There are 2 referral windows you must be aware of: the Chained Action Referral Window and the Click Referral Window. Referral Windows can only be changed in the Template Terms section, under Contracts in the left navigation menu.
This chained action is 5 years by default, so 5 years can pass between the parent action being tracked and a particular child action being tracked. Child actions tracked beyond 5 years will not be associated with their corresponding parent action. This number can be adjusted to a shorter amount of time.
This chained action is 180 days by default, so 179 days can pass between the initial click your partner drove and the parent action being tracked. Parent actions will not be tracked if the parent action (e.g., an app install) occurs after 180 days have passed since the initial click. This number can be adjusted to a shorter amount of time, based on business decisions and what makes sense for your brand between events.
You, as a brand, want to set your referral window as follows: Referral Window and Click Window set to 45 days.
You also have chained actions: a free trial signup and paid subscription event. You will batch in those paid subscription events and set the crediting policy as the following: Winner of Free Trial Signup, then cascades to Last Click.
What happens if actions are submitted after 45 days? In order for the Referral Window and Click Window to apply if files are sent after 45 days, the date provided when submitting the files has to be less than 45 days or within the designated Referral and Click Windows specified. If the action date is over 45 days, impact.com will attribute it to click, and if the Click Window is also more than 45 days, then it would be errored out and no referrer would be found.
Actions outside of both windows will have the error reason: NO_VALID_REFERRERS_FOUND OUTSIDE_ASSOCIATION_WINDOW. You can find these actions in the Invalid Conversions Report.