AffiliateWP automatically assigns a status to every referral that is generated on your site. Understanding these statuses helps you manage and track the lifecycle of each referral from creation to payout.
In this guide, you’ll learn what each referral status means, how statuses change based on affiliate activity or order status, and how AffiliateWP interacts with your eCommerce platform to manage these transitions.
What Are Referral Statuses?
Referral statuses help define the state of a referral at any given point. Whether an affiliate has just referred a sale or you’ve completed a payout, each referral is labeled to reflect its current stage in the payment process.
Available Referral Statuses
There are four primary referral statuses in AffiliateWP:
- Pending – The referral has been generated but is not yet confirmed.
- Unpaid – The referral has been confirmed and is awaiting payout.
- Rejected – The referral has been rejected and will not be paid.
- Paid – The referral has been successfully paid.
All referrals begin with a status of Pending. This means the referral is awaiting confirmation—typically based on the completion of a purchase or signup in your connected eCommerce or membership platform.
Once an order or signup is marked as complete, the referral status is updated to Unpaid. At this stage, the referral is considered valid and ready to be included in a future payout to the affiliate.
After a referral is included in a payout and payment is processed, its status becomes Paid, indicating that the affiliate has been compensated.
Managing Referral Rejections
A referral may be marked as Rejected if the associated order is refunded, canceled, or deleted. AffiliateWP includes an automated setting to handle this:
To configure automatic rejections:
- Go to AffiliateWP » Settings » Commissions
- Enable the option to Automatically reject referrals for refunded or deleted orders
If this setting is enabled and a connected order is refunded or deleted, the corresponding referral will automatically be marked as Rejected. If your integration does not support this automation, rejections must be handled manually by an administrator.
Reporting and Visibility
Referral statuses also determine what appears in reporting and affiliate dashboards. Once a referral moves to Unpaid or Paid, it becomes visible in both admin reports and the affiliate’s referral list.
Referrals in a Pending state:
- Do not count toward earnings or conversion metrics
- Will not appear in the affiliate’s dashboard
- Are excluded from all reporting statistics until confirmed
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I manually change the status of a referral?
Yes. Referral statuses can be manually updated from the AffiliateWP » Referrals screen by clicking into an individual referral and selecting a new status from the dropdown.
Why is a referral stuck in Pending?
This usually means the connected order has not yet been completed. Check your eCommerce platform to confirm the order status, and verify that your integration is properly configured to update referrals automatically.