Your finance team needs to close the books on Friday. An affiliate is asking when they'll get paid. You ran a special promotion and want to reward participants immediately. These are real situations where waiting for the automatic payout schedule doesn't work.
Manual payout generation lets you pay affiliates on your timeline, not the system's.
When You'll Use This
Closing the books: Your accountant needs affiliate payouts processed by month-end or quarter-end, regardless of when the automatic schedule runs.
Responding to affiliate requests: An affiliate reaches out asking about their earnings. Instead of explaining the schedule, just generate their payout and tell them it's done.
Special promotions: You ran a holiday campaign or special event and want to reward those affiliates right away - good for motivation and relationship building.
Cleaning up small balances: Some affiliates have $20 or $30 sitting there, below your threshold. Clear it out to simplify your books, even if they haven't hit the minimum.
One-time situations: A departing affiliate needs their final payment. A manual adjustment needs to go out. Someone asks for an exception. Handle it in seconds.
How to Generate Manual Payouts
Navigate to Upcoming Payments
Go to Payments > Upcoming in your dashboard. Click "Generate Manual Payouts" at the top.
Pick Your Date Range
Select the time period you want to process. The form starts with last month's dates, but you can adjust to any range - last week, last quarter, specific campaign dates, whatever you need.
Choose Who Gets Paid
- All affiliates: Everyone with eligible commissions in that date range
- Single affiliate: Search for and select one specific affiliate
Override the Minimum (Optional)
Toggle this on if you want to pay affiliates who haven't reached your normal threshold. Useful for final payments or clearing small balances.
Click Generate
That's it. The system starts processing in the background. Close the window and go back to work - you'll see the results under Payments > Pending when it's done.
What Happens Next
Once the processing completes:
- Open payouts appear under Payments > Pending
- Affiliates see that payment is being processed
- You can review, send payments manually, or export for accounting
The system uses the same financial logic as automatic payouts - no duplicate payments, proper invoice numbering, same accuracy you'd expect.
Common Questions
How long does it take?
Depends on how many affiliates and transactions. A handful of affiliates? Seconds. A hundred affiliates with lots of transactions? A few minutes. Either way, it runs in the background so you don't have to wait around.
What if an affiliate doesn't have approved commissions?
They won't get a payout. Only commissions that have passed the hold period and are approved get included. Same rules as automatic payouts.
Can I generate payouts for the same date range twice?
The system won't create duplicate payouts. If commissions are already associated with an existing payout, they're skipped.
What if I need to cancel or redo it?
Once generated, you'll find the payouts under Pending. You can review them there before actually sending payments. If something's wrong, contact support - they can help sort it out.
Need help? Contact support if you run into issues or have questions about your specific situation.
