The life of one cashback order
Everything else in this guide assumes this page. It is worth ten minutes.
Follow one purchase from a member clicking a link to money leaving your bank account.
Member clicks → buys at the shop → network reports the sale
↓
order arrives, PENDING
↓
network approves it
↓
cashback becomes AVAILABLE
↓
member requests a payout
↓
you pay them yourself
↓
marked PAID1. The member clicks
A logged-in member opens one of your shop pages and presses Go to shop.
They land on the merchant's site. The link they followed carried a hidden tag that says, in effect, "this visitor is member 412 on this site". The affiliate network stores that tag against whatever happens next.
That tag is the whole mechanism. It is why a member has to be logged in for cashback to work, and why a member who clears cookies between clicking and buying may not get credited — that part is the network's business, not the plugin's.
There is no record on your site at this point. Nothing is saved when someone clicks. The plugin first hears about a member's purchase when the network reports the sale, which can be hours later.
2. The network reports the sale
Some time after the purchase — usually hours, sometimes a day or two — the network says a sale happened, for how much, and against which tag.
That reaches you one of two ways:
On a schedule. The plugin asks each network for new orders regularly.
Immediately, if you have set up postbacks. The network pushes the sale to your site the moment it happens.
Either way it lands in Cashback Tracker → Orders.
3. The order arrives pending
The plugin reads the tag, works out which member it belongs to, applies your cashback rate to the commission, and records the member's share.
It is pending. The member can see it in their account — which matters, because otherwise they assume tracking failed — but they cannot request it yet.
Pending is honest, not cautious: the network has not paid you either. Purchases get returned, orders get cancelled, and a network can decline a sale weeks after reporting it.
4. The network approves it
Networks validate on their own timetable, typically 30 to 90 days — long enough for the shop's returns window to close.
When approval arrives, the member's cashback moves from pending to available, and they can request a payout.
If you have set a holding period, the move happens that many days after approval instead. See Order statuses and the holding period.
If the network declines instead, the cashback is removed. The order stays visible so both of you can see what happened.
5. The member requests a payout
Once their available balance passes the minimum you set, a member can request payment from their account page, choosing a method you have offered.
The request appears in Cashback Tracker → Payouts. Their available balance drops straight away, so the same money cannot be requested twice.
6. You pay them
This is the step the plugin does not do. It never holds or moves money.
You send the payment yourself — PayPal, bank transfer, gift card, whatever you have agreed — and then mark the request paid. See Handling a payout request and What the plugin never does.
Where to watch each stage
Sale reported
Orders
Pending or approved
Orders, and the member's own account page
Member balances
Members
Payout requested
Payouts
Something went wrong
Logs
How long all of this takes
For a typical purchase, from click to money in the member's hands:
Click to reported sale
hours, or seconds with postbacks
Reported to approved
30–90 days, set by the network
Approved to available
immediate, unless you set a holding period
Requested to paid
however long you take
Two months from click to payout is normal, and almost all of it is the network's validation. Say so on your site — it is the single most common member complaint, and it is entirely avoidable by setting the expectation early.
Last updated