FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Affiliate Programme Management
[YourCompany.com] · Marketing Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the operational reference for the Affiliate Programme Management automation. It tells you exactly what the system does at each step, what you and your team are responsible for, how to handle anything that falls outside the normal flow, and how to keep the automation running smoothly over time. FullSpec has built and configured everything described here. Your role as process owner is to monitor flagged items, approve Xero bills, and keep your team contact details and commission tier rules current.
01Process overview
The Affiliate Programme Management automation runs continuously in the background, picking up every confirmed conversion from Tapfiliate, validating it against order data, calculating the correct commission for the affiliate's tier, and writing the result to Google Sheets. At the end of each monthly payout cycle, it compiles totals per affiliate, raises bills in Xero for finance approval, and sends personalised payment confirmation emails via Gmail once approval is given. New affiliate approvals in Tapfiliate trigger an automated onboarding sequence. Every Monday morning, a structured performance digest is posted to your designated Slack channel. The only step that stays with a person is the review of flagged anomalies and the finance sign-off on Xero bills before payment is released.
Process name
Affiliate Programme Management
Trigger
A new conversion is confirmed in Tapfiliate (via webhook or scheduled API poll), or a monthly payout cycle closes
Final output
Validated commission records in Google Sheets, deal records in HubSpot, approved bills raised in Xero, payment confirmation emails sent to affiliates, and a weekly Slack digest posted to the marketing channel
Agents running
Conversion Validation Agent, Payout and Communications Agent, Reporting Agent
Tools involved
Tapfiliate, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Xero, Gmail, Slack
Weekly volume
Approximately 30 conversions per week (120/month); weekly Slack digest runs every Monday; monthly payout cycle runs once at month end
Human checkpoint
Review of anomaly-flagged conversions in Tapfiliate or Google Sheets; Finance Manager approval of Xero bills before payment is released
Process owner
Marketing Manager
Process Runbook / SOPPage 1 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: Your only required action in the normal flow is reviewing conversions that the system has flagged as anomalies. When a conversion is flagged, you will receive a Slack alert or email notification. You open the flagged record in Google Sheets, check the details against your order system or Tapfiliate, and mark it as approved or rejected. Everything else runs without your involvement.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
A conversion is confirmed in Tapfiliate. The automation platform detects this via webhook event or scheduled API poll, depending on your Tapfiliate plan, and immediately passes the conversion data to the Conversion Validation Agent.
System
Automated
2
The Conversion Validation Agent cross-references the incoming conversion against order data to confirm the sale is genuine, not a duplicate, and not associated with a refunded order. It then identifies the affiliate's commission tier and calculates the exact commission amount owed.
Conversion Validation Agent
Automated
3
If the agent detects an anomaly, such as a suspected duplicate, an unusually high commission value, or a mismatch between the conversion and order data, it flags the record and sends a notification so you can review it. The record is held and not written downstream until you act.
Marketing Manager
Human
4
Once a conversion passes validation (either automatically or after your manual review and approval), the validated commission record is written to the master Google Sheets log with affiliate ID, sale value, commission amount, and a status of pending payout.
Conversion Validation Agent
Automated
5
A deal is created or updated in HubSpot, linked to the affiliate's contact record. The conversion source, sale value, and commission amount are recorded so attribution is preserved for reporting.
Payout and Communications Agent
Automated
6
At the close of each monthly payout cycle, the Payout and Communications Agent totals each affiliate's validated commissions from Google Sheets and raises a bill in Xero for the amount owed, with the affiliate name and reference included. The bill status is set to awaiting approval.
Payout and Communications Agent
Automated
7
The Finance Manager reviews and approves the Xero bills. This step is intentionally manual. The automation raises the bill but does not release any payment. Finance approves and processes the bank transfer directly in Xero.
Finance Manager
Human
8
Once a Xero bill is marked as approved, the Payout and Communications Agent automatically sends a personalised payment confirmation email to the affiliate via Gmail, including the payout amount and expected transfer date.
Payout and Communications Agent
Automated
9
When a new affiliate is approved in Tapfiliate, the Payout and Communications Agent immediately triggers the onboarding sequence: a welcome email, programme terms, unique tracking link, and creative assets are sent via Gmail without any manual action.
Payout and Communications Agent
Automated
10
Every Monday morning, the Reporting Agent reads the Google Sheets commission log for the past seven days, formats a structured performance digest summarising top affiliates, total conversions, and total commission accrued, and posts it to the designated marketing Slack channel.
Reporting Agent
Automated
Process Runbook / SOPPage 2 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
A conversion arrives with missing data (for example, no affiliate ID or no sale value)
The Conversion Validation Agent cannot complete validation and immediately flags the record as incomplete. It does not write anything to Google Sheets or HubSpot, and no commission is calculated. A notification is sent to the process owner.
Log in to Tapfiliate and locate the conversion. If the data can be corrected at source, update it in Tapfiliate and the next poll or webhook will reprocess it. If the conversion is genuinely invalid, mark it as rejected in the flagged records queue.
A duplicate conversion is detected (the same order ID has already been logged)
The agent identifies the matching order ID in the Google Sheets log and flags the incoming conversion as a probable duplicate. It holds the record and sends an alert rather than writing a second commission entry.
Check both the original and the duplicate in Tapfiliate. If the duplicate is a platform error, reject it in the queue. If the original was incorrectly logged, contact FullSpec support at support@gofullspec.com to correct the existing record.
An affiliate is approved in Tapfiliate but does not exist as a contact in HubSpot
The Payout and Communications Agent attempts to match the affiliate by email address. If no match is found, it creates a new contact record in HubSpot automatically and proceeds with onboarding. A note is added to the new contact flagging it as auto-created.
Review the auto-created HubSpot contact within a few days to confirm the details are correct and merge it with any existing record if a duplicate contact was present.
The Marketing Manager does not review a flagged conversion within 48 hours
The system sends a follow-up reminder notification at the 48-hour mark. The record remains held and no commission is logged or paid until a decision is made. No further automated action is taken.
Review the flagged record as soon as you receive the reminder. If you are unavailable for an extended period, nominate a cover person who can access the queue and action flagged items. Let the FullSpec team know if a delegation rule needs to be built in.
An affiliate does not respond to the payment confirmation email
The automation does not follow up automatically after the initial confirmation is sent. The Xero bill and Google Sheets record remain in their approved state.
If an affiliate raises a query about a payment they believe is missing, check the Google Sheets log for their record and verify the Xero bill status. Reply directly via Gmail with the confirmation details. No system change is required unless the bill was not raised correctly.
Tapfiliate or another connected tool is temporarily unavailable
The automation platform detects the failed connection and retries automatically at set intervals, typically three retries over fifteen minutes. If all retries fail, the run is paused and an error alert is sent to the process owner. No data is lost; the job queues until the connection is restored.
Check the tool's status page to confirm whether the outage is on Tapfiliate's side or a credentials issue. If it is a platform outage, wait for service to resume and the automation will catch up automatically. If it appears to be a credentials or configuration issue, contact FullSpec support at support@gofullspec.com.
04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows marked with placeholders once your team is confirmed. Keep this table updated whenever responsibilities change. The FullSpec rows are fixed.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner (Marketing Manager)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Finance approver (Finance Manager)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Backup reviewer (covers flagged conversions when process owner is unavailable)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
FullSpec builder
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support (errors, access issues, rule changes)
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
Contact FullSpec support at support@gofullspec.com for any of the following: a tool connection has failed and retries have not resolved it; commission tier rules need to be updated in the automation; the Xero bill structure needs to change; or a new affiliate platform is being introduced that replaces Tapfiliate.
Process Runbook / SOPPage 3 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
05Ongoing maintenance
Whenever commission tier rules change
Notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com with the updated tier structure. The commission rate rules are held inside the automation and must be updated there to match. Running the automation with outdated rules will produce incorrect commission calculations.
Marketing Manager + FullSpec
Whenever email templates change (onboarding, payment confirmation)
Send the revised template copy to FullSpec. The Gmail message content is configured inside the Payout and Communications Agent and cannot be edited directly in Gmail. FullSpec will update and test the template before it goes live.
Marketing Manager + FullSpec
Monthly spot-check (first week of each month)
Open the Google Sheets commission log and compare the total commission figure for the prior month against the Xero bills raised. Confirm counts match. Check that the HubSpot deals for the same period reflect the correct conversion count. Log any discrepancies and contact FullSpec if the numbers do not reconcile.
Marketing Manager
Weekly (Monday, after Slack digest posts)
Review the weekly Slack digest for anything unexpected: a sudden spike or drop in conversions, an affiliate with a zero count when activity was expected, or a total that looks out of range. These are early signals of a data issue or a tracking problem in Tapfiliate.
Marketing Manager
Whenever a team member joins, leaves, or changes role
Update the contact table in section 04 of this runbook. If the departing person was the process owner or finance approver, notify FullSpec so notification routing and any role-specific alert destinations can be updated in the automation.
Marketing Manager + FullSpec
Quarterly volume review
Review the monthly conversion volumes against the automation's current configuration. If affiliate numbers have grown significantly or a new commission structure has been introduced, discuss with FullSpec whether the existing build needs to be extended or optimised.
Marketing Manager + FullSpec
The single most common maintenance issue for this process is commission tier rules falling out of sync with the automation. When a tier is added, a rate is adjusted, or a promotional rate is applied temporarily, the change must be communicated to FullSpec immediately. The automation will continue calculating commissions using the old rules until the update is made, which means affiliates may receive incorrect payout amounts that then require manual correction.
Process Runbook / SOPPage 4 of 4