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.
The cash reward is funded and queued for payout (this depends on your payout method).
Once funding is confirmed, the cash reward is 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).
Important: Payout timing depends on your payout method:
If your payout method uses ReferralCandy billing (for example, PayPal or Tremendous with Invoice funding), payouts are only processed after billing is successful.
If your payout method is funded outside ReferralCandy billing (for example, Tremendous with Balance funding), payout processing depends on your Tremendous funding status.
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 payout timing can differ depending on the payout method you use.
Common payout methods include:
PayPal
Tremendous (Shopify)
Manual cash rewards (CSV)
If you’re using Tremendous, see our Tremendous integration guide for setup, funding options, and how reward claiming works.
Note: The FAQ / troubleshooting section below includes PayPal-only questions (because those specific behaviors only apply when PayPal is your payout method).
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 (if you have one)
“Rewardable” status
Has the cash reward been funded and queued for payout?
This depends on your payout method (PayPal vs Tremendous funding)
Step 1: Confirm the referral is eligible for a reward
First, open the Purchases & Referrals page:
Shopify: Shopify admin > ReferralCandy > Purchases & Referrals
Other platforms: ReferralCandy dashboard > My Store > Purchases & Referrals
Then locate the purchase and check:
Review period
If the purchase is still within the review period, the reward will not be sent yet.
Rewardable status
If the purchase is not marked Rewardable, it is not eligible for a cash reward yet.
Tip: “Rewardable” means the referral is eligible for a reward. It does not necessarily mean the cash payout has already been sent.
Step 2: Confirm the cash reward has been funded and queued for payout (depends on payout method)
Note: With Tremendous, merchants can usually verify reward issuance and status directly in Tremendous. With PayPal payouts, ReferralCandy manages sending via PayPal, so merchants may have less direct visibility beyond billing status.
If your payout method uses ReferralCandy billing (for example, PayPal or Tremendous with Invoice funding):
Go to Account > Billing.
If the cash reward appears on your current Billing page (current invoice), it means the reward is queued to be paid out after billing and has not been sent 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, allow up to 2–3 business days for 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.
If your payout method is Tremendous with Balance funding:
Go to Shopify admin > ReferralCandy > Integrations > Tremendous and confirm:
Tremendous shows as Connected
Your funding source is set to Balance
Your Tremendous balance has available funds
Confirm the campaign/tier that earned the reward is set to Cash payout method = Tremendous, and a Tremendous campaign template is selected.
You can also verify reward issuance and status directly in Tremendous:
Tremendous dashboard > Orders & rewards > Reward history
Search by recipient email (or filter by date/status) to confirm whether the reward has been issued and its current status (even if the advocate hasn’t redeemed it yet).
If you can’t find it in Reward history, check Order history for the related sending transaction.
Step 3: If the reward should have been sent, but the advocate/affiliate still says they didn’t receive it
First, confirm which payout method your store uses (PayPal vs Tremendous).
If your payout method is Tremendous:
Ask the advocate/affiliate to check spam/promotions and search their inbox for “Tremendous”.
In your Tremendous account, go to Orders & rewards > Reward history and search the recipient email to confirm whether the reward has been issued and its current status.
If Tremendous shows the reward was issued, follow the Tremendous status details (for example, delivered vs claimed) to determine the next step.
If your payout method is PayPal (ReferralCandy-managed payouts):
If the cash reward is included on a paid invoice and it has been at least 2–3 business days, our human support team can help verify payout status.
When reaching out, include:
The advocate/affiliate email address
The referred friend email address
The referral purchase date
Any screenshots of the advocate/affiliate message
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.