Auditing a Monthly Commission Statement, Line by Line

A commission statement is a calculation someone else ran on data you can only partly see. Most errors in one are not fraud. They are a player counted in the wrong month, a step on the ladder applied one level too low, a rate that was never updated after a negotiation, a deduction line that grew without explanation, or a currency conversion done on a date you did not expect. Each of those is small on its own and invisible unless you look. Thirty minutes per program per month is enough to catch them, provided you keep the right records on your side and run the checks in a fixed order.

What to keep on your side before the statement arrives

You cannot audit a number without something independent to hold it against. Four records do most of the work:

• A click log. Every outbound click with a timestamp, the page it came from, the subID you attached and, where you can capture it, the visitor's country. If your links run through a redirect path on your own domain, the log is a by-product of the redirect.
• The agreement you accepted. A dated copy of the terms page and the commission page as they stood when you joined, plus every rate change confirmed in writing since.
• Last month's statement. Most anomalies show up as a change from the previous month, not as an absolute number.
• Your own tally of the month. Clicks per program, registrations and FTDs if the program reports them per subID, and the step on the ladder you expect to land on.

The tracking side of this, including how subIDs and postbacks carry data from your page into the program's report, is in affiliate tracking and postbacks explained.

The eight checks, in order

The order matters, because each check depends on the ones before it. A wrong count makes the step wrong, a wrong step makes the rate wrong, and nothing after that can be right.

1. Counts

Compare your clicks against the program's, then registrations against FTDs. The two sides never count a click identically: repeat clicks, bot filtering and blocked scripts all open a gap. Set a tolerance, for example 10%, and investigate only above it. A sudden change in the ratio from one month to the next matters more than the size of the gap itself.

2. The step

Find the count the ladder used and the step it landed on. If the count sits at a boundary figure, check which step the statement applied. On a whole-month ladder, one counted player can move the rate on every euro of the month, so a count that differs from yours by one or two is worth a question even when the click totals look fine.

3. The rate

Check the applied rate against the rate you were given in writing, not the rate on the program's marketing page. The two can disagree. Metal Casino Affiliates' site shows a Bronze tier at 25% for up to ten new depositing players a month, while clause 2.3 of its agreement sets the default revenue share at 15%, with new partners offered 20%. Duelbits Partners' FAQ says affiliates start at 25%; clause 7.1 of its terms puts one to five FTDs at 20%. The statement will show whichever rate is configured on your account, and the only way to know whether that is the rate you agreed is to have the agreement in writing.

4. Deductions

If the statement shows gross gaming revenue and net revenue separately, compute net as a share of gross and compare it with your trailing three months. A jump of several points without a matching explanation, such as a bonus campaign on the brand or a tax change in the player's market, is a question. If the statement shows only net revenue, ask for the breakdown once; the answer tells you how auditable the program is.

5. Carryover

Find the line that carries a balance in or out. Carryover clauses vary more than any other term. Duelbits operates a no-negative-carryover policy with one exception in clause 7.3: if a single referred player generates more than $10,000 of negative NGR in a month and the account's total monthly NGR falls below minus $2,000, that player's negative balance is carried forward and offset only against that player's future NGR. Playattack isolates a player whose cumulative wins push the balance more than $5,000 negative in a month. 7StarsPartners sets negative months to zero, except where the negative balance is attributable to fraud or a breach of the agreement. If a statement isolates a player or carries a balance, check which clause it relied on and whether its thresholds were met. The mechanics of the clause itself are in negative carryover: the clause that decides pay.

6. Currency

Note the currency of the statement and of the payment. 7StarsPartners pays in euros. Metal Casino Affiliates pays in euros against a minimum of $100 per payment. Cloudbet Affiliates pays in Bitcoin only. Where a conversion happens, ask which rate and which date are used. Two points of difference on a EUR 2,000 payment is EUR 40, every month.

7. Threshold and rollover

Check whether the balance cleared the payout threshold, and if not, that it rolled into next month rather than disappearing. 7StarsPartners carries any month under EUR 500 forward until the total reaches EUR 500. 10bet Partners pays by wire from EUR 500 and through Skrill or Neteller from EUR 100. Duelbits shows the same split between documents as on the rate: its FAQ names a $100 minimum, while clause 7.2 of its terms sets $250. Plan cash flow on the higher figure until the program confirms otherwise. Playattack can hold a new affiliate's profit for up to three calendar months, so an empty payment in the first quarter is not by itself an error.

8. Deadlines

Some programs pay against your invoice, and invoices have deadlines. Metal Casino Affiliates states that invoices older than one year from the date of issue will not be paid. 7StarsPartners settles an undisputed invoice within 20 days, so a disputed amount sits outside that promise: raise a dispute early, and invoice the undisputed part on time.

A worked reconciliation

An illustrative month with one program, on a whole-month ladder that pays 20% for 6 to 20 FTDs and 30% for 21 to 40.

• Your click log: 1,240 clicks to the program. The statement: 1,180. The gap is 60 clicks, 4.8%: inside tolerance, noted, not disputed.
• Your tally from the per-subID report: 22 FTDs. The statement counts 20 and applies the 20% step.
• Gross gaming revenue EUR 11,000, net revenue EUR 7,800. Net is 70.9% of gross; the trailing three months ran at 77%, 76% and 78%.

Two questions come out of it, and they are worth very different amounts.

The count. At 20 FTDs the month pays 20% of EUR 7,800, which is EUR 1,560. At 22 it would pay 30%, EUR 2,340. Two players are worth EUR 780 here, almost all of it from the step rather than from their own play. The right question is not "please pay the 30% step" but "which two players were removed, and under which clause". If they were duplicates or failed a qualifying condition, the statement is right and you have learned something about your traffic. If they were dropped by a data error, the step changes.

The deductions. The trailing average share of net in gross is 77%, so deductions usually take 23% of gross. This month they took 29.1%, roughly six points more. Six points of EUR 11,000 is EUR 660 of extra deductions, worth EUR 132 at the 20% step that applied and EUR 198 if the count question lands at 30%. Ask for the breakdown of the deductions line, and compare it with the program's definition of net revenue.

Total at stake: up to EUR 978 on one statement. Neither question accuses anybody of anything, and both are routine for a manager to answer.

Raising a discrepancy

Put it in writing, one statement and one program at a time. Include the month, the line you are querying, your figure and theirs, the evidence (subIDs, timestamps, the country where you have it) and the clause you are reading. Ask a question rather than stating a conclusion. Keep the thread, and keep the answer with your copy of the agreement, because the same question tends to come back a few months later. If a dispute stalls, the escalation path is in working with your affiliate manager, and the invoicing side of a corrected statement is in getting paid: invoicing, VAT and thresholds.

The monthly audit checklist

• Clicks, yours against theirs, within tolerance.
• Registrations and FTDs, yours against theirs, by subID where the report allows.
• The count the ladder used, and the step applied.
• The applied rate against the rate agreed in writing.
• Net revenue as a share of gross, against the trailing three months.
• Any carryover or isolated player, and the clause behind it.
• Currency, conversion rate and date.
• Threshold reached, or balance rolled forward correctly.
• Invoice sent, and the deadline noted.

Common questions

How large a click gap is normal?

There is no standard figure, because programs filter differently. What you can control is consistency: pick a tolerance, apply it every month, and react to changes in the gap more than to its size. A gap that doubles from one month to the next deserves a question even when it is still small.

What if the report does not show deductions at all?

Ask once for the breakdown, in writing, for a single month. A program that answers gives you a baseline to compare against. One that will not is telling you how far its numbers can be checked, and that belongs in your decision about how much traffic to send it.

Is it worth querying small amounts?

Query the cause, not the amount. A EUR 40 error from a conversion date repeats every month; a missing player can change the step on every future month as well. Small recurring errors are the ones worth fixing first.

What we would do this week

1. Start a one-page audit sheet per program with the nine checklist lines, and fill it in for last month.
2. Find the written rate for each program. Where you only have the marketing page, ask the manager to confirm the rate on your account.
3. Compute net revenue as a share of gross for the last three statements of your largest program and write the average down.
4. List every program that pays against your invoice, with its invoicing deadline, and set reminders.