Definition
Clawback
A clawback is the recovery of a commission already paid out, when the matching sale is refunded after the affiliate was paid.
Everything depends on the state of the commission when the refund lands, and that is the distinction that matters. If it has not been paid yet, you void it and that is the end of it. If the money has gone out, nothing can be voided: it was transferred, it was invoiced, it sits in someone's books. A clawback is what you do in the second case.
The market-standard mechanism is to create a negative commission line, which the next payout absorbs automatically. If the affiliate has nothing else pending, the negative balance is simply carried until their next commission. You do not ask an affiliate for money back, you adjust what you owe them.
The reason you add a line rather than correct the old one is accounting, and it holds well beyond affiliate marketing: rewriting a line already consumed by a payment makes the payout total diverge from the sum of its lines, and leaves an issued invoice attached to something that no longer exists. Neither is recoverable afterwards.
What it implies for the relationship: the affiliate must be told, and the message differs by branch. “Your commission was cancelled” is wrong for someone whose payout already went out; “a deduction is coming” is wrong for someone who never received the money.
At earnwithaffiliate
The adjustment line is created automatically and deducted from the next payout. The affiliate gets an email matched to their case, and sees the pending deduction in their portal.
Related terms
Chargeback
A chargeback is a payment dispute the customer raises with their bank. The money is taken back from the merchant, and the commission has to follow.
Commission approval window
The approval window is the delay between a commission being earned and becoming payable. It exists to cover the refund window.
Affiliate payout
A payout groups several payable commissions for one affiliate into a single payment. It is the last step of the chain, and the most visible one for them.