Program setup

The getting started checklist, the settings page, groups and tags, and customer auto-enrolment.

Your program works the moment signup finishes. Getting started takes it from working to yours, in eight steps.

The steps sit in a row of eight numbered stops, with the one you're on open underneath.
The first is done when you arrive.
A done stop turns green with a tick and stays put.
Tap any stop to read that step, in any order.
When a step lands, even one you finished elsewhere like Stripe, it gets a stamp and the next step slides in.

The eight steps

Your commission rule. It's ticked when you arrive. A commission rule decides what a partner earns. Every program starts with 20% of every payment from a referred customer, approved as soon as the sale clears. The step's title shows the rate your rule pays today. Press Change it to change the rate, make it one-time or add tiers. See Commission rules.
Connect Stripe or Paddle. We read your checkouts and invoices to credit sales to partners, and we write nothing.
- Stripe's screen lists eight read permissions and no write permission. The button installs our Stripe app, which can only read.
- Each Stripe account feeds one program, so every sale lands in the right place. Pick an account another program already uses and we send you back with a note and change nothing.
- Done when the step names Stripe Connect, the Stripe App or Paddle, and says it's verified. The quickstart and the Paddle guide cover each path.
Open your own partner portal. Press Send me my link. We add you as an active partner and email you a sign-in link.
- The step says whether the email went, and shows your own partner link with a copy button.
- If the email fails, you stay a partner. The step offers Retry email and the portal sign-in page.
- The next step clicks this link, which is why it comes first.
Put the tag on your site. The tag is one line of code that notes which partner sent each visitor. The step shows it with a copy symbol, plus a field to email it to whoever runs your site.
- One tag covers your domain, www and every subdomain, including your app.
- While the step is open it listens for a real click. It can check your page too, even before Stripe is connected.
- Done when the step says Click received. See Attribution and tracking.
Make a test sale. Open your site through your own link. Pay in Stripe test mode or the Paddle sandbox. One sale is enough.
- Done when that sale is credited to a partner and its commission exists.
- Test sales stay visible and marked as tests. They never count toward revenue, balances or payouts.
- Follow the Stripe test-sale steps or the Paddle sandbox setup.
Invite your first partner. The step carries your signup link with a copy button. Send it to one person today. They sign up, pick a handle and get their own link. To add someone by email instead, press Open Partners.
Make the portal yours. Add your logo and colours, with a live preview beside the form. Your partners see this page, not ours. Press Open Branding for the full settings.
Put the portal on your own domain (optional). Use affiliates.yourdomain.com instead of the default address. Pick a name nothing else uses. If app.yourdomain.com is your product, don't use it. Press Open Domains, and see Links and domains.

Switching tools? The link under the steps opens Import.

We read every step from live data, so a step you finish through the API or a settings page ticks itself. Delete your only commission rule and step 1 opens again, which keeps the tick honest. The click and the sale are separate checks, because a received click proves tracking only.

Home reads four of the same milestones: payment connected, a click tracked, a test sale credited, and a partner from outside your team. Until all four land, one Next step card sits above the totals.

It asks for whichever comes next. Only one shows at a time.
It shows how many of the eight steps are done, with See all steps to open Getting started.
It leaves once all four are proved.

Your first live sale or real click clears the sample data for you and locks the switch. Home then says "Your first real sale landed. Sample data is off." (or "click") until you press Hide this. A test-mode sale alone doesn't clear it. Until then, you can clear the example rows and bring them back from the Sample data switch.

Settings

Everything you can change lives on one Settings page. The big heading names the section you have open, like Branding or API keys, with your program's name above it. On a phone, a menu at the top switches sections.

There are four groups:

Program: program details, branding, domains, connections, sample data and import.
Partners: groups, tags, custom fields, safeguards, attribution and commissions.
Account: team access, billing and security.
Developers: API keys, webhooks, Zapier and data requests.

Here are the sections that shape money and tracking.

Program

Program name, business name and website.
Where referral links send people.
Your default portal address. It stays with the program for good, even if you add your own domain later.
Currency. Support can change it until the program records money. After that, it's fixed.
Program terms: a URL and a version label. Partners accept them at signup. We record when, and which version, so you have a record of what each partner agreed to.

Branding

The portal's logo and its three colours, each named after where it shows up. A preview shows the sign-in page, the portal header and a partner's landing page, at desktop or phone width. Branding and the footer explains each colour and the contrast line.

The "Powered by AffiliateRail" switch sits under the colours. The badge is on for every program. On Scale and Enterprise you can turn it off here. Getting started edits the same fields, with the same live preview.

Saving Program and Branding

These two forms compare what's on screen with what you last saved. Unsaved changes shows as soon as you edit a value. The save button stays unavailable while there's nothing new to save.

A line beside each button says what it saves:

Save program: the name, business name, website and terms.
Save, under the field for where referral links send people. That address has its own button because it belongs to your default group.
Save branding: the colours, the logo address and the powered-by switch. An uploaded logo saves itself.

The button reads Saving… while it works. Then Saved shows, and the comparison starts again from what you saved.

Follow another link with unsaved changes and you get a choice. Press Keep editing to stay, or Discard to leave without saving. Reloading or closing the tab shows your browser's own warning. A failed save keeps every field, so you can fix a refusal or check an uncertain result.

Connections

The tracking tag, ready to copy, and the connection to whoever bills your customers, Stripe or Paddle. You need both. The script finds the partner, and Stripe or Paddle sees the sale. See Attribution and tracking.

The Stripe and Paddle cards each open with three short rows:

Status: connected, not verified, quiet or not connected.
Last check: when the last payment event arrived.
Next: what to do, or "Nothing to do".

A connection with no events for more than three days says so. The sending domain under Messaging and each webhook endpoint use the same three rows.

Getting started reads the same processor state as this section. Stripe Connect and the Stripe App are verified once you finish their sign-in round trip. Paddle is ready only after its saved connection passes a verification. A saved Paddle connection that isn't verified stays open for checking, and never sends you towards Stripe.

Attribution

Cookie window: how long a click keeps the credit, 60 days by default. Inside it, the first partner to send the visitor wins.
Link parameters: the word in the link that carries the partner's handle. It's ref by default, so links read yoursite.com/?ref=handle.
An optional program-wide coupon code.
Two portal switches: whether partners can make custom links, and whether links show in the portal at all. Coupon-only programs hide them.

We also capture the parameters other affiliate platforms use, on top of yours. So links published before you moved here keep converting.

Commissions

The defaults every commission rule starts from:

Commission on revenue net of tax (on by default). Tax you collect and pass on comes off before the rate applies.
Partial refunds take back the same share (off by default). A 10% refund takes 10% off the commission. Off, any refund removes the whole commission. Concepts has a worked example.
Holding period (14 days by default). Commissions wait this long before they can be paid. It's your buffer for refunds.
Minimum payout: 20.00 in your program's currency by default, like $20.00 or £20.00. Smaller balances roll into the next payout. You can set a different minimum for one partner.
Payout term: NET-15, NET-30 or NET-60. It's how long after a period closes its payouts go out.

Sample data

The switch clears the example partners and sales, or brings them back. It locks off for good once a real partner joins, or your first live sale or real click lands. The quickstart says what the sample rows are.

The remaining settings

Separate guides cover Safeguards and risk, the application form and Links and domains. Groups and tags are below.

Finding things

Search sits at the top of the left-hand menu, or press ⌘K (Ctrl-K on Windows), and type what you're after in plain words. For example, "logo" opens Branding and a partner's name opens their page.

The menu has eleven entries. A few pages sit on tabs instead:

Leads, under Partners.
Tax forms, under Payouts.
Attribution and Risk, under Reports.

With the keyboard:

The cursor starts in the search box.
Up and down arrows pick a result. Enter opens it, or click it.
Tab and Shift+Tab move between the box and Close, and the rest of the page waits.
Escape or Close shuts search and puts focus back on the Search button.

Pages and settings show up as you type. People take longer. Until partners and customers load, search says it's still looking rather than showing no matches, and if they can't be searched right then, it tells you so, even when pages matched. Change the search to try again.

Groups and tags

A group is a tier of partners with its own commission terms. For example: "agencies get 30%, everyone else 20%". Each group carries:

a commission headline, shown on its portal login page
a landing URL
an optional manual-review rule
its own signup link (/join/its-slug on your portal)

Send that link to the people you want in the tier. They land in it on their own, with its commission rules and its review rule. You never sort partners by hand.

A tag is a label you stick on partners so you can find them again. For example: "YouTube", "agency", "met at a conference". Filter the partner list by tag, or send a campaign to everyone carrying one. A tag never changes what a partner earns. It can still scope a commission rule, a campaign, a notification or a resource.

Enrolling paying customers as partners

Your happy customers can become referrers on their own. Open Settings, Program and find the Enrol paying customers as partners panel.

When it's on, a customer's first payment also makes them a partner. No application, and a link ready to share.
They land in their own group, named "Customers" by default. So they never share a rate or a leaderboard with your professional affiliates.
Turning it off enrols nobody further and removes nobody.
It's on every plan.

Keyboard and touch controls

Use Tab to move between controls and Shift+Tab to move back. Shared form controls show an ink focus outline with a white separator. Press Space to change a focused switch or checkbox. A switch shows its state by where its thumb sits: right for on, left for off.

In Safari, turn on "Press Tab to highlight each item on a web page" in Advanced settings to reach buttons and links. Apple explains the keyboard shortcuts.

Buttons can grow to fit a long label. Compact shared controls keep the normal touch area, including the space around the visible switch track or checkbox.

Reading Home and Reports

Home keeps what you owe apart from how you did over a period.

Owed now

Owed now is the current total of approved and due commissions that aren't paid. Its As of date says when we read that total, so you know how fresh it is. Dates never change it.

Home splits it in two:

Due commissions have matured and can be paid. The link opens Commissions filtered to Due.
Approved commissions are approved but still inside the holding period. The link opens the list filtered to Approved.

Owed now isn't what your next payout sends, because a payout batch only pays due commissions, and only to partners who can be paid. So the batch is often smaller. For example, a partner with no payout method still counts toward Owed now, but their payout waits. Open Payouts to see the batch.

When something needs you, a short Needs your attention list shows under the totals. It holds three items at most, most urgent first:

failed payouts, which open Payouts filtered to Failed
payouts that can't be paid, filtered to Not eligible, where each one says what's missing
open risk flags, filtered to Open. A flag is a reason to look. It doesn't prove fraud.
applications waiting, which open Partners filtered to Pending

Sample data never adds to the list. Nothing waiting? Then there's no list. While sample data is on, the Owed now and Performance groups carry a Sample data label, so example money never looks like yours.

Performance

The four performance cards say which range they cover. Choose All time, This month or Last 30 days, or enter dates. The address updates with the range, so a copied link, a refresh, Back or Forward all return the same view.

Revenue from affiliates counts live sales credited to a partner, after tax, leaving out refunded sales and test sales. It uses the range you picked.

Customers counts direct and referred customers with a trial or active status, created in the range. The leads count includes approved leads.

Recent activity lists sales in the range, direct sales and test sales included. It's a sales history, not a breakdown of the affiliate revenue total.

Each row names the customer and the partner who referred them. Both names open their pages.
No partner? It says Direct sale. A test sale carries a Test label.
Dates are UTC. For the exact time, hover over the date or read it with a screen reader.
When a customer or partner is deleted, the sale stays but their name goes.

Names under Top partners open each partner's page too.

Reports

Reports includes direct and credited revenue. Choose the partner breakdown to see revenue with no partner in the Direct row. For example, $100 in direct sales and $40 in referred sales shows $40 in Home's affiliate revenue and $140 in Reports, before tax or refunds.

The report chart scales to fit both revenue and commissions. A fixed commission can sit above its sale, and a negative commission adjustment shows below zero instead of falling off the chart. Date labels follow the daily, weekly or monthly interval you choose. On a phone, scroll the chart sideways to keep its labels readable. The table under it lists every period, amount and count, with no hovering needed.

When a save can't be confirmed

A settings or messaging form may say Couldn't confirm the result. Keep that tab open. Your input stays, and we don't retry the action for you.

The server may have finished before the response got lost. So check before you submit again:

Open the same settings page or list in another tab.
Look at what's there now.
If your change is already there, don't repeat it.

Take extra care with creating records, sending messages and payouts, where a second request can have a second effect. If you can't tell what happened, contact support before you try again.

A specific refusal, like a name already in use, shows in the same place. Fix the field and submit again.

Forms you can press again

Some forms send a hidden key with each request. On these, press again. If the first try went through, you get back what it made, never a second copy. That holds until you reload the page.

Publishing a notification.
The first save of a new sequence.
Adding a custom field to the application form.
Creating an API key. Pressing again never makes a second key. The secret was only in the reply that got lost, so you'll see the key's first characters instead. Revoke that key if you didn't copy it, then create another.
Adding a webhook endpoint, so your server never gets every event twice.
Sending a test webhook event, replaying deliveries, and Send me a test on an email template. Pressing again tells you what the first press did and sends nothing new. If we can't confirm an earlier send, we tell you to check first, and the next press sends a fresh one.

Changed the form in between? We tell you the earlier try already went through, and save nothing new. Reload to see it. If it was deleted since, the form says so.

Copying text from the dashboard

A copy control only says it worked once the browser accepts the text. If copying fails, a text field appears with instructions for copying by hand. Tab to the field to select all of it, then use your device's Copy command.

This works for signup and portal links, a partner's own referral link, group links, commission explanations, AI setup prompts and backup codes. You can also read the AI prompt through Read it first.