Non-Commissionable Custom Fields
Last updated: March 5, 2025
What does ‘non-commissionable’ mean?
When a field is non-commissionable, the third party does not receive a commission on that priced custom field. Tour operators will usually do this because their affiliate is not actually selling the add-ons to the customer, so they should not receive a commission, or the tour operator must pass a fee on to a government agency – like a park entrance fee. Discounts may or may not be commissionable, depending on the use case. The way of making a field non-commissionable in FareHarbor changes depending on the invoice sheet (connected or regular) and the type of custom field ($ vs. %).
For example, if a Skydiving company has a $50 GoPro add-on in a custom field, they will need to decide if their affiliates will receive a commission on the $50 GoPro add-on or if the full $50 will go to the Skydiving company.
Billing
On a billing sheet, a non-commissionable custom field will look like this on a booking. The invoice price will match the total price. This means the tour operator will get the full amount back on the custom field price.
Referral
On a referral sheet, a non-commissionable custom field will look like this on a booking. The invoice price will be $0. This means the tour operator will not pay any commission to the affiliate on the custom field price.
Managing non-commissionable custom fields
Non-commissionable custom fields can now be managed with a checkbox under Settings & Pricing.
To make a custom field non-commissionable:
- Open the custom field in the Custom Field section of the FareHarbor Dashboard.
- Go to Settings.
- Navigate to Settings & Pricing.
- Check the Do not commission this field box.
- Click Save.
Note: The Do not commission this field checkbox is admin-only, and available only for checkbox, dropdown, and quantity custom fields. This checkbox is not visible in Dashboards with aggregate tax enabled.
Exception: Non-connected invoice sheets & percentage-based commissions
Currently, this functionality does not calculate the correct percentage for custom fields on non-connected invoice sheets to make them non-commissionable. Percentage custom fields on connected invoice sheets do calculate correctly and appear non-commissionable.
For these setups, the custom field still acts as a regular, commissionable field. This means that affiliates will earn a commission from it. You can use the workaround that was previously used to achieve non-commissionable custom fields.
Connected invoice Sheets
On connected invoice sheets, a custom field can easily be made non-commissionable.
- Open the custom field that should not be commissioned.
- Check the Do not commission this field box.
- Click Save.
Regular invoice sheets
Dollar Custom Fields
Making a dollar custom field non-commissionable on invoice sheets works the same way for both billing and referral setups.
To make a dollar custom field non-commissionable on invoice sheets:
- Open the custom field that should not be commissioned.
- Check the Do not commission this field box.
- Click Save.
Percent Custom Fields
Percentage (%) custom fields need a rate to pull from. In FareHarbor, price and invoice sheets do not talk, so the custom field calculates the % increase/decrease off of the invoice amount rather than the total amount (which we do not want if it is non-commissionable). Making a percentage custom field non-commissionable on an invoice sheet works differently depending on whether the invoice sheet is a billing (owed to you) or referral (owed to affiliate).
Billing
In order to make a custom field non-commissionable on a Billing/Owed to You setup, there is an extra step in order to figure out the percentage the CF should increase/decrease by to make it truly non-commissionable in FareHarbor.
**To make a custom field non-commissionable on a Billing/Owed to You setup:
- Open up the custom field.
- Switch to the invoice sheet you want to make this CF non-commissionable on.
- Use the percent change formula to calculate the percentage that should go in the Invoice Price column.
- Enter 100% in the Commission column.
- Test it on the book form.
For example, if the total is $10, invoice price is $9, and there is a 5% increase, it will increase the total by $0.50 (5% of $10) but it will only increase the invoice amount by $0.45 (5% of $9 – the invoice price). How then do we make it non-commissionable?
- Booking total: $10
- Commission: 10%
5% custom field add-on
% changeis the amount the custom field is increasing or decreasing by. So in this example, the custom field is adding on 5% so our % change is .05.Invoice %is the amount the invoice price should change by. So in this example, our commission amount is 10% so our invoice % is 90% or .9.
Referral
In order to make a % custom field non-commissionable on a Referral/Owed to Affiliate setup, you will have to open the invoice sheet on the custom field, and zero both columns out. That way, when the custom field is selected during booking, it will not add on to the amount owed to the affiliate.
To make a % custom field non-commissionable on a Referral/Owed to Affiliate setup:
- Open the custom field.
- Switch to the invoice sheet you want to make this CF non-commissionable on.
- Enter ‘0’ in the Invoice Price column and the Commission column.
Test it on the book form.
