

If the losses outweigh everything that is due, there is nothing to pay yet. The statement says “Orders that changed after they were paid outweigh what is due, so there is nothing to pay yet. The difference is taken off this affiliate’s next payment.” and Due now on the Payouts screen shows a negative amount until new orders make up the difference.

Note: Changing which statuses count as confirmed, cancelled or refunded in the settings applies to paid orders as well, and can create adjustment lines for many affiliates at once. See Changing a commission rate.

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