Awin auto-validation period explained

Awin’s auto-validation period (AVP) is the number of days you have to review a pending transaction before Awin approves it for you. Set it too short and refunds arrive after the commission is already approved. Set it long and publishers wait longer to be paid, which they notice. This guide explains what the period is, the limits by Awin plan, how to pick a length that fits your returns window, and what happens on the day it ends.

What the auto-validation period is

Every sale a publisher drives on Awin arrives as a pending transaction. You then approve it, decline it or amend it. The auto-validation period is the safety net that stops transactions staying pending forever, and it works in the network’s favour, not yours. In Awin’s own words:

“If a commission isn’t reviewed before the period ends, it will be automatically approved in line with your program’s auto-validation settings.”¹

Two things follow from that sentence. First, doing nothing is a decision: silence means approve. Second, the period is a programme setting, so two brands on Awin can have very different deadlines. Awin also doesn’t let you switch auto-validation off; every programme has a period.²

Maximum length by Awin plan

How long your period can be depends on your Awin plan. Awin’s help centre says: “Your maximum AVP depends on your platform plan or contractual agreement: Awin Access: Up to 67 days. Awin Accelerate and Advanced: The maximum period depends on your sector and contract.”³

If you don’t know your current setting, it is in your programme settings in Awin, and in the commercial terms you agreed when you joined. Your account manager can confirm it too.

How to choose your period

Awin’s advice is to set the period to mirror your returns window, with a short buffer on top (roughly your returns period plus a week).⁴ The reasoning is simple: a customer can return an order on the last day of your returns window, and the refund then takes a few more days to be processed in Shopify. If your AVP ends the same day as your returns window, those late refunds are already approved.

Work it out from your own numbers:

1. Your returns window. The number of days customers have to send an order back, from your returns policy.
2. Refund lag. How many days it takes from the parcel leaving the customer to the refund showing in Shopify. Check a handful of recent returns; carrier time plus warehouse inspection is often a week or more.
3. Your review cadence. If you validate once a month, you need room for up to a month between reviews.

A 30-day returns window with a week of refund lag already needs more than 37 days, before counting how often you review. On Awin Access, that still fits comfortably inside the 67-day ceiling.

Free toolAffiliate commission calculator

See what the commission on returned orders costs you each month if some of them slip past the period.

What happens when the period ends

When the period runs out, every transaction that is still pending is approved. From then on it is treated like any commission you approved by hand: it is invoiced and paid to the publisher, together with Awin’s own fee. On Awin Access, approved commissions can’t be reversed by you; Awin support only helps in exceptional cases. On Accelerate and Advanced, support can help reverse one before it is paid.⁵

That is why the period matters for finance, not just for the affiliate manager. A refund you didn’t decline in time still costs you the commission and the network fee on a sale you didn’t keep.

Why are my transactions still pending?

A transaction stays pending until one of two things happens: you validate it (approve, decline or amend), or the auto-validation period ends and Awin approves it. So a long list of pending transactions isn’t a fault. It means those sales are still inside their period and waiting for your decision.

If you see pending transactions that are older than your period should allow, check your programme settings: the period may be longer than you think, or it may have been changed at some point.

How to see when the oldest transaction auto-validates

In your pending transactions list, sort by transaction date, oldest first. The oldest transaction auto-approves on its transaction date plus your period. For example, with a 40-day period, a sale tracked on 1 September auto-approves on 11 October. Everything tracked after it follows day by day.

Make that date your working deadline and validate a few days before it, not on the day. Exporting, matching and uploading for a busy programme takes longer than you expect the first time.

Shopify auto-validation: what it covers and what it doesn’t

Awin’s Shopify app has a feature that validates some orders for you. Awin describes it like this: “Cancelled orders are automatically declined. Partial refunds or returns are applied as adjustments. If no changes happen within your selected returns period, the transaction is automatically approved in Awin.”⁶

It is worth switching on if you qualify, and worth knowing its limits:

• Awin Classic only. It isn’t available on the new Awin platform.
• Whitelisting first. You share your myshopify.com URL with Awin so they can whitelist it before the feature works.
• New orders only. Orders placed before you activated it are not validated.
• Batches after the returns period. It applies updates in batches once the returns period in the app has passed. That app setting is separate from your programme’s auto-validation period, so check that the two line up.

And some things are outside what a single network’s app can see: an order claimed on Awin and on a second network, a creator’s voucher code used by a coupon site, or an order that doesn’t exist in Shopify at all. For a row-by-row view, read what Awin’s Shopify auto-validation covers and misses.

A validation routine that fits your period

Whatever length you choose, a routine keeps the period from surprising you:

1. Weekly: look at the oldest pending transaction and its auto-approval date.
2. Before each deadline: export pending transactions from Awin and orders from Shopify.
3. Match refunds, partial refunds and cancellations to pending transactions.
4. Decline full refunds and cancellations, amend partial refunds (the sale amount, not the commission).
5. Upload the batch file on Awin Classic, or validate in bulk on the new platform.
6. Check the upload history for failed rows.

The full method, with menu paths and a spreadsheet formula, is in the step-by-step guide to declining Awin commissions for returns. If you run more than one network, the deadline email puts each network’s date in one list.