Merchant Admin Affiliate Guide
This guide explains how to use affiliate features in Merchant Admin.
What An Affiliate Program Does
An affiliate is a person who promotes your business and earns commission when their promotion leads to a qualifying sale. On Uzanga, affiliates can promote your store with:
- Referral links: special links that send customers to your store and record that the customer came from the affiliate.
- Affiliate coupons: coupon codes created by the affiliate, if you allow them for your program.
- Program applications or invites: the way an affiliate becomes your approved partner.
The merchant controls the program terms, reviews applications, manages accepted partners, and reviews held commissions before they are released when review is required.
Where to Find Affiliate Tools
Use these Merchant Admin pages:
- `Dashboard > Settings > Affiliate Program`: set up and activate your affiliate program.
- `Dashboard > Affiliates`: manage applications, partners, invites, referral activity, coupon activity, and commission release review. What you see depends on your staff role. If you cannot see a page or button, ask a business owner or admin to check your permissions.
Important Words
Affiliate program: Your business's partner program.
Affiliate: A person promoting your business.
Partner or membership: An affiliate who has been accepted into your program.
Application: A request from an affiliate asking to join your program.
Invite: A request you send to an affiliate by email.
Commission: The affiliate's earning for a qualifying sale.
Default commission percent: The normal commission rate for your program.
Override: A special commission rate or release delay for one specific affiliate.
Release delay: How many days after fulfillment the commission should wait before it can be released automatically.
Fulfillment: The order has been completed enough for the affiliate commission to become eligible for release.
Capture: A customer visit recorded through an affiliate link.
Affiliate coupon: A coupon created by an affiliate. The shopper gets a discount, and that discount is funded from the affiliate's gross commission.
Gross commission: The commission before any affiliate coupon discount is deducted.
Net commission: The amount the affiliate can receive after any affiliate coupon discount.
Release review: A list of held commissions that may need merchant approval or rejection.
Platform-ops hold: A review state handled by platform operations. When you reject a release, the money moves there. It does not return to your merchant wallet.
Set Up Your Affiliate Program
Fill in the main program settings:
- Program name: The name of your affiliate program.
- Default commission percent: The usual percent affiliates earn. Enter it as a normal percent, for example `7.5` for 7.5%.
- Auto-release delay: The number of days after fulfillment before eligible commissions can be released automatically. The allowed range is 7 to 90 days.
- Attribution window: How long after a shopper clicks an affiliate link the affiliate can still receive credit. This may be shown for awareness even when it is not editable.
- Affiliate coupons: Turn this on if accepted affiliates may create affiliate-funded coupons for your program.
- Discovery listing: Turn this on if you want eligible affiliates to find your program from the affiliate portal.
- Internal description: Notes for your team.
- Discovery title: The title affiliates see when discovering your program.
- Discovery summary: A short description affiliates see before applying.
- Affiliate instructions: Any guidance affiliates should follow when promoting you.
- Eligibility notes: Who you prefer to work with, for example audience type, content style, location, or category fit.
Click save settings.
The settings page also shows summary cards for quick checks:
- Program status.- Your default commission, release delay, and attribution window.
- Activation checks, such as whether a commission or discovery copy is still required.
Activate, Pause, Or Resume The Program
The program status controls whether it is open for affiliate activity.
Draft: The program is saved but not active yet. Use this while you are still setting it up.
Active: Affiliates can be invited, apply if discovery is enabled, and participate as accepted partners.
Paused: New affiliate activity is blocked. Existing historical records remain available. Already-tracked activity may still be handled according to the terms that applied when it was recorded.
To activate the program:
- Open `Dashboard > Settings > Affiliate Program`.
- Make sure default commission is set.
- If discovery listing is on, make sure discovery title and discovery summary are filled in.
- Click `Activate`.
To pause an active program, click `Pause`.
To resume a paused program, click `Resume`.
Discovery Listing
Discovery is how affiliates can find your program themselves in the affiliate portal. Turn discovery on when you want affiliates to apply without being invited first. Turn discovery off when you only want to work with affiliates you invite directly. If discovery is on, write clear affiliate-facing copy:
- Tell affiliates what your business sells.
- Explain who is a good fit.
- Explain what type of content or traffic you want.
- Mention any restrictions clearly.
Do not write technical instructions here. Affiliates only need to understand whether they should apply and how to promote you responsibly.
Invite Affiliates
Open `Dashboard > Affiliates`, then find `Invites`.You can invite affiliates only when your program is active.
To send an invite:
- Enter the affiliate's email address.
- Add an optional merchant note.
- Click `Send invite`.
After sending, the invite appears in the invites table. Invite statuses you may see:
- Pending: The affiliate has not accepted or declined yet.
- Accepted: The affiliate accepted and became a partner.
- Declined: The affiliate declined.
- Revoked: Your team cancelled the invite.
- Expired: The invite was not accepted in time.
For pending invites, you can:
- Resend: Send the invite again.
- Revoke: Cancel the invite before it is accepted.
Invites expire after 30 days. If an affiliate says they cannot see the invite, ask them to sign up or sign in with the same email address you invited. Uzanga blocks self-referrals. You cannot invite yourself, the business owner, or another user who administers the same business as an affiliate for that business.
Review Applications
Open `Dashboard > Affiliates`, then find `Recent applications`. Applications are requests from affiliates who found your program and applied. For each application, review:
- Affiliate user: The affiliate's account identifier.
- Status: The current review state.
- Submitted: When the application was sent.
- Message: What the affiliate wrote to you.
To approve an application:
- Click `Approve`.
- Optionally enter a commission override.
- Optionally enter a release delay override.
- Optionally add a merchant note.
- Confirm approval..
If you leave the override fields blank, that affiliate uses your program defaults.Approving creates an accepted partnership. The affiliate can then create merchant referral links and, if allowed, coupon campaigns for your program.To reject an application:
- Click `Reject`.
- Enter a rejection reason. The affiliate can see this reason.
- Optionally add an internal note for your team.
- Confirm rejection.
Rejected affiliates must wait 30 days before applying again. Use a clear, respectful rejection reason so the affiliate understands the decision.
Manage Partners
Open `Dashboard > Affiliates`, then find `Partners`. Partners are affiliates who have been accepted into your program, plus historical partner records. The table shows:
- Affiliate user.
- Status.
- Effective commission.
- Effective release delay.
- Accepted date.
To change an individual partner's terms:
- 1. Click `Overrides`.
- Enter a special commission percent, or leave blank to use the program default.
- Enter a special release delay, or leave blank to use the program default.
- Add a merchant note if useful.
- Click `Save overrides`.
Use overrides when one affiliate has a special agreement that should differ from your normal program terms. Commission overrides must be between 0.01% and 100%. Release delay overrides must be between 7 and 90 whole days. To disable a partner:
1. Click `Disable`.
2. Confirm the action.
Disabling a partner stops new affiliate activity for that membership. It does not delete historical records. To restore a disabled partner:
1. Click `Restore`.
2. Confirm the action.
Restoring allows the partner to participate again under the saved terms. The program must be active.
View Referral Link Activity
Open `Dashboard > Affiliates`, then find `Referral link activity`. Affiliates create merchant referral links from the affiliate portal. Merchant Admin lets you monitor those links. The table shows:
- Link name.
- Link status.
- Target path in your store.
- Campaign labels, if the affiliate added them.
- Capture count.
- Last capture time.
- Last updated time.
A capture means a customer visit was recorded through that affiliate link. A capture does not always mean a sale happened. Tracking codes are not shown in Merchant Admin. Use this page to monitor activity, not to copy affiliate links.
View Affiliate Coupon Activity
Open `Dashboard > Affiliates`, then find `Coupon campaign activity`. Affiliates can create coupon campaigns only if your program allows affiliate coupons. The table shows:
- Campaign name.
- Campaign and binding status.
- Coupon code ending, not the full code.
- Discount type and amount.
- Usage limits.
- Promotion issue status.
- Last updated time.
The full coupon code is not shown here. Affiliates see the full code when they create it. After that, the system shows safe masked details such as the last four characters.Important coupon behavior:
- Affiliate coupons are affiliate-funded.
- The shopper receives a discount.
- That discount reduces the affiliate's gross commission.
- The affiliate receives the net commission after the discount.
- If the discount uses up the full gross commission, the affiliate's net commission for that sale may be zero.
- If you turn affiliate coupons off, affiliates cannot create active coupon bindings for your program.
Some coupon amounts may be shown as minor units. For example, 100 minor units usually means 1 KES.
How Commissions Are Created
A commission can be created when a customer completes a qualifying checkout after affiliate activity was recorded.
Common ways this happens:
- The customer used an affiliate referral link.
- The customer used an affiliate coupon.
Not every customer visit creates commission. The sale must qualify under the program and payment rules. Examples of things that may prevent or affect commission:
- The customer did not buy.
- The order was not tracked through Uzanga.
- Payment happened outside the tracked Uzanga flow.
- The order was cancelled, refunded, or reviewed for fraud.
- The affiliate, link, coupon, membership, or program was not eligible at checkout.
- Some fees, such as custom shipping or delivery charges, may not count toward commission.
Understand Commission Amounts
For affiliate coupons, remember this simple flow:
1. The system calculates the gross commission.
2. Any affiliate-funded coupon discount is deducted from that gross commission.
3. The remaining amount is the net commission.
4. The affiliate can only receive the net commission. Example:
- Gross commission is KES 500.
- Affiliate coupon discount is KES 200.
- Net commission is KES 300.The customer got the discount, and the affiliate's payout was reduced by that discount.
Commission Release
Affiliate commission is held before it is released. Release normally depends on two things:
- Fulfillment: The order must be fulfilled.
- Approval or delay: The commission must be approved by your team, or the auto-release delay must pass.The release delay is counted from fulfillment time, not from payment time.If you approve a commission before fulfillment, the approval is saved, but the money does not release until fulfillment makes it eligible.
Review And Approve Commission Releases
Open `Dashboard > Affiliates`, then find `Commission release review`. This area is for held affiliate commission splits that need review. The table shows:
- Split: The commission split identifier.
- Status.- Payment status.
- Net commission.
- Auto-release time.
- Actions, if your role can review commissions.
Some release review amounts may be shown as minor units. For example, 100 minor units usually means 1 KES.
To approve one release:
1. Click `Approve`.
2. Add an optional review note.
3. Click `Approve release`.
Approval marks that split for release processing. If the order is not fulfilled yet, the release still waits until it becomes eligible.
To reject one release:
1. Click `Reject`.
2. Choose a reason.
3. Write a review note.
4. Tick the acknowledgement that rejected funds move to platform-ops hold.
5. Click `Reject release`.
Rejection reasons include:
- Order cancelled or returned.
- Customer refund requested.
- Suspected fraud.
- Attribution invalid.
- Duplicate order.
- Affiliate policy violation.
- Other.
Important: Rejected funds do not return to your merchant wallet. Rejection sends the held amount to platform-ops hold for operations follow-up.
Bulk Approval Preview
Use `Bulk approval preview` when you want to approve several eligible release items at once. The preview shows:
- How many splits are eligible.
- The eligible total amount.
- The preview status.
- When the preview expires.
Review the preview carefully, then click `Confirm bulk approval` only if you agree with the eligible set.The system re-checks eligibility when confirming. If the eligible set changes before confirmation, the confirmation may not go through.Bulk approval previews expire after about 15 minutes. If a preview expires, create a fresh preview before confirming.
Program Dashboard Cards
At the top of `Dashboard > Affiliates`, you will see summary cards:
- Program: Current program status and name.
- Applications: Number of pending applications.
- Partners: Number of accepted or active memberships.
- Release review: Number of returned release-review items.
Use `Refresh` or reload the page if you expect a recent action to appear.
Good Operating Routine
Use this routine to keep the program healthy:
1. Check pending applications regularly.
2. Review accepted partners and make sure overrides are still correct.
3. Watch referral captures for unusual spikes.
4. Watch coupon activity for failed or disabled bindings.
5. Review held commission releases before the auto-release window when manual review is needed.
6. Reject only when you have a clear business reason, because rejected funds move to platform-ops hold and do not return to your merchant wallet.
7. Pause the program if you need to stop new affiliate activity while investigating an issue.
Troubleshooting
I cannot see the Affiliates menu.
Ask an owner or admin to check whether your role has affiliate permissions.
The Affiliate Program page is read-only.
Your role may not be allowed to update the program, or affiliate program management may be disabled for the business.
The Activate button is disabled.
Make sure you have saved a program, entered a default commission percent, and filled discovery title and summary if discovery is enabled.
I cannot send an invite.
Your program must be active before invites can be sent. The invited person also cannot be you, the business owner, or another user who administers the same business.
An affiliate says they cannot find my program.
Check that the program is active and discovery listing is turned on. The affiliate must also have completed their own readiness steps in the affiliate portal, and they cannot be the business owner or another user who administers the same business.
An affiliate says they cannot see my invite.
Make sure they are using the same email address you invited and that their affiliate account has verified that email.
An affiliate cannot create a merchant link.
They must be an accepted partner, your program must be active, and their affiliate wallet and withdrawal method must be ready.
An affiliate cannot create a coupon.
Check that affiliate coupons are enabled, the partner is accepted, your program is active, and the coupon details are valid.
A rejected release did not increase my wallet balance.
That is expected. Rejected releases move to platform-ops hold. They are not credited to the merchant wallet.There are no commission rows.There may be no qualifying paid sales yet, or the sale may not have been tracked through eligible affiliate activity.