Cash rewards let you send a monetary reward to an advocate or affiliate after a successful referral.
Tip: Cash rewards work best when customers are unlikely to make repeat purchases (for example, big-ticket items), or when you want a reward that’s not tied to discounts.
How cash rewards work
When you set Cash as the advocate/affiliate reward, you can choose one of these reward types per campaign:
Fixed cash amount (example: $10 per successful referral)
Percentage of the referred friend’s purchase (example: 10% of the purchase amount)
To avoid being out of pocket, set your minimum purchase amount higher than the cash reward value.
When cash rewards are sent
Cash rewards are sent only after all of these happen:
A referred purchase qualifies as rewardable.
Your review period ends (if you use one).
ReferralCandy bills you for the cash rewards due (plus any applicable fees).
Once billing is successful, the cash rewards are processed and sent to your advocates/affiliates.
Watch out: Seeing a purchase marked “Rewardable” does not mean the cash payout has already been sent.
“Rewardable” only means the referral is eligible for a reward (and the review period has ended, if you use one).
Important: Cash payouts are only processed after billing is successful, and it may take a short time for the payout to appear in your cash payout list after the review period ends. If billing fails (for example, the payment method needs updating), payouts won’t be sent until billing succeeds.
How advocates/affiliates receive cash rewards
ReferralCandy handles cash reward delivery automatically through our payout processing.
What advocates/affiliates typically experience:
They receive an email prompting them to claim or receive their cash reward.
Depending on the payout method available, advocates/affiliates may be asked to confirm details before receiving the reward.
Important: Cash rewards can be delivered through different payout methods
ReferralCandy supports different payout methods for cash rewards (depending on what’s enabled on your account).
This means that payout emails, claim steps, and troubleshooting can differ depending on the payout method.
This article explains cash rewards in general, and includes a PayPal-only FAQ below (because those specific behaviors only apply when PayPal is your payout method).
We’ll publish separate documentation for other payout methods (for example, Tremendous).
Billing for cash rewards (Shopify)
If you’re a Shopify merchant, you’ll be asked to add a credit card before you can enable cash rewards.
This payment method is used to bill cash rewards separately from your ReferralCandy plan and success fees.
Why cash rewards are billed separately on Shopify (common question)
Note: Cash rewards are payouts that go directly to your advocates/affiliates. Charges processed through Shopify billing may be subject to Shopify platform fees. To avoid platform fees being applied to reward payouts, cash rewards are billed separately.
Where to check cash reward status
There are two things to confirm when someone says they haven’t received a cash reward:
Is the referral eligible for a reward? (review period + “Rewardable”)
Has the cash reward been funded and queued for payout? (billing)
Step 1: Confirm the referral is eligible (“Rewardable”)
Go to Purchases & Referrals and search for the referred purchase.
• Shopify: Shopify admin > ReferralCandy > Purchases & Referrals
• Other platforms: ReferralCandy dashboard > My Store > Purchases & Referrals
If the purchase is still in review, it may show a pending/review status.
Once the review period ends and the purchase meets your reward rules, it will show as “Rewardable”.
Step 2: Confirm the cash reward is funded (Billing)
Cash rewards are processed after successful billing.
Go to Account > Billing.
• If the cash reward appears on your current Billing page (current invoice), it means the reward is pending billing and has not been paid out yet.
• If it appears under Billing History on an invoice marked Paid, billing has succeeded and the payout would be processed after that.
• After an invoice is successfully billed, please allow up to 2–3 business days for PayPal payouts to be processed and sent.
Tip: Use “Export cash reward details” on the Billing or Billing History invoice to locate the specific reward and confirm which billing period it belongs to.
Step 3: If billing is paid but the advocate still says they didn’t receive it
If it’s been more than 2–3 business days since the invoice was marked Paid and the advocate/affiliate still hasn’t received the cash reward, contact support and include:
Advocate/affiliate email
Referred friend email
Approximate referred purchase date
Cash reward FAQ / Troubleshooting (PayPal-only)
The FAQs below apply only if your cash payouts are delivered through PayPal. If you use a different payout method, these details may not apply.
Why did my advocate/affiliate receive an email from “Anafore LLC”? (PayPal)
Why did my advocate/affiliate receive an email from “Anafore LLC”? (PayPal)
This is expected for PayPal payouts. When cash rewards are delivered through PayPal, payout emails may be sent under Anafore LLC (the company name associated with our PayPal payout processing).
If your advocate/affiliate is unsure, you can confirm:
The reward was earned through your referral/affiliate program, and
The email is related to claiming or receiving their cash reward.
My advocate/affiliate says they didn’t receive the cash reward email. What should I check first? (PayPal)
My advocate/affiliate says they didn’t receive the cash reward email. What should I check first? (PayPal)
Work through this order (it solves most cases quickly):
Has the reward been earned yet?
The referred purchase must qualify as rewardable.Is there a review period still running?
If the referral is still in review, the payout won’t be sent yet.Was billing successful?
If billing failed, cash rewards won’t be sent until payment succeeds.Check the delivery status in Contacts (recommended)
Go to Contacts in ReferralCandy and search the advocate/affiliate. Check their Last Email Status to confirm whether the most recent email was Delivered, Bounced, Blocked, etc.Check spam/promotions folders
Many “claim your reward” emails land in Promotions/Spam.Confirm the advocate/affiliate email address
PayPal payout emails are typically sent to the email used by the advocate/affiliate in your program.
If all of the above checks out and there’s still no email, contact our support agents with the advocate/affiliate email and the approximate referral purchase date.
The reward shows as “Unclaimed”. What does that mean? (PayPal)
The reward shows as “Unclaimed”. What does that mean? (PayPal)
Unclaimed usually means the PayPal payout email was sent, but the advocate/affiliate hasn’t completed the claim/receiving step yet (for example, they haven’t clicked the link or confirmed payout details).
Ask them to search their inbox for the reward email and complete the steps in the message.
What if my advocate/affiliate can’t receive the payout? (PayPal)
What if my advocate/affiliate can’t receive the payout? (PayPal)
If the PayPal payout can’t be delivered (for example, due to PayPal account or location restrictions), the reward may fail or remain unclaimed. Contact support so we can help you resolve it or resend it if possible.
FAQ: How can I check if my advocate/affiliate received the cash reward success email?
FAQ: How can I check if my advocate/affiliate received the cash reward success email?
You can’t see a read receipt, but you can check whether ReferralCandy successfully delivered an email to that contact by reviewing Last Email Status in Contacts.
Important notes for cash rewards:
Last Email Status is for the most recent email to that contact.
If a different ReferralCandy email was sent after the cash reward email, Last Email Status will show the latest one — not necessarily the cash reward email.If Last Email Status shows Delivered, it only confirms the email provider accepted it.
The email may still be in Spam/Junk, Promotions, or moved by inbox rules.PayPal-specific: payout/claim emails may appear under Anafore LLC / PayPal.
If you’re using PayPal payouts, ask the advocate/affiliate to search their mailbox for “Anafore”, “PayPal”, “ReferralCandy”, and your brand name.
Recommended next steps if it shows Delivered but they can’t find the email:
Ask them to search their Junk, Promotions folders.
Where can I see if a PayPal payout is Completed / Unclaimed / Failed?
Where can I see if a PayPal payout is Completed / Unclaimed / Failed?
You can’t see PayPal delivery statuses inside the ReferralCandy merchant dashboard.
What you can check in your dashboard is whether the reward is included in your current invoice (Billing) or a paid invoice (Billing History). If the invoice is already paid and the advocate/affiliate still hasn’t received the payout, contact a support agent (human) and we’ll check the PayPal payout status for you.