Handling Data Import Issues and Affiliate Integration Setup

When setting up forecasts and data imports for your account, you may encounter some common challenges related to customer data and affiliate integrations. Here's how to address these issues:

Customer Data Import Challenges

After importing order data, you may notice that repeat customers are being incorrectly categorized as new sales. This happens because the system doesn't have historical customer data to reference.

You have two options to resolve this:

1. Run a larger historic import of past customers to provide the system with complete customer history

2. Wait 2-3 months for the data to balance itself out naturally as the system learns customer patterns

Affiliate Integration Setup

When setting up affiliate integrations, you may need to address missing data and declined commission tracking:

Missing Data

If you notice gaps in your affiliate data (such as missing days at month-end), follow up directly with your affiliate network contact to resolve any data sync issues.

Declined Commission Tracking

While Zapier integrations work consistently for approved commissions, handling declined affiliate commissions requires additional setup. To properly track declines:

1. Create a separate sheet containing only declined affiliate commissions

2. Set up an additional Zapier automation to apply negative cost adjustments

3. This creates offsetting entries (e.g., +$2 commission, then -$2 commission for declined transactions)

Alternative approach: For smaller affiliate programs, you can choose to over-report on commissions and ignore declines, then make manual adjustments monthly or quarterly as needed.

Best Practices

• Coordinate with your affiliate network contacts to ensure complete data coverage

• Consider the size and complexity of your affiliate program when choosing between automated and manual adjustment approaches

• Allow time for data imports to process and stabilize before making major decisions based on the reports