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Payment and models

Pending and approved commission

Also called pending commission, approved commission, earned commission, pending sales.

Short answer

Pending and approved commission are the two states a sale's commission passes through: pending while the store has not yet approved the sale, and approved once it has, so the amount counts towards the balance that can be paid out. The order is fixed: pending comes first.

Definition of Pending and approved commission.

An affiliate sale has two financial states before the money belongs to the affiliate. The first is pending: the conversion is recorded and the amount calculated, but the store has not confirmed that the order is genuine. The second is approved, or earned: the store has approved it – or the deadline for rejecting it has passed – and the amount now counts towards the balance that can be paid out.

The split exists because an order can fall through after the buy button. The product is returned, the payment fails, the customer changes their mind, or the order turns out to be fraud. If the network credited straight away, the amount would have to be clawed back afterwards. The waiting period puts the uncertainty where it belongs: before the money has been promised away.

Rejection is the third outcome. It means the sale does not count – and a proper rejection has a reason the affiliate can read. Without a reason, the difference between a mistake and an arbitrary decision is impossible to see from the outside, and the affiliate has nothing to put right next time. The reason is therefore not a courtesy, but the only thing that makes a rejection verifiable.

Why the number moves around in a dashboard

Pending commission rises with every new sale and falls every time a sale changes status. A drop in pending is therefore not a bad sign in itself – the amount may just as well have moved into approved. Read the two numbers together, not separately.

The approval rate – the share of pending sales that end up approved – says more about a program than the commission rate. A high rate with a low approval rate earns less than a moderate rate where almost everything is approved.

Pending vs. approved commission

AspectPendingApproved
StatusThe sale is recorded, not confirmedThe sale is approved by the store or by the deadline
Counts in the balanceNoYes
Can be paid outNoYes, once the payout threshold is reached
Can still be rejectedYes, until the deadline expiresOnly through a separate reversal

Plan your finances on approved commission – pending is an estimate, not income.

How it goes wrong

  • 01

    Counting pending as income

    If pending commission is booked as revenue, it has to be corrected every time a sale is rejected. Approved commission is the earliest point at which the amount is real.

  • 02

    No deadline for rejection

    A program without a fixed deadline can leave sales pending indefinitely. Know the deadline, and know what happens when it expires.

  • 03

    Refunds discovered too late

    If a refund comes after approval, the amount has to be handled separately. Agree the procedure in advance instead of discovering it the first time it happens.

At Affilyflow

Pending and approved commission in practice

With us, a conversion never automatically credits a balance. Everything is created as pending, and the store has the program's approval period (30–90 days) to reject. If the sale is not rejected within the deadline, it is approved automatically.

A rejection requires a reason the affiliate can read. The balance is calculated from the underlying data rather than from a column that can fall out of step, and the amount in a payout request is determined by the server – not by what the client sends.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my commission showing as pending?

Because the store has not yet confirmed the order. The period is used to catch returns, cancelled orders and failed payments. When the store approves, or the deadline for rejecting expires, the amount changes to approved and counts towards your balance.

How long does it take for commission to be approved?

It depends on the program, and the deadline should be in the program terms. On Affilyflow, the store has the program's approval period (30–90 days) to reject a sale. If it is not rejected within the deadline, the sale is approved automatically.

Can an approved sale be rejected afterwards?

Not as part of the normal process. If a refund happens, the reversal is handled separately. On Affilyflow, the commission is rejected automatically, even after approval, when a WooCommerce order is refunded or cancelled, or a Stripe payment is refunded or disputed. A partial refund reduces commission and fee in proportion instead of rejecting the whole sale. On Shopify and with script-based tracking this does not happen automatically – there, the store has to reject the sale itself within the approval period.

What does it mean that a commission has been rejected?

That the sale does not trigger payment. Rejection is used for returns, cancelled orders, duplicates and orders that cannot be recognised. A rejection must have a reason you can read, so you can see whether it is a mistake.

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