Reason codes R01 to R07 explained

Every flag carries a reason code. The same code appears in the review queue, in the evidence drawer, in the downloadable list and in the weekly email, so a row means the same thing wherever you meet it. This page is what each one means and what to write when you decline it.

The codes

The queue shows them in that priority order, so the clearest declines come first. A transaction only ever gets one flag; when more than one rule fired, the flag takes the highest-priority reason and lists the others under "also", so the evidence stays complete.

R01: Full refund

The whole order came back. The commission is not earned, and the networks list returns among the legitimate reasons to remove it.¹

Evidence on the row: the refunded amount and the date of the Shopify export it came from. What to write: "Order #1041 fully refunded on 12 January (refund of £84.00)."

R02: Partial refund

Part of the order was sent back and the customer kept the rest, so the sale is smaller than the network thinks. This is an amend, not a decline: change the sale amount to what the customer kept and the network recalculates the commission. On Awin you amend the sale amount and cannot change the commission directly;² on impact.com the equivalent is a modification.

What to write: "Partial return on order #1041: £120.00 refunded of £300.00; amended sale amount £180.00."

R03: Cancelled

The order has a cancellation date in Shopify. Nothing shipped, nothing was kept, and there is no sale to pay on.

One case hides here and is worth knowing: an order cancelled and immediately re-created — a customer service fix, a payment retry — is one sale that looks like two. The rules compare the goods rather than the totals, so a re-created order is matched to its transaction instead of being flagged twice.

What to write: "Order #1041 cancelled on 12 January; no goods shipped."

R04: Claimed twice

Two transactions on the same Shopify order. Either the same network recorded it twice, or two networks each claimed it.

AffCheck groups the claims and suggests keeping one — the claim it would expect to stand — and declining the rest. The claim that stays shows its own commission but counts zero in the totals, because keeping it is the expected outcome, not a recovery.

Networks de-duplicate inside their own platform and cannot see each other, which is exactly why cross-network duplicates survive to your invoice. Awin lists sales that "should have been awarded to a different channel or partner" among legitimate decline reasons,¹ and CJ's correction file has a reason code for it, DUPO.³

What to write: "Order #1041 also claimed on [other network] by publisher 123456, tracked 12 January. One commission paid; this claim declined as a duplicate."

The longer version, including how to choose which claim keeps the commission: affiliate de-duplication across networks.

R05: Code owned by another publisher

A discount code you assigned to one publisher was used on a sale claimed by a different one. This flag exists only when you have told AffCheck who owns the code — see voucher rules. A code nobody owns is never flagged, so an empty ledger produces no R05 at all.

Awin names it: among the legitimate reasons to decline it lists a breach of programme terms, including unauthorised voucher code use.¹ The decline is much easier to defend when your programme terms say which publishers may use which codes.

What to write: "Code JANE10 is assigned to publisher 123456; this sale was credited to publisher 654321. Unauthorised voucher use under programme terms §4."

R06: Not found in Shopify

No order in your export matches the network's reference. This is the one code that suggests Check rather than a decline, because the usual cause is your files, not the publisher:

• the orders export does not go back far enough — the commonest cause by a distance;
• the order reference in the network is not the Shopify order name (a prefix, a suffix, a different numbering);
• the sale really did not happen in this store.

Widen the Shopify export and import it again before treating an R06 as anything else. Declining a sale because your export was too short is the mistake that costs a publisher relationship.

R07: Test or staff order

The order is a Shopify test order, or it is tagged as a test or staff order in your own tags. Real money was never taken, so commission on it is not earned.

What to write: "Order #1041 is a test order placed by our own team; no payment taken."

What to write in the reason box

Whatever the code, the same three things make a decline stick: what happened, when, and the number. "Order fully refunded" invites a question; "Order #1041 fully refunded on 12 January, refund of £84.00" answers it. The evidence drawer's Copy reason button gives you that sentence, already filled in.

Awin's own guidance is the reason to bother: "Inaccurate or unexplained declines can damage partner relationships."¹

Fifteen worked examples, one per case, are in affiliate decline reasons: 15 templates to copy.