The partner portal

What partners see, how they sign in, applications and review, branding, and per-group signup links.

Your partners get a portal of their own. It lives at yourprogram.affiliaterail.io, or at affiliates.yourdomain.com once you add a portal domain. It wears your logo and colours. Each partner sees only their own data.

Signing in

Partners sign in with a code we email them. There's no password to forget or leak.

The partner types their email and presses Email me a code.
We send a six-digit code. It works for 5 minutes.
They type or paste it. Most phones offer the code from the email with one tap.

The login page carries your branding. Reached through a group's signup link, it also shows that group's commission headline, so the pitch is right there on the door. Signing in and signing up are the same door: a new email starts an application, and a known one opens the dashboard.

When a code doesn't work:

Expired, or typed wrong three times? The page says so and moves focus to Send a new code. Only the newest code works.
Asked too often? After five codes in a row, the button counts down the wait. The wait comes from the sign-in limit, which protects inboxes, and the message above names the same time.
Wrong address? Use a different email goes back with the address still filled in.

A pasted code keeps its digits, even with spaces around it. Screen readers announce errors, and focus lands on each new step's heading.

You can also sign a partner in yourself. On their page in your dashboard, press Email them a one-click sign-in. The API can do the same, so they arrive in the portal already signed in.

Dates

Portal dates write the month as a word in the partner's language, like 3 Mar 2026. Nobody has to guess which number is the day. Every date is in UTC, the world's standard time, and each dated page says so.

Applications and review

Partners arrive in one of three ways. You choose per partner.

Add now: you already trust them. They're active straight away with a working link. The invitation email tells them what they earn and signs them in with one click. Their name and handle are filled in, and one press opens their portal.
Add to review queue: they show as pending and get no email. Their link only works once you approve them. Approving is what emails them.
Let them apply: send a group's signup link. They fill in the form, answer your questions, and land in the same queue. Once they're in, they pick their own handle.

You shape the application form under Settings, Custom fields. Add single answers, multiple choice or dropdowns, each optional or required, in your order. Answers sit on the application in the queue, so you can decide without emailing anyone first.

Deleting a field asks first. Once you confirm, new applicants stop seeing that question, but the answers people already gave stay on their applications.

Your program terms are part of signup. The partner presses Accept and carry on, and we record the time and the version they accepted.

What happens after you decide:

Declining sends your reason word for word. It starts from a default you can edit.
Suspending holds a partner's balance and stops their link tracking new referrals until you reinstate them. What they've earned is kept.
Held by a safeguard: the application waits in the queue and shows you the reason. We never refuse the applicant on our own, and never tell them which rule held them.

What partners see

Links: their main referral link first, with a Copy link button. Then their earnings with a link to the next payout, one setup step if any are left, their campaign links and their recent referrals.
Referrals: each referral's path from visit to paying customer, including how it was credited (link, coupon, manual or API). So they never have to take tracking on trust. Money from a test payment stays on the list, marked test, with a line saying it's never paid. It's left out of earnings, reports and payouts, so you and the partner see the same total.
Reports: their results over time, with no cap.
Resources: whatever you publish for them, limited by group and tag.
Payouts: their next payment and what it's waiting on, then what's been paid and what's coming. Each condition says who has to act, the partner or you, and where.
Settings: their payout method, their tax form when you need one, email preferences, and postbacks. A postback sends events to the partner's own server, if they want that.

Referrals and payout history come 50 at a time. Each list shows how many records there are, with Newer and Older links, so the oldest record is always within reach. Open one and go back, and you land on the same page.

Some pages depend on your choices. Say your plan has no partner invoices, or you've turned manual leads off. That page tells the partner plainly, with no button and no upgrade prompt, because only you can change it. Past lead submissions stay visible.

Choosing a payout method

The methods on offer are whichever of these your program pays by: PayPal, a bank account through Wise, Payoneer, bank transfer or wire. Crypto isn't one you can offer.

The partner picks a method and presses Use this method.
They fill in the details and press Check these details.
They review and press Save and use for payouts.

After saving, they see what was saved and a reminder: it changes where money goes, not when.

We check bank details as the partner types them. A typo shows as an error on their screen, instead of a failed payout three days later.

When you require a tax form, the partner starts it with Start Form W-9, or the W-8 form the portal picked for them.

Finding every page on a phone

On a phone, Links, Referrals and Payouts sit in view under the header.

More opens Leads, Reports, Resources and Settings.
On one of those pages, More is highlighted and says which page is open.
Opening More moves focus to its first link. Escape closes it.

On a wider screen, all seven pages show in one row.

Why a payment is waiting

The Payouts page starts with the next payment: the amount, the expected date and the words "Not paid yet". Under that sits a short list:

Payout method: set, missing, or no longer offered by your program.
Tax form: shown only when you require one.
Minimum: over it, under it (the money rolls into a later payment), or nothing due.
Last payout: shown only when it failed. It's the partner's to fix only when the payment couldn't reach the details they gave. Funding and your payout account are yours, so the partner is told you need to act.

Each open item carries a label, Needs you or Needs plus your product name. When the partner can make the fix, there's a link to it.

A line under the list sets expectations. Fixing a step meets one condition, but the money still waits for the payout date, the minimum and a method that can take it. The forecast for the payment after that is marked "Not paid yet" too.

Removing a campaign link

On Links, press Remove beside a campaign link.
The confirmation says which link leaves the list and what happens to its referrals.
Confirm, or press Keep it.

Keep it gets keyboard focus first. Tab and Shift+Tab stay inside the confirmation. Escape or a tap outside closes it before anything is removed.

While removal runs, the confirmation stays open and its buttons wait. When it's done, the list updates or shows an error. Earnings and customers stay with the partner, and URLs they already shared keep working.

Copying links and resources

Copied only shows once the browser confirms the copy. If copying fails, the control shows an instruction and a text field with the full link, message or banner code.

Focus stays on the button.
Tab to the text field to select its contents, then use your device's Copy command.
Or press the button again.

Getting started, on their first screen

Every partner sees their referral link first. Its copy button sits on the first screen, on a phone or a laptop, before anything else asks for attention. Next come earnings, one current setup step, campaign links and recent referrals. Same order, every time.

See all steps opens the full list. It starts with sharing the link, then any resources, payout details or tax form that apply to this partner in your program. It's ordered to get one share out of the door first, so the payout method comes after.

How the steps are worked out

We store nothing about these steps. Each one is worked out from real rows every time the page loads.

"Share it once" ticks on a real click, not on a copy button.
"Choose how you're paid" opens again if the partner deletes their only method.

Steps that don't apply stay hidden:

The resources step shows only when you've published resources this partner can see.
The tax step shows only when your program requires a form.

Home shows one open step at a time. The prompt goes once the partner has shared and can be paid, so a working partner never sees onboarding again. If real earnings can't be paid, the payout fix takes its place and says what the partner needs to do.

Set your logo and three colours in Settings, Branding, beside a live preview of the portal. Each colour is named after where it shows up:

Header and sign-in background: the band on the sign-in page, the portal header and each partner's landing page.
Landing page button: the button on each partner's landing page.
Text on your colours: the words on that background and that button.

To set them:

Upload a logo. It shows as a thumbnail on a chequerboard, so you can spot a white logo that would vanish on a dark portal.
Pick the colours. The preview follows what you type. Colours save when you press Save branding. An uploaded logo saves itself.
Switch the preview between Sign-in page, Portal header and Partner landing page. Then try Phone.

You never have to become your own affiliate to check your branding, and the getting started step shows the sign-in page in a smaller frame too.

Your button colour isn't on the sign-in page. It goes on the landing page each partner shares, so that preview mode is the one that shows it. The sign-in button is the same on every portal.

Each group can carry its own commission headline and landing URL.

Contrast

Under the preview, a contrast line says how readable your text colour is on your background and on your button. Contrast is how different two colours look, written as a ratio like 4.5:1, and bigger is easier to read. The portal needs 4.5:1.

Fall short and the line names the surface and its ratio.
The portal then shows ink or white text there instead, so no partner meets a sign-in page they can't read.
Your saved colours stay exactly as you set them.

The portal shows a small "Powered by AffiliateRail" line by default. On Scale and Enterprise you can switch it off under Settings, Branding. Downgrade and it comes back. The preview shows the line exactly when your plan and your switch say it will.

That line can pay you. Join our affiliate program and it carries your own referral link, so a founder who signs up to AffiliateRail through it earns you 40% of what they pay us, every month, for as long as they stay. The button is on the same Branding page, just above the switch.

Until you join, the line is only a link to us and earns nothing. Joining starts the clock: it pays on signups from that day, not on ones before it. See what the badge pays.

A new program's portal wears neutral dark-on-light colours until you brand it. It never wears our brand, because the portal is yours.