What Are Obligations?

Introduction

An obligation in Siren is a record, signifying a commitment to pay collaborators. These conditions are typically defined by the conversions that collaborators help bring about. For instance, if a collaborator’s affiliate link leads to a sale, this creates an obligation for your business to pay a commission to that affiliate.

Usually, obligations are generated after a conversion is approved. When a customer completes an action like making a purchase or signing up for a service, and this action is validated and meets your program’s criteria, an obligation for each collaborator associated with that conversion is established. Each obligation is associated with a single collaborator and represents a payment owed for a specific conversion.

Obligations essentially act as a backlog, accumulating all payments that are owed to collaborators. Since conversions can create multiple obligations, this system ensures that each payment owed is clearly recorded and attributed to the correct collaborator.

Paying Obligations

Once obligations are established, they are compiled and processed during the fulfillment stage. At that stage, all obligations are tallied, and the total amounts owed to each collaborator are prepared for payout. This stage translates the theoretical earnings from obligations into actual payments, marking the final step before disbursing funds to collaborators.

Obligation Status

While obligations typically move towards fulfillment, it’s important to note that they can also be rejected. This might occur if a subsequent review of the conversion uncovers issues such as non-compliance with program terms, discrepancies in transaction details, or fraudulent activity.

Rejecting an obligation is a critical control measure that helps protect your business from incorrect payouts, and serves as a final check before committing a payment to collaborators. This step ensures that only valid and verified obligations proceed to the payout stage, safeguarding your resources and upholding fairness for all participants.