Affiliate
Team & Channels
Manage BD permissions, intake limits, public claims and handoffs, bulk updates, and Approval Policies.
#Define ownership before AI starts work
Open Affiliate → Team & Channels. This page does not control one Shop's service switch. It defines people, outreach accounts, Creator ownership, and approval boundaries across the seller account.
The page has three tabs:
- Team operations manages BDs, working modes, WhatsApp accounts, and Outlook accounts.
- Creator assignments manages the BD responsible for each Creator and the relationships AI must not take over.
- Safety & approvals determines whether important Agent actions execute automatically or wait for staff review.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme Team operations page, showing human BDs, outreach accounts, Creator counts, and working modes.
These controls answer different questions: BD assignment defines who owns the relationship; working mode and Creator protection define whether AI may take it over; Approval Policies define whether a prepared action may execute directly.
#1. Team operations: add the people who own relationships
A BD is the person who establishes and maintains Creator relationships. Configure BDs first because WhatsApp and Outlook accounts should belong to the people who actually use them. That keeps the external identity, Creator ownership, and future handoff clear.
Select Add BD, or open an existing BD, and complete these settings:
- Internal display name: the name your team uses for this owner.
- Creator-facing name: the name used in external communication.
- Working mode: choose AI assisted or Human only.
- Handling device: the Desktop that executes local WhatsApp, email, and related work for this BD.
- Accepting new Creators: whether new Creator relationships can be assigned to this BD.
- Regions: the markets this BD covers.
- Working instructions: this BD's tone, priorities, negotiation habits, and handoff rules.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme BD Work settings, with working mode, Creator-facing name, handling device, accepting status, and regions.
#AI assisted and Human only
- AI assisted: the Agent may work on Creators owned by this BD when the relationship is not protected. Safety and Approval Policies still apply.
- Human only: this BD works independently. The Agent does not take over Creators assigned to this BD.
Accepting new Creators only controls new assignment. It is separate from the AI working mode. A BD can pause intake and continue managing existing relationships.
A BD created from an imported protection list should remain Human only and paused until the profile has been reviewed and saved.
#Give a BD an individual login
A team lead can open a BD and use the Login account tab to create a sign-in email and initial password. The BD then signs in to the TK Copilot Desktop with that identity and enters a workspace governed by their responsibilities and permissions.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme BD Login account tab, where independent sign-ins are created and managed.
The password appears only once after creation or reset. Copy it and send it to the BD through a secure channel before closing the login-information card. If the password is later lost, a lead must reset it; a reset signs the account out on every device.
The BD workspace includes:
- Agent Workbench and Manual Workbench;
- Creator relationships owned by that BD;
- Target Collaboration records involving those Creators;
- read-only Product Knowledge;
- the Details view in Affiliate Analytics.
A BD's reading scope differs from their operating scope. Manual Workbench and Creators can show All, Public creators, or a specific BD within the viewer's assigned regions. Daily work is permitted for their own and public Creators; a colleague's Creator detail is read-only. Agent Workbench offers only My Creators and Public Creators. Campaigns, Team & Channels, Safety Policies, the full Analytics Overview and Explore views, and other supervisor controls remain available only to the account owner or an Affiliate supervisor.
| Area | A BD can read | A BD can operate |
|---|---|---|
| Manual Workbench and Creators | Own, public, and colleagues' Creators within assigned regions | Daily Sample and message work for own/public Creators; colleagues are read-only |
| Agent Workbench | My Creators or Public Creators, selected separately | Proposals and Escalations they are authorized to review or handle |
| Creator configuration and ownership | Accessible relationships | Authorized settings for their own Creators; a supervisor manages colleagues' configuration |
| Collaboration History | Target Collaborations involving their own Creators | No additional authority over other Creators or account-wide Collaborations |
| Analytics | Their own application-level records | Query and export; full Overview and Explore remain supervisor features |
All still respects the BD's assigned regions. A BD with no region restriction is not narrowed by that region filter. Reading a colleague's record neither transfers ownership nor starts AI work.
The login is separate from the BD's operating configuration. Creating one does not enable AI assisted mode or change Accepting new Creators, regions, Creator protection, or existing assignments. It only determines whether this BD can enter the system under their own identity.
The same tab lets a lead:
- Reset password: issue one new password, show it once, and end old sessions.
- Disable / Enable: temporarily block or restore sign-in.
- Remove login: remove sign-in access while retaining the BD, assigned Creators, outreach accounts, and history.
Archiving a BD disables the login. Restoring the BD does not enable it again; return to Login account and enable it explicitly. The account also appears in the Sub-accounts list under Account & Permissions, but creation, reset, disablement, and removal belong here.
#2. Assign WhatsApp and Outlook to each BD
Open a BD and select Outreach channels to manage the accounts used for external communication.
For QR onboarding, optional proxies, and personal or shared Outlook authorization, see Connect WhatsApp and Outlook. This chapter explains account ownership, team relationships, and permissions.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme BD Outreach channels, showing WhatsApp, Outlook, preferred senders, escalation notifications, and Creator contacts.
From this view you can:
- inspect the WhatsApp and Outlook accounts assigned to this BD;
- set a preferred sender for each channel type;
- transfer an account to another BD;
- inspect each sender-account-to-Creator contact route;
- configure the escalation notification channel and recipient for this BD.
WhatsApp and Outlook are the BD's actual communication identities, so assign them to the person who uses them. When responsibility changes, use Transfer instead of deleting and recreating the account.
Escalation notifications can use a connected Feishu or Lark, WeChat, Telegram, or other general message channel. For connection, recipient, and health details, see Message channels.
After setup, verify that the account is online, the preferred sender is correct, the handling device is online, and the escalation recipient receives a test notification.
If the top banner reports a BD without a handling device, you can dismiss it for the current App launch. It reappears after restart if the device is still missing. Dismissing the warning only changes its visibility; it does not bind a device or restore work that requires one.
#3. Creator assignments: manage ownership and AI protection separately
Open Creator assignments. This is the centralized place to set the responsible BD and decide whether AI may handle each relationship.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme Creator assignments page, showing protected Creators, responsible BDs, Manual Tags, and relationship status.
Treat these as two independent fields:
- Responsible BD answers who owns the relationship.
- Protection status answers whether AI may take over the relationship.
#Separate Campaign outreach from Creator ownership
Campaigns and BD assignment are independent mechanisms. A Campaign discovers Creators and sends Target Collaboration invitations and opening outreach globally for the seller account. These are one-way actions initiated by the seller. They do not mean that a BD has taken ownership, and the Creator is not assigned based on who created the Campaign or sent the invitation.
Automatic ownership begins only when the Creator starts a real two-way relationship with the seller:
- the Creator sends the seller a message; or
- the Creator submits a Sample Application.
In short: inviting does not assign; an inbound message or Sample Application does. The Campaign decides whom to find and contact. BD assignment decides who will own the relationship after the Creator engages. See Create a Campaign for Campaign setup and operation.
#How automatic assignment is resolved
When the first inbound message or Sample Application arrives, the system evaluates ownership in this order:
- Keep an existing owner. Later messages, Sample Applications, Campaigns, or activity from another Shop do not automatically replace the current BD.
- Honor staff-defined protection first. A protected Creator with a specified BD goes to that BD. A protected Creator without a specified BD remains unassigned instead of falling back to a random person.
- Otherwise, balance new assignments across eligible BDs. Candidates must be active, have a completed profile, have Accepting new Creators enabled, and remain below any enabled automatic intake limits.
- Use the region of the Shop that received the interaction. BDs responsible for that region and BDs with no region restriction enter the same candidate pool. BDs assigned only to other regions are excluded.
- Leave the relationship unassigned when no eligible candidate exists. Staff can assign it from Creator assignments, and a later inbound message or Sample Application will check the eligible pool again.
Among eligible candidates, the system first selects the BD with the lowest automatic intake this week, then the lowest intake this month, and uses a random tie-breaker only when both counts match. This balances new automatic assignments, not the total historical Creator book. Import or assign and protect key accounts that require a fixed owner.
#Weekly and monthly automatic intake limits
In a BD's work settings, expand New Creator intake → Advanced and enable Limit automatic intake. Limits are off by default. Enabling them starts with 100 per week and 500 per month; other positive whole numbers are allowed. Reaching either limit pauses new automatic assignments without removing existing Creators.
Counts belong to each BD across all Shops and assigned regions. Weekly periods reset Monday at 00:00 and monthly periods on day 1 at 00:00, both in UTC+8 rather than the computer or Shop timezone. Manual claims and administrator assignments do not consume automatic quota. Returning a Creator to the public pool does not refund intake. Disabling limits does not erase the current counts, so enabling them again uses intake already recorded in that period.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme BD work settings with weekly and monthly automatic intake limits expanded, region selection, and the accepting switch.
#Public Creators: collaborate, claim, and return
Public creators are relationships without a responsible BD and can include protected Creators. A BD may read public messages and Samples within their regions and perform authorized daily work. Handling one message or Sample does not itself claim the relationship.
Open an unprotected public Creator and select Claim for myself in Management to become the single responsible BD. A colleague's assigned Creator cannot be claimed; simultaneous claims have one winner. Human-only BDs and BDs paused for new Creators may still claim manually. A protected public Creator requires administrator assignment in Team & Channels rather than self-service claiming.
The current BD, account owner, or Affiliate supervisor may select Return to public pool and confirm. This removes ownership without removing protection, transferring WhatsApp/Email contacts, or cancelling existing Proposals or running work. Complete the communication handoff first: the Creator may already have saved the previous BD's contact details.
Claims and returns change future ownership. Existing Proposals retain the reviewer scope established when they were created; ask a supervisor to coordinate older Proposals that the new owner cannot access. Returning a Creator does not permanently block automatic assignment: a later real message or Sample Application can establish ownership under the normal rules.
#Why one Creator has only one responsible BD
Within one seller account, a Creator has one cross-Shop relationship, and that relationship contains one Responsible BD field. As a result:
- the same Creator keeps one owner across multiple Shops and Campaigns;
- simultaneous messages or Sample Applications still produce only one effective assignment;
- manual reassignment replaces the previous owner instead of adding a second one;
- when no eligible candidate exists, the Creator may be temporarily unassigned but is never assigned to several people.
Accepting new Creators affects only new automatic assignments; turning it off does not remove relationships the BD already owns. AI assisted / Human only also does not decide who receives the Creator. It controls whether the Agent may work after ownership has been established.
Together they form the operating boundary:
- Assigned to an AI-assisted BD and not protected: the Agent may work within policy.
- Assigned to a Human-only BD: the human handles the relationship independently.
- Protected: the Agent does not take over, even when the Creator is assigned to an AI-assisted BD.
- Protection removed: existing work may become eligible for AI again when the responsible BD is AI assisted.
Before enabling AI for the first time, import the Creators already managed by your team and protect the relationships that must remain under human control.
#Bulk import and manual maintenance
Select Import Creator updates to download the standard Excel template, or add entries manually. The import shows a preview and asks you to confirm matched BDs. For every unrecognized BD name, choose explicitly whether to create a profile, map it to an existing BD, protect without assignment, or exclude the rows. Entries are not silently skipped.
For an existing book, filter Creators by Shop, BD, or tags, select Export filtered Creators, edit the Excel file, and upload it here. Export includes the matching result set rather than only cards already loaded on screen.
Choose the update scope before uploading:
- BD only: replace assignments while keeping protection, tags, and notes. A blank BD clears ownership and returns the Creator to Public creators. Use this for staff handoffs.
- All template fields: each row specifies the target state. Blank BD clears ownership; blank protection or
UNPROTECTremoves protection; all tag cells blank clears Manual Tags; a blank protection note clears the old note. Creators absent from the file and System Tags remain unchanged.
Create Manual Tags in the system first, then select them from the workbook dropdown. Uploads cannot invent tags. In full mode, an empty cell does not mean “leave unchanged.” Check the preview's ownership, protection, and tag changes before submitting. After a timeout, verify applied rows before assuming nothing succeeded.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme Creator bulk update dialog with BD only and All template fields modes and the upload entry.
For day-to-day work, add protection as soon as a human takes ownership of a key Creator. Protection may be created before the full Creator record is available; it is applied when the identity is matched.
#Tag catalog: maintain shared Creator categories
The Tag catalog under Creator assignments creates, renames, and deletes account-wide custom definitions. Attach or detach tags on one Creator in Creator detail. Deleting a shared definition also affects relationships and Approval Policies; inspect the confirmation first. See Tags & business controls for the complete workflow.
#4. Safety & approvals: control how actions execute
Open Safety & approvals. These policies apply to every Affiliate Shop under the current seller account, not only to one Shop being viewed.
#Limit older unreplied messages entering AI work
At the top of this tab, Unreplied-message window accepts 1–90 days, defaulting to 90. It applies seller-wide to platform chat, WhatsApp, and Email, using when the latest unreplied message was actually received rather than when it was synced.
Narrowing the window does not delete history or withdraw existing approval Proposals. Staff can still handle old messages manually. Increasing it can bring unresolved older messages back into AI handling, so check backlog and policies first. This controls AI eligibility, independently of the Manual Workbench's date filter.
APP CAPTUREThe English light-theme Safety and approvals page with the unreplied-message window and account-level review policies.
Approval Policies are available for four action types:
- Send message: review the exact draft before provider delivery.
- Review Sample application: require staff confirmation before approval or rejection.
- Manage Creator Tags: require confirmation before the Agent changes Manual Tags.
- Decide no action is needed: require confirmation before the Agent closes the work without a platform action.
The Agent first prepares and submits the operation from the business context; the system then evaluates Safety Policies independently. When an enabled policy matches, the system keeps the operation as a Pending Proposal under Pending review in Agent Workbench. It continues only after approval. Without a matching policy, the operation may execute automatically. The Agent does not decide whether policy matches.
Do not confuse this review path with Pending. When the Agent itself recognizes that an issue exceeds its capability or authority, it actively creates an Escalation for a person to handle under Pending in Agent Workbench. Policy decides whether an Action Proposal needs review; it does not decide whether the Agent should escalate an issue. Protected Creators and Human-only BDs bypass AI from the start, so staff handle their work in Manual Workbench. See Agent Workbench and Manual Workbench for the complete distinction.
Policies can be narrowed with Manual Tags, Sample Tiers, Campaigns, or Product scope. For example, review Sample applications only for high-cost products, or review messages only for a key-Creator tag.
For a first launch, apply the four recommended policies and review every important action. Relax one action type or one clearly defined scope only after the team has validated the Agent's decisions and drafts. See Agent Workbench for the review flow.
#5. How the three boundaries work together
Diagnose behavior in this order:
- Relationship ownership: which BD owns the Creator.
- AI eligibility: whether the BD is AI assisted or Human only, and whether the Creator is protected.
- Action execution: whether Safety Policies permit automatic execution or require review.
For example, suppose a Creator belongs to an AI-assisted BD and is not protected. The Agent may prepare and submit the reply. The system then checks the Send message Approval Policy: a match holds the message proposal under Pending review, while no match allows automatic delivery. If the Agent concludes that it cannot handle the issue, it instead creates an Escalation under Pending. If the Creator is protected or the BD is Human only, the Agent does not create that automated work in the first place; an Approval Policy does not override either boundary.
#Recommended first-launch sequence
- Create every BD and set working mode, regions, instructions, and handling device.
- Assign WhatsApp and Outlook accounts to the BDs who use them, then choose preferred senders.
- Import existing Creator relationships and protect relationships that must remain human-owned.
- Apply all four recommended Approval Policies.
- Run a small Campaign and inspect Pending review and Pending in Agent Workbench.
- Relax protection or approval boundaries only after the team validates the results.
#Checklist before changing a boundary
- Before changing a BD from Human only to AI assisted, protect every relationship that should stay human-owned.
- Before removing Creator protection, confirm the responsible BD's working mode and Approval Policies.
- Before transferring WhatsApp or Outlook, confirm the new BD and handling device are ready.
- Before deleting an Approval Policy, confirm that the affected action should execute directly.
- Before archiving a BD, transfer the BD's Creator relationships and outreach accounts.
