Australian X-Up Plan MLM Software – How the Australian Binary Plan Works

Australian X-Up plan MLM software runs one simple rule: every new member passes the commission from their first X personal sales up to their sponsor, and from then on keeps the commission on every sale they make. X is usually 1, 2 or 3, which is why the plan is also called the Australian 1-up, 2-up or 3-up plan, and – when the placement is drawn as two positions under each member – the Australian binary plan. The software counts each member's sales, moves the passed-up commission (and in most set-ups the passed-up member too) to the right upline, and pays everything else directly. An Australian X-Up plan is a pass-up compensation plan in which a member's first X sales are credited to the sponsor and all later sales are credited to the member.

Last updated: 6 November 2026.

What the Australian X-Up plan is

The Australian X-Up MLM plan is built around a pass-up. When you join, your first X sales are "qualifying sales" (some companies call them training sales). The commission on each of them is not yours – it goes up to the person who sponsored you. Once you have passed up X sales you are qualified: sale number X+1 and every sale after it pays you in full, and from that point you also receive the qualifying sales of every person you sponsor. The result is that each member pays their sponsor once, early, and then builds income from their own sales and from the pass-ups of their own recruits.

Two things can travel upward, and the difference matters for the software:

• Commission pass-up – only the money moves. The customer you sold to stays in your downline; the commission for that sale is paid to your sponsor.
• Member pass-up (break-away) – the money and the member move. The person you sold to is re-attached under your sponsor, and their own first X sales will also pass up to your sponsor, not to you. This is the classic Australian 2-up rule, and it is what gives the sponsor a growing "leg" that was never personally recruited.

The three usual variants differ only in the value of X:

• 1-up – one qualifying sale. Fastest to qualify, smallest income for the sponsor, often used with low-priced memberships.
• 2-up – two qualifying sales. The most common form, usually what people mean by "Australian binary plan" or "Aussie 2-up"; two passed-up members form the two positions that make the structure look binary.
• 3-up – three qualifying sales. Used with higher-priced products where one sale carries a large commission and the company wants the sponsor rewarded for longer coaching.

You will also see the spelling "Australian XUp plan MLM software" and "Australian pass-up plan" – they all describe the same mechanism.

How it differs from the standard binary plan

The standard binary plan pays on matched volume: each member has a left leg and a right leg, commission is calculated on the weaker leg (or on matched pairs), the surplus on the stronger leg is carried forward, and many companies flush unmatched volume after a cycle. The Australian binary MLM plan borrows the two-position layout but none of the pairing maths. Each sale pays on its own, so there are no legs to balance, no carry-forward and no flushing. The Australian X-Up plan goes one step further and drops the fixed width as well – a member can sponsor any number of people and the only thing the plan tracks is who still owes pass-up sales to whom.

Rule	Standard binary plan	Australian binary plan	Australian X-Up plan
Structure	Two legs (left / right) under every member	Two positions under every member, filled by the two passed-up sales	Sponsor tree of any width; pass-up chain decides who is attached where
What triggers a commission	Matched volume between the two legs	Every confirmed sale	Every confirmed sale
Who is paid on a sale	Every upline whose legs the volume balances	The seller, or the sponsor for the first two sales	The seller, or the sponsor for the first X sales (X = 1, 2 or 3)
Leg balancing	Required – the weaker leg sets the payout	None	None
Carry-forward and flushing	Yes, surplus volume is carried or flushed	No	No
Spillover	Upline places recruits into your power leg	Passed-up members are re-attached under your sponsor	Same as Australian binary when the member pass-up rule is on
Earning depth	Unlimited depth, capped per cycle	Own sales plus the first two sales of each recruit, repeating down the chain	Own sales plus the first X sales of each recruit, repeating down the chain
Typical product	Consumables with repeat volume	One-off memberships and digital products	Digital products, courses, memberships, software licences

A worked example – Australian 2-up, the first five sales in USD

Take a company that sells a membership for USD 250 and pays a USD 100 commission on every sale. Alice sponsors Bob. Bob then makes five sales, in this order: Carol, Dan, Eve, Frank and Grace. The plan is a 2-up with the member pass-up rule.

Sale	Bob sells to	Commission	Paid to	Why
1	Carol	USD 100	Alice	Bob's first qualifying sale passes up; Carol is re-attached under Alice
2	Dan	USD 100	Alice	Bob's second qualifying sale passes up; Dan is re-attached under Alice
3	Eve	USD 100	Bob	Bob is now qualified; Eve stays in Bob's downline
4	Frank	USD 100	Bob	Direct earning
5	Grace	USD 100	Bob	Direct earning

After five sales Alice has received USD 200 and Bob USD 300. The example does not stop there, and this ripple is the whole point of the plan:

• Carol and Dan now belong to Alice. Their first two sales each (four sales) pass up to Alice – up to USD 400 more from people Alice never recruited herself.
• Eve, Frank and Grace stay with Bob. Their first two sales each (six sales) pass up to Bob – up to USD 600, and the people they sell to in those six sales are re-attached under Bob and owe him their first two sales in turn.
• If the company had chosen the commission-only pass-up instead, Carol and Dan would stay with Bob and their first two sales would pay Bob, not Alice. Alice would still receive the USD 200 from sales 1 and 2.

In a 1-up the same five sales would give Alice USD 100 and Bob USD 400; in a 3-up Alice USD 300 and Bob USD 200. The free online binary plan calculator on this site shows the standard binary maths for comparison.

Why it is called "Australian"

The name is generally traced to direct-sales programs in Australia in the 1990s that popularised the "give your first two sales to your sponsor" rule; "Aussie 2-up" is the older informal name. The word says nothing about where the company or its members have to be. Companies in the USA, Canada, Europe and worldwide run the plan in USD or their own currency, and searches for "Australian network marketing software" almost always mean software for this pass-up plan rather than software made for one country.

What Australian X-Up plan MLM software must handle

The plan looks simple on paper, but the money moves differently from any other plan, so the software needs a few specific pieces. These are the points we check when we configure the Australian binary plan in DAANI MLM software:

• Pass-up counter per member – how many qualifying sales each member still owes, kept per product tier if the company sells more than one tier (a USD 250 membership and a USD 1,000 course can each have their own counter).
• Receiver resolution – for every sale the software decides who is paid: the seller, the sponsor, or, when the sponsor has left or is inactive, the next qualified upline. The rule for an inactive upline (skip, hold or pay the company) is a setting, not an afterthought.
• Break-away and re-attachment – with the member pass-up rule the sponsored person must be moved under the receiving upline, with their own counter intact, and the genealogy must show both the original sponsor and the new placement.
• Re-entry – some companies let a member who has passed up X sales in a higher tier open a new position, or let a member re-enter after a fixed number of sales. The software has to create that position without double-counting the old one.
• Payout timing and refunds – commissions are usually held until the refund window of the product closes. A refunded qualifying sale has to roll the counter back and reverse the pass-up, otherwise the sponsor is paid for a sale that never settled. Daily, weekly or monthly payout runs go to an e-wallet and from there through the payment gateway.
• Genealogy and reports – a tree that shows sponsor lines and pass-up lines, a list of who is qualified and who is not, a log of every pass-up received and given, and sales reports per tier.
• Hybrids – a unilevel or generation bonus on the volume under a qualified member, a matching bonus, or a standard binary leg next to the pass-up. The pass-up counter must stay separate so a sale is never paid twice.
• The usual back office – member sign-up with replicated sites, multi-currency with USD as the base, multi-language, payment gateway, e-wallet, ticket support and a mobile-friendly dashboard. The full list is on the features page.

All of this is set up through the admin panel, not by changing code, so the value of X, the commission per tier and the pass-up variant can be changed before launch and tested with dummy sales.

Who uses the Australian X-Up plan

The plan fits products that are sold once, carry a high margin and need no stock: online courses, coaching programs, software licences, travel and lifestyle memberships, and digital downloads. Because the company does not have to pay a long chain of uplines on every sale, it can afford a large commission on a single sale – often 50 to 100 per cent of the price – and that single large commission is what makes passing up two of them meaningful.

Two things are worth saying plainly. First, the plan rewards selling, not pairing, so a member with no downline can still earn from their own sales once qualified. Second, regulators in the USA and elsewhere look at whether commissions are paid on real products sold to real customers; a plan that pays mainly on sign-up fees is a problem in any structure, and the software should be configured to pay on product sales. The list of binary plans on this site shows the other variants companies choose when they need volume-based pay instead.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Australian X-Up plan in MLM?

It is a pass-up compensation plan. A new member passes the commission from their first X personal sales (X = 1, 2 or 3) up to their sponsor. After those sales the member is qualified and keeps the commission on every further sale, and receives the pass-up sales of the people they sponsor.

How is the Australian binary plan different from a standard binary plan?

A standard binary plan pays on matched volume between a left and a right leg, so it needs pairing, carry-forward and often flushing. The Australian binary plan uses a binary-style placement but pays per sale under a 2-up pass-up rule: there is no pairing, no weaker-leg calculation and no flushing of unmatched volume.

Who gets the commission on a passed-up sale?

The commission goes to the first qualified upline, normally the direct sponsor. With the member pass-up (break-away) variant the sponsored person also moves to that upline, so their own first X sales pass up to the upline as well. With the commission-only variant just the money moves and the sponsored person stays in the seller's downline.

Does the Australian 2-up plan need leg balancing or pairing?

No. Each sale pays on its own as soon as the sale is confirmed, so nobody has to balance two legs or wait for a matching pair. The only counter the plan keeps is how many pass-up sales each member still owes to their upline.

Can the Australian X-Up plan be combined with other plans?

Yes. Common hybrids add a unilevel or generation bonus on the volume below a qualified member, a matching bonus, or product tiers where each tier runs its own X-up counter. The software has to keep the pass-up counter separate from the other bonuses so one sale is never paid twice.

Is there a free demo of Australian X-Up plan MLM software?

Yes. DAANI gives a free demo of its binary software with the Australian X-Up / Australian binary plan configured, so you can enter test sales in USD and watch where each pass-up commission lands before you decide.

See the plan running in the software

The quickest way to judge whether a 1-up, 2-up or 3-up suits your product is to enter a few test sales and watch the pass-ups land. Request the free demo of our binary software, or read the product page for the Australian binary plan on daanimlm.com. For the standard two-leg plan and the other variants, start from the binary software home page and the binary MLM plan guide.