# Intro to Affiliates Spiffy makes it extremely easy to run your entire affiliate program. Everything from affiliate registration, to commission tracking, to organizing payouts, and an Affiliate Portal where your affiliates can access their unique tracking links and performance dashboard. ## Table of Contents - [Create Your Affiliate Program](#create-your-affiliate-program) - [Commission Percentages & Overrides](#commission-percentages-amp-overrides) - [Add Affiliates to Your Program](#add-affiliates-to-your-program) - [Tracking Links](#tracking-links) - [Paying Affiliates](#paying-affiliates) ## Create Your Affiliate Program In the left navigation menu, go to **Affiliates** > **Programs** > **Create New Affiliate Program**. Give your New Affiliate Program a name, input your default commissions for _Standard Items_ and _Subscription Items_, and select **_Add New_.** You can edit the default commissions of a program after it’s created by clicking on the **_Edit Program_** button at the top of the program dashboard. **Standard Items include:** - Single Products - Custom Line Items These can be Single-Pay or Payment Plans **Payment Plan Commissions:** Commissions are calculated on the base line item amount. By default, commissions are not paid on finance fees. If you want commission to be paid on finance fees, use the [Track Affiliate Commission](https://university.spiffy.co/elements/payment-plans.md#track-affiliate-commission-on-finance-fee) checkbox on the payment plan in the checkout editor. Commission Payouts are calculated on cash collected as payments are made. **Subscription Items include:** - Subscriptions **Subscription Commissions:** If you want to set different commissions for monthly vs annual plans, you will be able to set an override on a specific plan with a commission override (see below). In the default commission settings, just set the lowest base commission. **Once you’ve set up your default commissions, now you’re ready to:** - Assign Products and Subscriptions - Assign Checkouts (optional) - Create Links - Add Affiliates ### Assign **Products** **and Subscriptions** Using Single Products and Subscriptions is the easiest way to set up your Affiliate Program. When you assign a Product or Subscription to your Program, all checkouts using that Product or Subscription will automatically have commissions calculated. This includes anywhere they appear on your checkouts (eg: main offer, addon, upsell, etc). ### Assign **Checkouts (optional)** Assigning individual Checkouts to your Affiliate Program is more advanced. This is only needed if you’re not using Products and Subscriptions, or have custom line items on specific checkouts that you want to pay commissions for. In these cases, there are a couple of steps that you will need to take: 1. **Assign Checkouts** to your _Affiliate Program_ 2. Set individual checkout items as _**Commissionable**_ from within the Affiliate Program. Marking individual items as commissionable gives you the flexibility to track and pay commissions on certain items and not others on the Checkout. example You can pay commissions on sales of the main offer, but not pay commissions on the checkbox addon, or upsells in the Flow. ## Commission Percentages & Overrides When creating your Affiliate Program you will be prompted to setup the **_default commissions_** for Standard Items _(Single Products and Line Items)_ and Subscriptions, based on percentage. Once you add _Single Products_, _Subscription Plans_, and/or _Checkouts_ to your Program, you can click on an individual _Product_, _Sub Plan_, or _Checkout_ and create an override commission rate exclusive to that specific _Product_, _Sub Plan_, or _Checkout_. **Pro Tip:** Plan-Specific overrides for subscriptions can especially come in handy, as you may want to pay out different rates, or number of payments for Monthly vs. Annual Subscriptions that are purchased by referrals. [Learn more about Affiliate Commission Payouts.](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-commission-payouts.md) ### Flat Rate Commission If you want to offer a flat rate commission, simply turn on the **Per-Order Commission** toggle in the Affiliate Program Settings and enter a flat dollar amount to be applied for each order. Per-Order Commission is calculated in addition to the percentages for Standard Items and Subscription Items. If you want to offer ONLY flat rate commission, make sure the percentages for Standard and Subscription Items are set to zero. ## Add Affiliates to Your Program If you have a default affiliate program set, you can automatically register and add new affiliates to your Affiliate Program by directing affiliates to signup for your program with the Affiliate Registration form. [Learn more about Affiliate Registration.](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-registration.md) Affiliates can also be [manually added to programs](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-program-setup.md#adding-affiliates). ## Tracking Links You can setup tracking links that your affiliates can access through the Affiliate Portal. Your affiliates can login and obtain any links you have set to **_Show in Portal_** for any Affiliate Program they are assigned to. If you choose not to show a link within the Affiliate Portal, you will need to send this link to your Affiliate directly for access. You can find more information for links on the [Affiliate Program Setup](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-program-setup.md). ## Paying Affiliates When the time comes to pay your affiliates, you can retrieve and export commission data for your affiliates from Spiffy. This report shows you how much you need to pay each of your affiliates. Payment will be done in another system (ex: PayPal). Once payment is completed, you can mark your each of your affiliates as PAID in Spiffy! Spiffy does not process any commission payout transactions. All commission payments must be processed in your third party payment system (ex: PayPal, Venmo, Check, Zelle, etc). Spiffy will provide the commission payout reporting and enable you to mark commissions as Paid in Spiffy once you have sent payment via your 3rd party payment provider. Make sure to check out more details and Pro Tips for the - [Affiliate Portal](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-portal.md) - [Registration](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-registration.md) - [Program Setup](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-program-setup.md) - [Commission Payouts](https://university.spiffy.co/affiliates/affiliate-commission-payouts.md) - [Affiliate Performance Report](https://university.spiffy.co/reporting-analytics/reports/affiliate-performance-report.md)