Start with a specific question: which commissions should have been paid, under which terms, and on what date? A clear answer makes a follow-up more useful and a public complaint easier to assess. A large dashboard balance alone may not answer all three questions.
1. Check what “unpaid” means in your program
Save the applicable agreement and the dashboard’s payout terms. Look for approval or locking periods, refund adjustments, minimum thresholds, scheduled payout dates, and account requirements. Record the actual wording and when you captured it.
Platform labels differ. FirstPromoter describes monthly payouts, configurable payment delays and minimum thresholds. impact.com describes a separate progression through pending actions, locking, clearing and withdrawal requirements. Those examples explain why “tracked” or “pending” cannot be treated as a universal promise of immediate payment.
Sources: FirstPromoter payout documentation and impact.com payment lifecycle. Check your own program’s terms; these are platform examples.
If the due date is unknown, label it unknown. The date of your first unanswered email is a communication date, not automatically the start of a contractual delay.
2. Reconcile the outstanding amount
Export every page of commission and payout records if the platform allows it. Separate approved, pending, reversed and paid entries. Record the currency for each amount and avoid mixing currencies in one total.
For entries covered by your claim, compare eligible commissions with applicable adjustments and payments already allocated to those entries. Then compare the result with the dashboard total. Do not subtract a lifetime paid total from a current unpaid balance a second time.
Use payment-provider or bank records to distinguish gross payments from fees and net receipts. An email announcing a payout and the receipt for that payout support one transaction; they are not two payments.
Download reconciliation worksheetThe CSV is a blank recordkeeping template, not an automated debt calculator. Use one row per commission and keep it private.
3. Preserve the original records
- Terms: agreement version, payout schedule, thresholds and change notices.
- Account: balance screenshot, program identity and capture date with timezone.
- Ledger: commission exports, status changes, reversals and payout history.
- Correspondence: original sent and received messages with headers and any actual attachments.
- Payment: relevant provider receipts and bank entries, including fees.
Keep originals unchanged in a private folder. Make separate redacted copies for publication. Remove customer details, private addresses, payment identifiers, login links and tokens from public copies. A screenshot should be captioned with what it shows and what it does not establish.
Check attachments rather than relying on an email’s claim that something was attached. Preserve unfavorable details too: a company response, an earlier successful payment or your own amount error belongs in the record.
4. Send a request that can be answered
Use the program’s support or partnership contact. State the amount and currency, the relevant payout periods, your calculation and the terms you are relying on. Ask for a reconciled statement, an explanation of any excluded entries and an expected payment date.
My records show [amount and currency] outstanding for [periods]. The attached reconciliation lists the entries and payments included. The payout terms I have saved state [terms]. Please confirm the eligible balance, explain any adjustments or missing requirements, and provide the expected payment date.
Keep the sent message and any ticket number. If you set a requested response deadline, label it your requested deadline. Do not present it as an agreed payment term unless the agreement actually says so.
5. Build a case that readers can verify
Summarize the claim, evidence, company response and remaining gaps separately. If no reply was located, state the mailbox and search period reviewed. A sent message does not itself prove receipt or that someone read it.
The TimeHero case shows why reconciliation matters: the email claim is $150 while the supplied dashboard displays $150.60. The Taskade case includes a support escalation and prior payments, alongside the unresolved complaint. Both details help readers assess what is established.
When payment arrives or a material fact changes, update the public record prominently with the amount, date and supporting evidence. An unresolved payout should not remain labeled unresolved after a documented resolution.
Common questions
Does an approved commission mean it is overdue?
Approval and payment timing are separate questions. Check the applicable schedule, threshold and any unresolved payout requirements before calculating overdue days.
What if I cannot access the dashboard?
Preserve the access error or closure notice, saved correspondence and earlier exports. Ask for the ledger and applicable terms. State the missing records as a limitation rather than filling the gap with an estimate.
Do I need a complete case before contacting the company?
You can ask for clarification with the records you have. A stronger amount claim needs a clear calculation, while public documentation should disclose any remaining uncertainty.
Have a documented payment dispute?
Send the records privately for review. Submissions are not published automatically.
Submit evidence for review