Case study: automated payout reconciliation caught $7,800 in underpayment

Case study: automated payout reconciliation caught $7,800 in underpayment

What it is: An affiliate trusted the broker's reported payouts until a reconciliation tool matched its own tracked FTDs against the broker's payment statements line by line.

Best for: Affiliates running revshare or CPA across multiple brokers with monthly statements.

What was done:
— Imported 6 months of broker statements and own tracker exports
— Matched on transaction_id and FTD date across ~2,200 conversions
— Flagged FTDs present in the tracker but missing from broker payment

Outcome:
— Found 31 confirmed FTDs the broker hadn't paid: ~$7,800
— Two were genuine integration gaps; the rest were 'pending' that never cleared
— Recovered the full amount after presenting matched transaction_ids

Pros:
— transaction_id matching gave undeniable evidence for the dispute
— Surfaced an integration bug that would have kept leaking money

Cons:
— Statement formats differ per broker; mapping takes upfront work
— Some brokers genuinely have long pending windows; not all gaps are theft

Who should skip this: Low-volume affiliates where the reconciliation effort exceeds the recovered amount.

Verdict: Reconcile every transaction_id.