Payout Period Configuration
Payout configurations allow Admins to specify when NATS will build payments. This article describes how to configure your default payout period, as well as set up multiple payout periods (if desired).
Default payout period
By default, NATS has one payout period enabled for all affiliates, which will payout on the 1st and the 16th of each month. (When first installed, NATS sets the default payout period to be "1,16", which means NATS will build payments on the 1st and 16th of the month).
If you have not set up your default payout period already, you can modify the configuration of your default payout period as follows:
1) Click the Payments Admin link
2) Click the "Payout Periods" tab
3) You will see the "Twice a Month" default payout period, with a sole action icon on the far right - a pencil icon to edit the configuration. If you would like to change this configuration, then click the pencil icon.
4) Now you can set the payout description, configuration, delay, projections, and projection padding. The description field is just whatever text you wish to use to describe this payout. The payout delay, is the number of periods that the payments are delayed, which is used to provide time to account for refunds in Affiliates' payouts. The configuration field:
Payouts can be configured in one of four ways: Once a month, multiple times a month, weekly, or every number of days
- Once a month is set by setting the configuration to a value from One (1) to Twenty Eight (28).
- Multiple times a month is set by setting the days you wish NATS to build payments separated by a comma where "1,11,21" will build payments on the First, Eleventh, and Twenty First.
- Weekly is set as a "w0" through "w6" where the "0" represents Sunday and "6" represents Saturday.
- Setting the payouts to build every number of days is achieved by setting a value of "d" and the number of days NATS should build payments, "d5" would build payments every 5 days and can be set with possible values of One (1) to Ninety Nine (99).
Projection and projection padding are used to estimate in advance the total amount that you will have to pay to your affiliates (i.e. may be helpful to make sure you have enough funds on hand to pay all of your affiliates when their payments are built). Delay is the number of periods to delay payout calculation for (between 0 and 10).
5) When you are finished, click the "Save" button.
Additional payout periods
As mentioned above, by default, all affiliates will use the same payout periods.
However, you can add additional payout periods that are specific to certain affiliates. To do so:
1) Click the Payments Admin link
2) Click the "Payout Periods" tab
3) Below the default payout period configuration, will be an area for you to add a "New Payout Period Description:" To add a new payout period, fill out the text box at the bottom of the table labeled "New Payout Period Description". Just type in whatever name you wish to call the new payout period and click the "Add" button.
4) Now you will add the desired values for this payout period, the same way as you did for the default payout period. Once the new payout period is created, you can set the payout description, configuration, delay, projections, projection padding, and also whether the payout period is enabled or not. Unlike the default payout period, you can set the "Enabled" checkbox, which allows Admins to assign that payout period to one or more specific affiliates. Lastly, you can also make this new payout period become the default, if desired. When you are finished, click the "Save" button.
5) If you wish to create more than one additional payout period, repeat steps 3 and 4 above.
6) Once the payout periods are set, Admins can choose which payout period is to be used by default when Affiliates sign up. Admins may also set specific Affiliates to use a payout by either setting the list of enabled Affiliates in the Payments Admin or the Affiliate's payout period in the Affiliates Admin.
7) Now you will see 3 additional action icons that do not exist for the default payout period (which only has the pencil "edit" action icon).
8) Going from left to right, the first additional action icon is the one to List & Modify Enabled Affiliates - this works the same way here as it does in your programs admin, simply add the affiliates you wish to be in this payout period, and for these specific affiliates, this payout period will override the default payout period.
9) The next additional action icon is the one to change this one to become the default payout period instead of the previous one. (If you were to click this, now this additional action icon would appear on the previous one and disappear from this one. This is because this payout period would now become the default, and the action icon would now have to appear on the other payout period instead, so that you could later choose that payout period again to be selected as the default payout period once again).
10) The last additional action icon is the one to delete this payout period - note that you need at least one payout period (i.e. the default payout period), so you can not delete all payout periods.
Note: If you have multiple payout periods configured, affiliates can be assigned to a different payout period from either this link in the Payments Admin, or also from the Affiliates Admin (Set Affiliate Payout Period, under Actions).
