Payout Process Overview
In Tapfiliate, payouts are fully under your control—allowing you to decide when and how your affiliates get paid. This gives you full oversight of your budget, payment schedule, and approval process.
Why This Matters:
Total Control: Approve commissions, verify results, and pay only when ready.
Flexible Timing: Plan payouts to match your cash flow and business policies.
Accuracy First: Double-check performance data before sending payments.
Freedom of Choice: Make transfers via your preferred payment method.
Looking ahead, Tapfiliate will introduce internal payout functionality in 2026, making affiliate payouts even easier — stay tuned for updates!
The affiliate payout process in Tapfiliate can be summarized as follows:
Define Payout Methods: Set up the payment options your affiliates can choose (e.g., bank transfer, PayPal, etc.). These are the methods you’ll use to pay your affiliates.
Affiliate Conversions: Affiliates drive conversions through your program.Approve Commissions: On a regular basis, review affiliate conversions and approve or disapprove commissions.
Balance Formation: Once commissions are approved, balances are formed for each affiliate.
Settle Balances: Settling balances generates a CSV file, which you then process using the payment methods you defined earlier.
Understanding Affiliate Balances
The Balances are calculated the following way: Balances = All approved commissions – Paid amounts
Examples:
Commission approved: $10 → Balance = $10
Paid out: $10 → Balance = $0
Refund or disapproved commission: Balance = -$10
Negative balances indicate overpayments. Positive balances indicate underpayments.
Example of a negative balance in the advertiser portal:
Example of a negative balance in the affiliate account:
Step-by-step guide how to payout your affiliates
Review and approve commissions inside Tapfiliate in your Conversions tab:
Please, note that you can toggle on Automatically approve commissions in Programs - General settings to enable every commission automatically approve or approve and disapprove commission using our REST API.
2. Generate a payout when ready.
Paying affiliates is a two-step process:
Settle balances in Tapfiliate and download the CSV file.
Upload the CSV file to your payment processor to execute payments.
Settling All Balances
When it’s time to generate payouts for your affiliates (weekly, monthly, or quarterly):
Go to the Payouts tab → Balances.
Click Settle All Balances. A window will pop up where you can:
Define a minimum payment amount (optional)
Hover over affiliate bubbles to see individual amounts payable
Use the toggle to include affiliates who have not set a payout method
Click the blue button to complete the action.
A CSV file will be generated and downloaded to your device.
You can also find the CSV file formed in the Payout → Payment History tab.
Settling Individual Balances
To pay a single affiliate:
Click Settle Balance next to the affiliate.
In the popup window, indicate the amount to settle.
A CSV file will be generated and downloaded to your device.
3. Complete the transfer via your payment provider (PayPal, bank transfer, etc.).
Checking Past Affiliate Payments
To view payments for a specific affiliate, go to the Affiliates tab and click View Full Profile. Here’s where you can review the payment history for a particular affiliate.
Affiliates can view their balances in the Payouts tab of their account.
When a balance is marked as Settled, it means that you (the advertiser) have settled the amount from your account and the affiliate should receive the payment shortly. In other words, Settled indicates that the balance has been confirmed as paid.
FAQs
❓Can I cancel a payment?
Yes. Go to Payments history, click the dropdown for a payment, and select Cancel. The amount is returned to the affiliate’s balance.
❓Can I pay out commissions up to a certain date?
Yes. Use the "Up to" filter next to Settle All Balances to include only commissions before the date.
❓What’s in the CSV file I exported after settling balances?
It contains affiliate payout amounts and payout details (if provided).
❓Why is an affiliate’s balance negative?
Negative balances result from overpayments or adjustments to previously paid commissions. Read more about it here.
❓Can I automate the Payouts with Tapfiliate?
While Tapfiliate doesn’t yet support internal payout automation, you have a couple of options:
Use a third-party tool like Trolley to fully manage and automate affiliate payouts.
Automate certain steps of the payout process using Tapfiliate’s REST API.
❓How is invoicing for affiliate payouts dealt with?
Invoicing isn’t handled directly within Tapfiliate.
That said, you can easily connect your invoicing software to Tapfiliate to fully automate the process. Many of our customers do this by using Triggers or by integrating Tapfiliate with their preferred invoicing tool through Zapier.
Tax Forms (W-9 & 1099)
If you use PayPal to pay your affiliates, PayPal will take care of the tax reporting on your behalf.
If you’re using our Trolley integration, then all affiliate invoicing is handled directly by Trolley. This means you won’t need to manage those invoices manually within Tapfiliate — Trolley takes care of it for you.