The time is minimal with the systems I'm familiar with. The cost varies all over the map. You can find a link to them at the URL in my sig. Affiliate Zone does that and you don't have to do it manually. Is this easy and inexpensive to set up.
Time is minimal for Affiliate Zone.
They can have you running in a few days. I'd go with Affiliate Zone. Affiliate Zone uses cookies to track sales. So, people who disable them or refuse cookies can't be tracked. I looked at Extreme tracking but had trouble getting into some pages.