Partner commission invoices

Who is this article for?

This article will be useful to you if are a company on PartnerStack looking for more information on the partner invoice review process.

What is the partner commission invoice?

The partner commission invoice is generated on the last day of each month (or the first day of the following month, based on your timezone) and contains all the commissions earned by your partner during the previous month.

This invoice is sent to the main program owner on file by email with a breakdown of all referral commissions earned by your partners and can also be found in your Commissions & Invoices tab. 

All “new”, “pending” and “approved” commissions are automatically pulled onto your invoice. Commissions that are “held” either due to a partner’s account being flagged as potentially fraudulent, or commissions put on hold by your team, are not pulled onto invoices.

For a video walkthrough of editing invoices see the Company dashboard: Video walkthroughs.

Invoice schedule overview

You’ll have 7 full days to review the invoice before it is auto-charged and payouts are released to your partners.  Any issues with commissions can be adjusted during this time. 

Invoices are automatically processed at the end of the day 7th of each month (or the morning of the 8th depending on your timezone) unless you have paused your invoice.

If your invoice is paid with a credit card, commissions will be released to partners once the charge has been successfully processed, in most cases this is the same day. If your invoice is paid via ACH, commissions are released to partners once the charge has been successfully processed between Stripe and your bank which takes an average of 5 days.

Example:

• May 1 to May 31: Commissions are generated by partner activity
• June 1: A commission invoice is generated for you to review for all commissions created in May
• June 1 to June 7: You have 7 days to review the invoice, and make any necessary changes
• June 7 EOD: The invoice is charged to the card or ACH on file
• Commissions are released to partners once the payment has been processed. ACH payment can take an average of 5 days to process. 
  • Evening of June 7th: If the invoice is paid by credit card, commissions are available for partners to withdraw
  • June 13th:  If the invoice is paid by ACH, commissions are available for partners to withdraw

Viewing your invoice

The partner commission invoice is sent by email to the main account owner on file and is visible in your Commissions & Invoices tab for any teammates with Billing permissions.

To view a month’s invoice:

1. Log into your PartnerStack dashboard here
2. Navigate to your Commissions & Invoices tab
3. Click “View Invoice” next to your desired invoice
4. To download a CSV of all commission lines on this invoice, click “Download CSV”
5. To view a PDF of the invoice, click “View printable invoice”
   1. To download this invoice, right-click on the invoice, select “Print” and choose “Print to PDF” as the destination

Invoice CSV data

• Date: The date the commission was created
• Type: The line type on the invoice
• Commission key: Unique identifier for the commission
• Description: The commission description
• Commission target key: The key for the commission source, i.e. customer key if the commission is for a customer, transaction key if the commission is for a transaction
• Partner details: Partner name, Partner email, Partner key, Partner Country
• Partner Source: How the partner joined your program (invite, application, marketplace)
• Group: The partner’s current group
• Customer details: Customer Name, Customer Email, Customer Key, Customer Country
• Transaction details: Transaction key, Purchase Amount
• Product key: The product key associated with the transaction if applicable
• Amount: The commission amount
• Fee % applied: The Partnerstack Processing fee applied to the commission
• Fee amount applied: The total amount of the fee
• Total owed: The commission amount plus the fee amount

Adding commissions to an invoice

Commissions can be manually added to a pending invoice in one of three ways; creating a new commission directly on the invoice, pulling an existing commission onto the invoice, and importing commissions directly to the invoice.

Creating an individual commission on an invoice

1. In your Commissions & Invoices tab click on your current invoice
2. Click “Add Commissions”
3. In the drawer view that opens, select “Create a single commission”
4. Enter the commission description, select the partner the commission is for, and enter the commission amount, and currency
5. Optional: Click “Connect this commission to a customer” to tie the commission to a specific partner
   1. This can make it easier to reconcile commissions and customers
6. Click “Create commission”

Pulling existing commissions onto an invoice

1. In your Commissions & Invoices tab click on your current invoice
2. Click “Add Commissions”
3. In the drawer view that opens, select “Move commissions to invoice”
4. Select the commissions you would like moved to the current invoice
5. Click “Move commissions to this invoice”

Importing commissions onto an invoice

1. In your Commissions & Invoices tab click on your current invoice
2. Click “Add Commissions”
3. In the drawer view that opens, select “Import commissions”
4. You will be redirected to your Settings > Data Importer > Commissions import view
5. Drag and drop yourcommissions import CSV 
6. Ensure that “Attach commissions to current invoice” remains checked and click “Import data”

Not sure how to build out a commissions import CSV? Check out our Best practices for importing data into your program for more information. Please note, that only “pending” and “approved” commission statuses can be imported directly to an invoice.

Removing and deleting commissions from an invoice

There may be commissions that you would like to remove from an invoice that should not be paid out, or commissions that you would like to remove that should be paid out at a later date, or after further qualification.

To remove a commission from a pending invoice:

1. In your Commissions & Invoices tab click on your current invoice
2. Select the commission(s) you would like to remove
3. Click “Actions”
4. Select “Remove from this invoice” to remove the commission from the current invoice, but to have it paid out on the next invoice
   1. Provide a reason for removal and click “Remove commissions”
5. Select “Permanently delete” if the commission should not be paid out in the future
   1. Provide a reason for deleting and click “Delete commissions”

Removed commissions will be moved to your “Removed commissions” invoice tab and will be automatically pulled onto your next invoice.

Removed commissions tab

In your invoice, you will see a Commissions tab for the commissions currently on your invoice and a Removed commissions tab. The Removed commissions tab contains commissions you manually remove from your invoice, but do not permanently delete. These may be commissions that require more investigation before you would like them invoiced and paid out. 

Commissions removed one month will be automatically invoiced on your next invoice.

To move a removed commissions back to an invoice:

1. In your Commissions & Invoices tab click on your current invoice
2. Click on the invoice’s Removed commissions tab
3. After confirming the commissions should be paid out, select the commission(s) you would like to move to the current invoice
4. Click “Actions” and select “Add Commissions back to invoice”
5. Confirm you would like to “Move to {month} invoice”

Commissions that are added back to an invoice can be removed once again while the invoice is pending.

Reviewing flagged commissions

Before your invoice is generated, any partners flagged in your Fraud Management tab as potentially fraudulent will have their commissions automatically placed on "hold" for your review. Any commissions on "hold" will not be automatically pulled onto your invoice when it is generated.

If a partner is flagged as potentially fraudulent after your invoice has been generated, their commissions will be flagged on your invoice with a red flag, and a risk level. 

If any commissions on your invoice are flagged due to the partner being flagged as potentially fraudulent you will see a banner at the top of your invoice indicating the number of commissions flagged, the total value of flagged commissions, and the number of flagged partners. Click "View commissions" in this banner to filter your invoice and view only the flagged commissions. 

As a best practice, we recommend reviewing your invoice’s flagged commissions before your invoice charge date. If you see flagged commissions, review the partner’s fraud flag in your Fraud Management tab, and the partner/customer’s activity in your internal systems to determine if the commission is legitimate and should be paid out. If the commission should not be paid out, remove it from your invoice, and remove the partner from your program.

Searching an invoice

In an invoice’s Commissions and Removed commissions tabs, you can search for specific commissions, partners, customers, or transactions using the search bar.

The search bar can also be filtered by partner, group, customer, commission status, date, description, and decline reason by clicking on “+ Add filter”.

Viewing invoice activity

Your invoice activity log allows you to see exactly when commissions were added, if an invoice was paused, and when payouts became available for partners to withdraw.

Whenever you modify commissions on your invoice, the activity log captures the history of changes made to the invoice.

You can access the invoice activity log by clicking on “Invoice activity” in the top right-hand corner of the invoice.

All modifications to your invoice are captured, including:

• Date of change
• Modification type (add/move/delete/remove)
  • Add = adding a new commission directly on the invoice
  • Move = moving an existing commission to the invoice
  • Delete = permanently deleting a commission
  • Remove = removing a commission from the current invoice to payout on the next invoice
• Number of commission items impacted
• The user who took the action

Pausing an invoice

If you need more time to correct issues on an invoice before it is automatically paid you can "Pause" the invoice. 

1. In your Commissions & Invoices tab click on your current invoice
2. Click “Pause invoice”

If you are pausing an invoice, ensure you are proactively communicating with your partners to ensure they understand when to expect their commissions.

We recommend sending an email campaign assuring partners that while this month’s invoice requires a bit of additional attention and review, your team is working diligently to have the invoice charged as soon as possible and that you will keep them updated.

• If you unpause an invoice before the automatic charge date, the invoice will charge on the invoice charge date as expected.
• If you unpause an invoice after the automatic charge date, the invoice will charge right away. If you would like to update your payment method before unpausing an invoice this can be done from your Settings > Billings tab.

Charging an invoice

Once your invoice has been generated, you have had a chance to review and make any desired changes, you’re welcome to charge your invoice ahead of time if you would like.

To manually charge your partner invoice:

1. In your Commissions & Invoices tab click on your current invoice
2. Click “Pay invoice now”

This will charge your invoice using your default payment method on file. If you need to update your payment method see the Adding and updating your billing information support guide.

Best practices

1. Review your commissions throughout the month in your Commissions & invoices > Review commissions tab. Proactively reviewing, and approving or declining commissions will reduce the amount of commissions you have to review between the 1st and 7th of each month.
2. If you need to pause an invoice, communicate any invoice changes or delays to your partners proactively, and keep them updated. Routinely delaying invoices can erode partner trust. We recommend following the regular payment schedule as often as possible to ensure partners know what to expect and to strengthen your relationships.
3. Regularly review your Fraud Management tab for partners with held commissions. When reviewing a partner's Fraud flag, check the information in your Fraud Management tab as well as your internal systems for signs of fraud to determine if you would like to remove the partner from your program, or mark them as trustworthy.
   1. If you mark a partner as trustworthy before the end of the month, their held commissions will return to a "pending" status and be automatically pulled onto your invoice when it is generated.
   2. If you mark a partner as trustworthy between the 1-7th and would like any previously held commissions paid out on the current invoice you can move the commissions to the invoice.
4. Provide commission decline reasons to ensure the partner understands why they didn’t qualify for the commission. This prevents them from reaching out to you later in confusion and helps them understand where to focus their efforts moving forward.