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Every reward amount can be traced back to a reason. When you want to know why an affiliate earned exactly what they did — or a number looks wrong and you want to check it — Referly can show you the full working behind it, step by step. This page shows where to find that trace and how to read it.

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Open a reward’s calculation

From your Rewards list, select the reward you want to look at. Its detail panel opens with two tabs: Details and Calculation. Start on Details to see the context around the reward:
  • Date — when it was recorded.
  • Type — whether it came from a Sign Up, a Purchase, or a Bonus.
  • Commission Plan — the plan whose terms set the amount. If the affiliate is on your baseline terms, this reads Base Plan.
  • Revenue — the value of the sale the reward is based on.
The side panel shows the reward amount itself, the affiliate who earned it, and its payout status. Together these tell you what the reward is; the Calculation tab tells you how it got there.

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Read the calculation steps

Open the Calculation tab. Referly lays out how the amount was worked out as a timeline you read top to bottom. Each step names one thing that was checked — the plan that applied, the rate it used, any rule or condition that was met — along with the outcome of that check. The last step, Final Commission, is highlighted in green and shows the amount the affiliate ended up earning. Reading down the steps, you can see the path from the sale to the final figure: which plan applied, whether the reward was a percentage of the sale or a flat amount, and whether any product-specific or conditional rule changed the result. If a reward wasn’t given at all, the trace explains why — for example, a rule that wasn’t met or a sale that didn’t qualify.

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What shapes the amount

The steps you see reflect how you set up the affiliate’s commission plan. Any of these can play a part:
  • The rate — a percentage of the sale, or a flat amount per sale.
  • One-time or recurring — whether the affiliate earns once, or on repeat payments from the same customer.
  • Product-based amounts — a different reward for different products, so the item bought changes the figure.
  • Conditional rules — rules that only pay, or pay more, when a condition is met, such as the order value, the product, or the coupon used.
  • Multi-level commissions — when you run multi-level commissions, a step can show a reward passed up to an affiliate who recruited the one who made the sale.
If the amount surprises you, the trace usually points straight to the setting responsible, so you know exactly which part of the plan to adjust.

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When no calculation is shown

Some rewards don’t have a trace to show. If you open the Calculation tab and see Decision trace is not available for this transaction, it’s usually because the reward wasn’t produced by the plan engine in the normal way — for example a sale you imported with the commission already set, or a reward added by hand. The reward amount is still shown on the Details tab; there just isn’t a step-by-step breakdown to walk through.

Commission plans overview

Set the rates and terms the calculation follows.

Product-based commissions

Pay a different reward depending on the product sold.

Conditional commission rules

Change the reward when certain conditions are met.

Rewards overview

A tour of the Rewards page and every column.
Last modified on July 21, 2026