Designing a Multi-Tier Affiliate Commission System

Lessons learned from building an affiliate platform core: commission calculation, tree structures, and payout reconciliation.

Building an affiliate system requires careful planning around commission structures and financial accuracy.

Genealogy Tree

Store parent-child relationships using a nested set or adjacency list. For multi-tier systems, consider materialized path for simpler queries.

Design a rule-based commission engine that supports percentage, fixed, and tiered rates. Use a queue for async calculations.

Implement a two-phase payout: calculate pending commissions first, then batch process approved payouts with proper audit trails.