How long a brand has to validate or decline a pending affiliate sale before it's approved or locked and the commission is due.
A credited sale arrives as pending. The brand checks it against its own records (returns, cancellations, test orders, anything outside its terms) and validates or declines it. The validation window is how long it has. When it ends, pending sales are approved automatically or locked, and the commission is due.
The network and the programme set the length, and windows in network documentation run from about 30 to 67 days. Commission that has been paid rarely comes back, so the window is when a sale with a question over it should be held.
- A decline needs a reason the network accepts. Some networks list paid search outside the programme's rules among them.
- Matching sales to your own records by order reference is quickest inside the window, not after it.
- If you've seen ads on your brand's searches you can't place, ask the network to hold the sales from those days while it looks.
Google Ads works differently: a click is charged when it happens, and only clicks Google judges invalid are credited back. What you can do sets out the steps to take while sales are still pending.