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★ Asteris Docs

Payout issues

PayPal API: “INVALID_CREDENTIALS”

  • Confirm you’re using Live credentials (not Sandbox) for production
  • Re-create the Developer App on developer.paypal.com and paste fresh Client ID + Secret
  • Make sure the Payouts scope is enabled on the app

PayPal API: “PAYEE_ACCOUNT_RESTRICTED”

The recipient’s PayPal account can’t receive funds (often unverified or country-restricted). Options:

  • Ask the affiliate to verify their PayPal account
  • Switch them to bank transfer
  • Mark the individual failed payout and retry the rest

PayPal API: “INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS”

Your own PayPal Business account doesn’t have enough to cover the batch. Top up from your linked bank, or fund a smaller batch.

Batch didn’t run on schedule

WP-Cron requires page traffic to trigger. On low-traffic sites, scheduled batches drift.

Fix: replace WP-Cron with a system cron:

0 2 * * 1  cd /var/www/yoursite.com && wp asteris-aff run-payouts --quiet

(Runs every Monday at 02:00.)

Balance doesn’t match expected total

Common causes:

  1. Revoked commissions counted somewhere but not deducted from balance — run wp asteris-aff recompute-aggregates
  2. Pending vs approved — only approved counts toward payout. Check filter on the balance display.
  3. Cross-currency mismatch — if you’ve changed payout currency mid-stream, historical commissions may need re-conversion. Email support.

Affiliate says they didn’t receive the payout email

  • Check Affiliates → Audit log → Throttled emails — they may have been throttled (see email throttling)
  • Confirm the email isn’t in spam (most likely)
  • Resend manually: Affiliates → [affiliate] → Resend last payout email

Bank CSV rejected by bank

Each bank has a slightly different expected CSV format. The plugin ships templates for the major AU + US banks. If yours isn’t covered:

  • Use the Generic ABA format and adapt manually
  • Or set custom column mappings at Settings → Payouts → Bank CSV → Custom mapping

Payouts queued but never sent

Check:

  • Payouts → Failed — they may have errored silently
  • WP-Cron is firing: wp cron event list | grep asteris_aff
  • PHP max execution time isn’t hitting on large batches; for 1000+ recipients use WP-CLI: wp asteris-aff run-payouts

Still stuck?

Email support@asterisaffiliates.com with the payout batch ID, recipient count, and any error from the audit log.