Track Your Monthly Revenue With QuickBooks And Affluent

Set up a simple system that tracks monthly revenue from product sales and affiliate programs in one view.

You need:

• QuickBooks Online account

• Affluent account

• Logins for your payment processors and affiliate networks

• List of your products and main offers

• Live bank account connected to your payouts

• A simple UTM naming rule for links

Steps

1. Choose what to measure each month. Write down four numbers. Product revenue. Affiliate revenue. Refunds. Fees. Keep this list visible while you set up.
   
   

2. Sign in to QuickBooks Online. Open Settings. Set your company time zone and currency. Save.
   
   

3. Connect your bank feed. Go to Banking. Click Link account. Connect the account that receives SamCart and affiliate payouts. Check: New transactions appear under For review.
   
   

4. Create income categories. Go to Accounting > Chart of accounts. Add two income accounts. Product Sales. Affiliate Commissions. Add two expense accounts. Processing Fees. Refunds and Chargebacks.
   
   

5. Add products and services. Go to Sales > Products and services. Create one item for each mini product. Set the income account to Product Sales.
   
   

6. Create bank rules for speed. Go to Banking > Rules. Add rules that recognize Stripe, PayPal, or SamCart deposits and set them to Product Sales. Add rules that recognize each affiliate network deposit and set them to Affiliate Commissions. Tip: Add the network or product name to the memo field for quick reporting.
   
   

7. Sign in to Affluent. Open Integrations. Connect every affiliate network you use. Import the last 90 days so you see a clean month.
   
   

8. Organize merchants. In Affluent, group programs into simple folders such as Software, Courses, and Tools. Add tags such as Top Offer and Watchlist so reports stay clear.
   
   

9. Build a monthly revenue view in Affluent. Add widgets for Revenue, Clicks, Conversion rate, EPC, and Refunds. Set the date to Last month. Turn on Compare to previous period. Save this as Monthly Affiliate Revenue.
   
   

10. Export a month-end summary from Affluent. Click Export on your saved view. Save the CSV in a folder named by month. You will use it for cross-checks.
    
    

11. Tidy your QuickBooks bank feed. Go to Banking > For review. Accept product deposits in Product Sales. Accept affiliate deposits to Affiliate Commissions. Apply your rules where you can. Check: Each accepted line shows the correct account.
    
    

12. Record processor fees. Open a product payout detail if fees were netted. Split the transaction. Leave gross to Product Sales. Add a line for Processing Fees as a negative amount. Check: The net matches the bank deposit.
    
    

13. Record refunds. When you see a refund in the bank feed, categorize it to Refunds and Chargebacks. Add the product name to the memo.
    
    

14. Build your monthly report in QuickBooks. Go to Reports > Profit and Loss. Set the Report period to the Last month. Click Customize. Show Rows by Months. Click Run report. Save customization as Monthly Revenue Summary.
    
    

15. Add a simple product view. Go to Reports > Sales by Product/Service Summary. Set Last month. Save as Monthly Product Sales.
    
    

16. Cross-check with Affluent. Open your Affluent CSV. Compare total Affiliate Commissions in QuickBooks to Affluent revenue for the same month. Differences often come from timing. Note any gaps to follow up.
    
    

17. Add a notes page. Keep one doc per month with three bullets. What grew. What dropped. What to test next.
    
    

18. Schedule your routine. In QuickBooks, click the star on your two saved reports to add them to Favorites. Each month on the first business day, open both reports, accept new bank feed items, and export PDFs to your month folder.
    
    

19. Schedule an email from Affluent. Open your Monthly Affiliate Revenue view. Click Schedule. Send a monthly summary to your inbox on the first day of each month.
    
    

20. Share numbers with yourself in one place. Create a simple folder named Year > Month. Store the two QuickBooks PDFs, the Affluent CSV, and your three-bullet notes.
    
    

Quick check

• Bank feed is connected and shows new transactions.

• Payouts map to Product Sales or Affiliate Commissions. 

• Fees and refunds have their own accounts.

• Profit and Loss shows last month with totals you understand.

• Affluent’s monthly total is close to your Affiliate Commissions line.

Fix common issues

Missing affiliate deposits: Reconnect the network in Affluent and confirm your payout account in QuickBooks shows those deposits for the same month.
Wrong categories: Edit the transaction in QuickBooks and change the account to Product Sales or Affiliate Commissions, then save.
Totals do not match: Check timing. Some networks pay in the next month. Add a note and reconcile with the next month’s deposit.
Fees hide inside deposits: Split the deposit in QuickBooks and post fees to Processing Fees so revenue stays accurate.
Report shows daily lines: In your report, set Rows by Months or set the period to Last month and save again.

Resources

Guide: Affiliate Tracking & Analytics Simplified
Mini-course: Track, Test, and Scale Your Affiliate Income

Close last month today. Accept bank feed items, save the two QuickBooks reports, export the Affluent CSV, and write three notes. Next month will take less time because your rules and reports are in place.