Fraud & safety

Pay real commissions on real revenue — never on refunds.

Hold periods protect against chargebacks. Automatic clawback reverses commissions on refunds. Cascading logic handles multi-tier programs. Your margin stays intact.

Every refund you don’t clawback is a hole in your margin.

A customer buys in January, the affiliate gets paid in February, then refunds in March. Without clawback, you’re out the product AND the commission. Multiply by 100 refunds and it’s a six-figure problem.

Without Traaaction
  • Pay commissions before chargebacks settle
  • Refunds leak through to paid-out commissions
  • Manual reconciliation of refunds to commissions
  • No cascade on multi-tier programs — orphan credits
With Traaaction
  • Hold periods match each source type (3d / 30d)
  • Automatic clawback on every refund
  • Negative balance applied if commission already paid
  • Cascading clawback for referrals and org splits
See it live

Three statuses. One lifecycle. Zero surprises.

Commissions start PENDING. After the hold period, they become PROCEED (payable). Once paid, they’re COMPLETE. If a refund lands at any stage, we delete or reverse — and cascade to any linked referral or organisation commissions.

How it works

Hold. Mature. Pay. Or reverse.

Step 1

Hold on creation

LEAD = 3 days, SALE = 30 days, RECURRING = 30 days. Designed to cover refund windows.

Step 2

Clawback on refund

charge.refunded triggers deletion of pending commissions and negative balance on paid ones.

Step 3

Cascade if needed

Multi-tier programs cascade the clawback across referrals and org splits automatically.

Why it matters

Mathematical safety for your margin.

Hold periods

Every commission waits through the chargeback window before being paid.

Configurable

Per program: shorten for trustworthy partners, lengthen for new ones.

Auto-reverse

Refunds trigger immediate clawback — no manual reconciliation.

Negative balance

If the money left already, we track it as a negative balance. Next payout self-corrects.

Technical spec

The technical details.

LEAD hold
3 days
SALE hold
30 days
RECURRING hold
30 days
Subscription cancel
Deletes pending, preserves matured
Supported
Chargeback handling
Dual strategy: session + invoice
Supported
Negative balance
Applied after recalculation — never overwrites
Supported

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is a clawback?+

When a customer refunds a purchase that already generated a commission, the commission must be reversed. If paid, the partner owes you back — we track this as a negative balance, auto-deducted from the next payout.

Can I change hold periods?+

Yes, per program. Some SaaS extend SALE hold to 60 days for extra safety. Some e-commerce shorten LEAD hold to 1 day for trustworthy partners.

What if a partner leaves with a negative balance?+

You can write it off manually in the dashboard. Typical amounts are small — most partners have enough in-flight commissions to absorb the clawback.

Does clawback cascade to multi-tier referrals?+

Yes. Every referral commission linked via referral_source_commission_id is deleted when the source commission is clawbacked.

What about trial cancellations?+

Trials never generate commissions (gross amount = 0), so there’s nothing to clawback. Cancellation during trial is a non-event for the system.

Is the clawback logic auditable?+

Yes. Every clawback creates an event log entry with timestamps, amounts and source. Available via dashboard and API.

Protect every euro you pay out.

Hold periods + clawback + cascade. Built in, always on.

Affiliate Fraud Protection — Clawback & Hold Periods | Traaaction | Traaaction