Disapproving an affiliate and disapproving their commissions are two separate actions. Doing only one of them is the most common reason an affiliate you removed still shows up in your balances or in your list of pending payments.
This guide explains what each action changes, and the order to do them in.
Disapproving an affiliate
When you disapprove an affiliate, their status changes to Archived. From that moment:
Their referral link stops working. Tracking attempts associated with their links are no longer recorded.
They move out of Active affiliates and into the Archived affiliates filter on your Affiliates Overview.
They are not deleted. The record stays in your account and you can re-approve them later.
If the affiliate is in more than one of your programs, Disapprove all removes them from every program at once. To remove them from a single program, open their details panel, click the status for that program and select Disapprove.
What disapproving an affiliate does not do
Disapproving an affiliate does not settle or clear anything financial. In particular:
Commissions they already earned keep their current status. A commission is approved or disapproved separately from the affiliate.
Their balance stays as it is. If they still have an approved, unpaid balance, you still owe it according to Tapfiliate.
They can still appear in your pending payments. Disapproved affiliates continue to show in the Payouts tab, because the system still recognises them as people with a balance to be paid.
Payouts you already settled are not reversed. If the affiliate was disapproved after their balance was settled, that past payout is unaffected.
If you do not want to pay a disapproved affiliate
Do it in this order:
Disapprove their commissions first. Go to Conversions, filter to that affiliate, tick the checkbox at the top of the table to select their conversions, and click the button to disapprove the commissions. Disapproved commissions stay visible with the Disapproved status and only count towards the balance again if you approve them later.
Check the balance is zero. Balances are calculated as approved commissions minus paid amounts, so once the commissions are disapproved the outstanding balance is removed.
Then disapprove the affiliate. Their link stops working and they move to Archived.
If you disapprove the affiliate first and the commissions afterwards, you get the same end result, but the affiliate will keep appearing in your payouts list until the commissions are dealt with.
If you already paid them
Disapproving a commission that has already been paid out produces a negative balance. A negative balance means the affiliate was overpaid. It does not mean you owe them anything.
If the payout has been settled in Tapfiliate but you have not actually sent the money yet, go to Payouts > Payment history, open the dropdown for that payment and select Cancel. The amount returns to the affiliate's balance.
FAQs
❓Can I see when an affiliate or a commission was disapproved?
No. Tapfiliate does not keep a log of when an affiliate was disapproved from a program, or when an individual commission was disapproved.
❓Can I still pull click and referrer data for a disapproved affiliate?
Click and referrer data is available on the Reporting page, but disapproved affiliates are not currently included in the affiliate filter on those reports, so their data cannot be filtered out by affiliate there.
❓Does disapproving an affiliate delete their data?
No. The affiliate is archived, not deleted, and their conversions remain in your account. Deleting an affiliate is a different, permanent action.
❓Can I bring them back?
Yes. In your Affiliates Overview, switch the filter from Active affiliates to Archived affiliates, tick the affiliate and click Approve for all programs, or re-approve them for a single program from their details panel.
Still need help?
If you have any questions or if something in this guide is unclear, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@tapfiliate.com-we're happy to assist!