How to conduct action verification

Verification is the process of checking and processing data about target actions (for example, orders or registrations) that you received thanks to Admitad publishers.

Here are the benefits of verification:

• Data accuracy. Verification ensures that all actions are registered correctly and helps timely correct any discrepancies. This guarantees that you are paying only for real and high-quality results.
• Trust and loyalty of publishers. Transparency and accuracy in calculations increase the publishers' trust in your program. As a result, the program rating grows, and the number of partners interested in effectively promoting your business's products and services increases.
• Analysis and improvement of results. By comparing data, you can better understand which channels and partners bring the greatest benefits and optimize the program's operation.

Verification consists of 3 stages:

1. Receiving data on actions recorded in Admitad reports: via file or automatically.
2. Checking the received data: you compare Admitad data with the data in your system.
3. Action processing: you provide Admitad with information on the action's final status (thus confirming or declining it).

Regular verification is a mandatory stage of your program's operation and a key element for ensuring its effectiveness.

There are 2 methods of verification:

• Manual Verification — actions are processed manually in an XLSX file and then the file needs to be uploaded to Admitad.
  • You can follow our instructions to carry out verifications on your own, or ask your account manager for help.
  • This method does not require the involvement of a technical specialist.
• Automatic verification (Autoverification) — is configured once, and then the verifications occur automatically without your involvement.
  • Assistance from your company's technical specialist will be required.

Manual Verification

Verifications should be conducted once a month or more frequently.

Manual verification consists of three stages:

1. Generating a file with actions
2. Processing actions in the file
3. Uploading the completed file

If verification is performed by your account manager, you only need to process the provided file as described in the section “Processing actions in the file” and send it back to the manager.

Generating a file with actions

First, generate a file with information on target actions on hold. To do this:

1. In your account, go to Finance → Actions on hold. You will be taken to the Action verification page.
2. In the File generation tab, click Generate file.
   

   If the Generate file button is inactive, it means there are no on-hold actions in your reports.
   
   

3. Wait for the file to be generated, and then click Download in XLSX.

The file will contain all open actions for the entire duration of the program.

• • Action time — time when the action occurred
  • Admitad ID. Action ID.
  • Order ID — Order ID
  • Order amount — order amount (field can be empty if the type of target action is Lead)
  • Status — status of the action in Admitad
  • General expenses — general expenses
  • Comment — field for your comment (for example, you can specify the reason for declining the action)
  • lost_order_invoice is the user's order number in your system. It will be indicated only if the publisher has sent a request to find this order or review its status. Editing the field is not necessary.

Processing actions in the file

Compare the data in the received file with the data in your system and edit the file: for each action in the Status field, specify the number corresponding to its current status.

0 — Open
1 — Confirmed
2 — Declined

If you specify any other value, the new action information will not be added when you upload the file.

If your system does not yet have information about the action's status — specify 0 in the Status field.

If the order is fully redeemed:

1. specify 1 in the Status column to confirm the action;
2. If you cooperate with the publisher on special terms, add the Cost for publishers field to the table and specify their reward in it.

If the order is partially redeemed:

1. Specify "1" in the Status field.
2. Change the order amount in the Order amount field.
3. Delete the data from the General expenses and Cost for publishers fields.
4. In the Comment field, leave a comment in the format Partial redemption with *original order amount*.
5. If you cooperate with the publisher on special terms,  add the Cost for publishers field to the table and specify their reward in it.

If there are several rates in the program and the order contains products with different rates, then, when changing the order amount, add the Cost for publishers field to the table and specify publisher's reward in it. This is necessary because the Admitad system cannot determine which goods with which rates were eventually purchased and, therefore, cannot automatically calculate the correct amount of commission.

If you want to decline the action:

1. Specify "2" in the Status field.
2. Describe the reason in the Comment field.

• • The publisher used a prohibited traffic source.
  • The user did not pay, canceled, or returned the order.
  • The publisher violated Admitad rules.
  • The publisher violated the program rules.

The screenshot shows an example of file processing, all changes are highlighted in blue. In this file:

• confirmed 7 actions, declined 2, and left 1 action open for which data is not yet available;
• for the confirmed order in line 3, the order amount was changed, a comment was added about it, and the Cost for publishers field was added to the table and specified publisher's reward in it. - the program has only 1 rate, so when uploading the file to the system, the commission will be recalculated automatically;
• for the declined actions, the reason for the decline was specified in the comments.

Uploading the ready file

When the file is ready and all changes are saved in it, go to Finance → Upload actions for verification.

There are two ways to upload actions for verification:

• upload via file — you upload the entire resulting file
• manual upload — you upload the actions from the file and edit the values in your account. 

Upload via file

1. Drag the file into the Uploading via file field in the Upload actions for verification section:

2. When the upload is complete, refresh the page – you will see a list of actions received from the file. 

The columns New status and New amount will show the updated data from the file.

3. If necessary, edit the order amounts or action statuses.

• To edit the order amount, click on it. Save the new value.

• To change the action status, check the corresponding row and then select the new status in the Apply to selected field.

• To save the status changes, select Use new statuses in the same field and click Apply.

Manual upload

This method is not suitable if you need to change the reward for webmasters with special conditions or the reward for partially purchased orders with different rates in the cart. When manually uploading, the reward amount is always calculated automatically from the order amount and cannot be changed. 

1. Filter the data in the file by the status "Confirmed" (including orders with changed amounts)
2. Copy the Admitad ID or Order ID column.

3. In the Upload actions for verification section, paste the copied values into the manual upload field.

4. In the Search by field, select the value you copied — in our example it is Admitad ID. Click Process actions.

5. Wait for the processing to complete and refresh the page to see the list of uploaded actions.

6. If the order amount was changed for a confirmed action in the file, change it here as well. To do this, click on the amount, save the new value. The reward will be recalculated automatically.

7. Confirm all these actions: click Select all, in the Apply to selected field select Confirm and apply.

8. Process the declined actions in the same way: first filter them in the file, then upload them manually.

Actions that were neither confirmed nor declined remain open.

Automatic verification

Auto-verification helps save time and avoid errors that can occur during manual verification. 

The auto-verification process looks like this:

1. You create an XML file.
2. Your system regularly (usually once a day) transfers information about actions from the database to this file. 
3. The Admitad server regularly accesses this file and uploads action data to Reports.

Read more about the XML file structure requirements and parameters in the article “Setting up auto-verification via XML”.

If you already have a suitable data file but with a different structure or parameter names, pass it to the tracking department so that auto-verification can be configured via a template or handler.

Another option is auto-verification via postback requests, where your server sends postback requests to the Admitad server with information about updated statuses and order amounts. This type of auto-verification is mainly used by financial programs.

Auto-verification requirements:

• Only the final order status needs to be passed in auto-verification. If the status can still change, it should not be transferred.
• Auto-verification should cover a long period.
  It is necessary to check the status of open orders for the past year or more.
• If the program allows partial order purchasing, such orders must be confirmed and the webmasters' reward recalculated accordingly. In auto-verification via XML and postback, the reward is transferred in the parameter {reward}.
  If you cannot transfer the webmaster’s reward, you must notify the tracking department specialist. In this case, orders with partial purchase will need to be verified manually. In this case, orders with partial purchase will need to be verified manually.

Possible problems during verification

Verification failed status

If when uploading via file, some actions in the Status column show Failed to verify, it means that an error occurred while processing this action in the file. The type of error will be indicated in the Error text field. Hover your cursor over the text to see a tooltip.

How to fix errors

Export all actions that couldn't be processed, make the changes, and upload the file again. For that, find the Failed to verify line in the upper section with reports, and click Export.

Failed to verify all actions

If, after manual upload, all actions have the Failed to verify status and the error text is Payment not found, it's possible that you selected the wrong option in the Search by field in Step 1. Change it, then retry processing.

If you can't identify or solve the problem yourself, contact your account manager.