Add a deduction (fees, affiliate, partner)

A deduction is anything taken off the revenue before agent commissions — a software fee, an affiliate cut, a partner/referral fee. SplitRun treats them all as one flexible thing: take a % or $ off a base, optionally paid to someone. That single idea covers fees (paid to no one) and affiliates/partners (paid to an agent) alike.

Steps

1. Open Data → click into the data source → find its revenue flow.
2. Click + Add deduction.
3. Fill in the deduction:
   • Name — e.g. Software Fee, Affiliate, Partner Commission. As you type, SplitRun autocompletes from your deduction catalog; pick an existing type to keep naming consistent across the org.
   • % / $ / $/unit — a percentage of a base, a fixed dollar amount, or a rate per unit of a counted column (see below).
   • Base (for %) — Total Profit, Company Revenue, Remaining (the running balance after the deductions above), or a custom field mapped from a column in the report. See Choosing the base.
   • Paid to agent / Cost:
     • Paid to agent → this is an affiliate/partner payout; you'll assign which agent(s) receive it (see Affiliates as agents).
     • Cost → an internal cost (e.g. software fee), paid to no one.
   • Default Value (optional) — a default rate/amount to pre-fill assignments.
   • Applies to (if the source has multiple income types) — a single income type, or all income types on the merchant.
4. Click Save. The deduction appears in the waterfall.

Basing a deduction on a reported column. If the cut should come off a figure the vendor reports directly rather than off profit or remaining, first map that column as a custom field, then pick it as the base here. The worked example on the revenue flow can't illustrate a custom-field base (its value comes from the file, not from profit), so that row shows a dash and is left out of the running remainder.

Put it in the right order

New deductions land at the bottom by default. Use move up / move down to place it correctly — for example, a software fee usually comes before affiliate so the affiliate is calculated on the balance after the fee. Order changes the result whenever a deduction is based on Remaining. See Understanding the revenue flow.

Edit or remove a deduction

Hover the stage and click the pencil to edit. Note that a deduction's identity (its name, whether it's % or $, and paid-vs-cost) is set by its type in the catalog and locks once chosen — you can still change its base, default value, and applies-to. To remove it, open the edit form and use the trash icon.

Why identity locks: it guarantees "Affiliate" always means the same thing everywhere in your org, preventing near-duplicate deductions with slightly different settings. To rename or combine types, use the deduction catalog.

Per-unit deductions ($/unit)

A deduction can be a rate per unit of a counted column — for example an affiliate paid $0.02 per transaction. Once the count column is mapped as a Number custom field, SplitRun multiplies your rate by that number every period, with no monthly data entry.

In the revenue-flow stage editor, choose the $/unit toggle (it's disabled until the source has a number custom field), pick the count field under per [field], and enter the Rate ($/unit). The stage then reads like "$0.02 per Transactions".

Don't fake this with a percentage. Before per-unit existed, people expressed "$0.02 per unit" as a percent off a number custom field — entering "2" silently meant 2%, a 100× error. Use $/unit for a per-unit rate.

Fixed fees that change every month

Some deductions are a cost with no fixed default — the dollar amount differs each period (e.g. a monthly software fee that varies by merchant). Leave the value variable and enter the actual amounts each month from the Data coverage grid: an ✗ cell means "no amounts entered yet" — click it to add per-merchant amounts for that period; a ✓ means amounts are on file.

Variable amounts paid to an affiliate/partner. The same monthly-entry mechanism now works for payee deductions, not just costs — e.g. an affiliate whose amount changes each month. The Data-page grid surfaces payee stages, and the fee dialog has a payee column and picker, so one merchant can carry different amounts for two different payees on the same stage. (If a per-unit or fixed rate already covers the deduction, you don't need this — a recurring merchant-level deduction shows a muted, auto-calculated ✓ for periods inside its agreement window, and any ad-hoc monthly amount you enter is added on top.)

Affiliates and partners get their own statement

When a deduction is paid to an agent, that agent receives their own affiliate/partner statement, and the amount shows in reports under its deduction type (Affiliate, Partner, etc.), separate from any regular commission that agent earns. See Affiliates as agents.

After adding

Adding or reordering a deduction changes the math, so the affected periods recalculate. See Recalculating commissions.