Payout Reconciliation: Broker Panel vs Your Tracker

Payout Reconciliation: Broker Panel vs Your Tracker

What it is: The monthly chore of matching the FTDs your tracker recorded against the FTDs the broker panel agrees to pay for.

Best for: Any affiliate at scale who suspects they're being shaved.

Pros (trust the panel):
— Less work; the panel is what actually pays
— Brokers' numbers are usually the legal source of truth in the contract

Cons (trust the panel):
— No independent check — you can't catch under-reporting or 'scrubbed' conversions
— Disputes are unwinnable without your own data to point at

Pros (reconcile against your tracker):
— Surfaces the gap: a consistent 6-12% shortfall is the classic shaving signature
— Sub-ID-level matching shows exactly which conversions vanished
— Gives you leverage in payout disputes — numbers, not vibes

Cons (reconcile against your tracker):
— Labor: requires clean click-ID passthrough on every link
— Timing mismatches (delayed FTDs) create false gaps you must age out before judging

The method: export both sides by sub-ID, age the comparison 30 days to clear delayed deposits, then look at the steady-state gap. A stable single-digit gap is normal noise; a growing or double-digit gap is a conversation with the manager.

Who should skip this: Affiliates below a few hundred FTDs/month — the variance swamps any shaving signal.

Verdict: Age the data, then dispute.