I’ve debated this post for a while because it’s really calling out the some pretty basic flaws in the affiliate business.  But the issue keeps popping up and I have to express my feelings.

What should be the function of the networks in the role of the affiliate space?  

Seems like a loaded question and to a certain extent it is. 

I’m not trying to raise the ire of any one network (or all of the networks), but I think there is a fundamental truth here that is often overlooked.
 
Affiliate Networks need to focus on getting the basics right before they implement these crazy widgets and gizmos. 

1) Track the Sales
2) Pay Affiliates
3) Provide all the necessary Reporting

It's not rocket science.

We work with a lot of different networks and there are good points and bad about each, but the number of network s that have problems paying commission and providing accurate reporting is amazing. 
In some cases reports just don’t work. 

In Linkshare for instance, some months you click on a payment amount to get the detail report and you get an error.  They seem to know about the problem and will fix it when you ask, but it keeps happening month after month.  This forces us to get a manual accounting.  To their credit they are prompt with that, but it’s still a pain.  Perhaps they should just fix the problem?

In some cases the reports just don’t exist.  OneNetwork Direct is the worst.  They send a payment with no accounting of what merchants we are being paid for.  They have promised a solution for at least a year, but nothing.  So, every month when the check comes in we have to ASK for the detail.  Isn’t someone calculating these payments?  Someone HAS to have this info.  All I ask is that you give it to us with the payment.  We had a similar problem with PepperJam but in just 2 days they provided that needed report in their interface.  Kudos to Kris and his team.  Now if we could just get PepperJam to pay on a calendar month all would be well.  (Hint, hint)

Share A Sale also doesn’t have this report in their interface.  They provide it manually each month when I ask, but it would just be nice to pull it off the interface.  Brian Littleton has told me he’s working on it, but my guess is it’s a bigger programming issue and that it is just easier to get it to us manually than fixing the code.  But again, a it’s a pain because I have to ask month after month.

We have been hounding Google Affiliate Network for years about the length of time it takes to get paid by their merchants.  For some reason they don’t require pre-pay like other networks which we’ve been told is the main reason for the delays.  For a search affiliate like us, getting paid 60-90 days after the fact means that we are floating the advertising cost.  But worse than that is that there are critical reports in the interface that are missing.  We recently discovered that there is NO WAY to get a report of outstanding commission that have been earned but not paid yet.   So basically if you are not keeping track of your receivables you would have no way to know what commission you are owed and from what merchants.   And with the 60-90 day delay, this can get a bit confusing if you don’t have a good system.

I have a hard time believing that I am the only one having these issues. 

I know I have a minor in accounting… perhaps that may be part of the issue? 

There have to be more affiliate companies out there struggling with these issues.  If you want to run a successful business managing receivables is critical.  I just wish that the networks would understand this and help us by solving some of these issues.