^ yes, 31st December.  I would also imagine you have just lost one of your images and need to download a replacement 

^ just remember it is against the T&Cs at istock to download your own files (unless you have a very good reason).  I am sure you'll pick up 14 RCs in a week and a bit with out having to risk anything.

I was just notified of a refund of $11.00 on a file for which I was only paid $7.10, and the sale occurred almost four months ago.  At this rate, we'll all be paying them!   

Last year it was meant to be 31st Dec but, as I recall, dragged on into January for a week or more (if they do cut it off on Dec 31 and you are a handful short, I guess you could try pleading that you didn't get a full year of RCs because of what happened back then).

As far as I recall, they reset the RC counter on Jan 2nd or 3rd, which is consistent with the RCs always being about 2-3 days behind. (For example, the current number that just updated in the last several hours is for sales through Wed, 21st Dec.) Though I recall they didn't start paying us lower commissions until sometime in the second week.

And from that reset point, it began counting sales on 1 Jan. So there were no days missing in the RC total from the start of the year.

How many is considered close enough? I'm about 300 RCs short.