Commission Rules
Count what your partners earn before you count your profit
Creator platforms, affiliate networks and influencers are paid on the orders they drive, but that commission rarely reaches the profit report. It sits in a separate payout dashboard while every partner-driven order looks more profitable than it is. Tell MerchantFlow which Shopify order tag belongs to which partner and what they earn, and the commission comes off each order's profit and lands on your P&L as its own line.
The P&L view
Commissions as their own line, broken down by partner
Commissions sit in contribution margin beside payment fees and ad spend, so the cost of a partner-driven sale is visible at the level where you decide whether to keep paying for it. The breakdown shows each rule's orders and commission for the period.
Profit & Loss
Last 30 days
Net revenue
$86,400
Commissions
$6,181
Commissioned orders
321
Contribution margin
$29,323
Contribution margin
- Net revenue
- $86,400
- Cost of goods
- -$30,240
- Payment fees
- -$2,506
- Commissions
- -$6,181
- Ad spend
- -$18,150
- Contribution margin
- $29,323
Commissions by partner
| Rule | Orders | Commission |
|---|---|---|
Trybe Creator Commission 15% of net product revenue · trybe | 184 | $4,212.60 |
Affiliate Commission 10% of net product revenue · affiliate | 96 | $1,148.30 |
Influencer Fee $20 per order · influencer- | 41 | $820.00 |
Illustrative data - not representative of actual performance
The problem
Partner-driven orders look better than they are
A commission is a cost of the sale, just like the payment fee. When it lives outside your profit report, three things go wrong at once.
The commission never reaches the P&L
Your creator platform or affiliate app knows what you owe. Your profit report does not. Every order a partner drove shows its full margin, and the gap only appears when the payout leaves your bank account.
Manual workarounds count it twice or not at all
Logging the monthly payout as an expense puts the cost on the wrong day, spreads it across every order instead of the ones that earned it, and is easy to forget or to enter twice when two people share the books.
Refunds leave the commission behind
When a partner-driven order is refunded, most programs claw the commission back. A spreadsheet total does not, so returns quietly make your partner programs look more expensive than they really are.
What you get
Commission in every order's profit, automatically
Set a rule once and every past and future order it covers is priced for you.
Matched on the Shopify order tags you already have
Most creator and affiliate apps mark the orders they drive with a tag. Name the rule, enter the tag (or several), choose an exact match or a starts-with match for per-creator tags, and set a percentage of net product revenue or a fixed amount per order.
Refunds and cancellations adjust it for you
Percentage commissions are calculated on net product revenue: after discounts and refunds, excluding shipping and tax. A partial refund reduces the commission, a full refund or a cancellation removes it, and an order that has not been paid yet owes nothing.
Applied to your history, not just new orders
A new or edited rule is applied to every past order in its date range, and the affected order profit, customer and product figures and P&L are recalculated in the background. Preview what a rule would have charged on the last 12 months before you save it.
Never counted twice
Each rule charges an order at most once, however many matching tags it carries. When several rules match the same order, only the highest one in your list is charged, unless you mark a rule to stack on top, such as a platform fee paid alongside a creator's commission.
How it works
Three steps to profit after commissions
Connect your Shopify store
Orders sync with their tags. Tags you add or change in Shopify later are picked up on the next sync, so an order tagged after it was placed still gets its commission.
Add a rule per partner
Under Settings, choose a template for Trybe, LoudCrowd, Superfiliate, Social Snowball, UpPromote, Refersion, SATHI, affiliates or influencers, or start from scratch. Pick from the tags your recent orders actually carry, set the rate, and preview the result on your own history.
Read profit after commissions
Commissions appear as their own line in your P&L, waterfall and dashboard, with a breakdown by partner. Every order's detail page names the rule that charged it.
FAQ
Questions about commission rules
Which partner programs does this work with?
Any program whose orders you can recognise by a Shopify order tag: creator platforms such as Trybe, affiliate apps, influencer codes, ambassador programs or a wholesale agent on commission. Templates fill in the documented tag for Trybe, LoudCrowd, Superfiliate, Social Snowball, UpPromote, Refersion and SATHI. MerchantFlow does not connect to the partner platform itself; it reads the tag on the order and applies the rate you set.
How is the commission calculated?
A percentage rule charges its rate on the order's net product revenue: the subtotal after discounts, less refunds, excluding shipping. Tax is excluded by default, including on stores whose prices include tax, and a rule can be switched to a tax-inclusive basis if your agreement pays on that. A fixed rule charges the same amount for every qualifying order in your store currency.
What happens when an order is refunded or cancelled?
A partial refund reduces a percentage commission in proportion to what was refunded. A full refund or a cancellation removes the commission entirely, for both percentage and fixed rules. A fixed commission stays on a partially refunded order, because the order still qualified.
Can one order pay more than one partner?
Only if you say so. By default, when several rules match the same order, the rule highest in your list is charged and the others are not, so an order tagged both "Trybe" and "influencer" pays one partner. Mark a rule as stacking when it really is paid in addition, such as a platform fee on top of a creator's commission.
I already log commissions as an expense. What should I do?
Delete that expense once the rule is set up. The rule replaces it with a per-order figure on the right dates, and keeping both would count the same commission twice. MerchantFlow never adds commission rules to your expenses or overhead, so the rule itself can only be counted once.
Does it change my past reports?
Yes, on purpose. A rule applies to every past order in its date range, and the affected order profit and P&L are recalculated. To change a rate from a date onwards without rewriting history, give the old rule an end date and create a new rule starting the next day.
Which plans include commission rules?
Every plan. Commission rules are part of the core P&L, so the profit you see is the same whichever plan you are on.