Affiliate Manager can credit more than one affiliate on a single sale. When one affiliate refers a patient who signs up for a starter package, and a different affiliate later refers that same patient to upgrade to a higher tier, both affiliates can earn commission on their part of the relationship. You will find your affiliate program settings, payout rules, and referral tracking under Affiliate Manager in your account.
Two affiliates can be credited on the same patient or customer:
The base affiliate, the person whose referral link the patient originally used to sign up.
The upgrade affiliate, a different affiliate whose link the patient later used to upgrade to a higher-tier package, membership, or add-on.
The base affiliate keeps earning commission on the original purchase for as long as the patient stays on it. The upgrade affiliate earns commission on the difference between the original purchase and the upgraded one, not on the full upgraded amount.
A patient signs up for your practice's Basic Membership after clicking Affiliate A's referral link. Several months later, Affiliate B refers that same patient to upgrade from the Basic Membership to the Premium Membership.
Affiliate A continues to receive their regular commission on the Basic Membership. Affiliate B generates commission on the price difference between the Basic and Premium tiers, using your program's standard commission rate.
This same logic applies to any upgrade path you offer (Basic to Premium, Premium to VIP, or similar), as long as the patient uses a valid affiliate link for each step.
Some affiliates are better at bringing in brand-new patients, while others are more effective at re-engaging existing patients and moving them into higher-value packages or memberships. Split commissions let both types of affiliates earn credit for the value they add, rather than only rewarding whoever made the very first referral.
If you want to encourage affiliates to focus on upgrading existing referrals instead of only chasing net-new sign-ups, split commissions give you a way to reward that behavior without restructuring your whole program.
The patient must click the referring affiliate's unique link before completing the upgrade. A verbal referral or word-of-mouth mention without the link being used will not generate credit.
The upgrade must be a purchase your affiliate program is configured to track (for example, a membership tier change or a qualifying add-on package). Confirm which products and tiers are eligible in your Affiliate Manager settings.
Each affiliate needs their own affiliate link to refer patients to a specific package or upgrade tier. See your Affiliate Portal guide for how to find and share these links.
Splits are not limited to two affiliates. If a patient is referred by one affiliate, then upgraded by a second affiliate, and later upgraded again by a third affiliate, each affiliate can be credited for the portion of the relationship their referral link generated.
If you notice an affiliate is missing credit for their part of a multi-way split, check that the patient used that affiliate's specific link at each step. If the links were used correctly and credit still looks wrong, review your commission and payout records in Affiliate Manager, or reach out to your account support if the discrepancy remains.
Automations tied to referral and commission events (such as notifying an affiliate when they earn a new commission, or tagging a patient when they upgrade through a referral) are built in Workflows, using Affiliate Manager triggers and actions. Split commissions themselves are calculated automatically in Affiliate Manager and do not require a workflow to function, but workflows are useful if you want to layer notifications or follow-up tasks on top of them.
Does the base affiliate lose commission when a different affiliate refers an upgrade? No. The base affiliate keeps earning their regular commission on the original purchase. The upgrade affiliate only earns commission on the additional amount from the upgrade, not on the base purchase.
What if the same affiliate refers both the original sign-up and the upgrade? That affiliate simply earns commission on the full amount themselves. Splitting only comes into play when two or more different affiliates are involved at different stages.
Can commissions split three or more ways on a single patient? Yes, as long as each affiliate's link was used at the corresponding step (initial sign-up, first upgrade, second upgrade, and so on). If a three-way split looks incorrect, verify each link was used and then check with support if the issue persists.
Does the patient need to do anything special to trigger a split commission? No. The patient just needs to click the referring affiliate's link before completing each purchase or upgrade. The split is calculated automatically behind the scenes.
What happens if a patient upgrades without using an affiliate link? No commission is generated for that upgrade, since there is no affiliate link to attribute the sale to. Only the original referring affiliate's existing commission, if any, continues as normal.
Are there special rules that govern how splits are calculated? Split commissions follow the same commission rate and payout rules configured in your Affiliate Manager settings. Review your program's rules there if you are unsure how a specific split will be calculated.
Can I see which affiliate gets credit for which part of a sale? Yes. Your Affiliate Manager reporting shows commission activity by affiliate, including which purchases or upgrades generated each commission, so you can confirm splits are being credited correctly.
Is there a way to encourage affiliates to focus on upgrades instead of new referrals? Split commissions already reward affiliates for driving upgrades, since they earn the difference in value even if they did not make the original referral. You can highlight this in your affiliate communications if you want to encourage more upgrade-focused referrals.
