Q: Is real-time scrubbing worth it, or is end-of-month reconciliation enough?

Q: Is real-time scrubbing worth it, or is end-of-month reconciliation enough?

A: One protects cash flow, the other protects relationships — and the gap between them is where disputes live.

Real-time scrubbing filters suspect conversions as they land, so your reported numbers and payouts are clean from the start. Best for cash-flow protection and avoiding clawbacks, but it decides with partial data and will reject some good conversions it can't yet confirm.

End-of-month reconciliation reviews everything with full downstream data — which leads actually became customers, which charged back. Far more accurate, but you've already paid out, so now you're clawing money back from affiliates, and clawbacks poison partner trust faster than almost anything.

How to balance them:
— Real-time for the clear-cut: block declared bots and datacenter floods at the door.
— Reconciliation for the judgment calls that need downstream proof.
— Critically: tell affiliates your scrubbing window upfront. A 'we may adjust within 30 days' clause turns a trust-killing surprise clawback into an expected adjustment.

Short version: real-time scrubbing protects your cash, monthly reconciliation protects accuracy — run both, and disclose your adjustment window so clawbacks don't burn partners.

Still stuck? Drop your case in the comments.