> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://ctracker-docs.keywordrush.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://ctracker-docs.keywordrush.com/members-and-payouts/member-emails.md).

# Emails to members

`Cashback Tracker` → `Settings` → `Emails` is everything the plugin sends: twelve messages to members, and the two it sends to you.

Each one has a switch, a subject, a message, and a live preview beside it.

### What gets sent, and when

| Email                  | Sent when                                                              |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Welcome**            | Someone registers                                                      |
| **Order registered**   | A purchase arrives from a network and their cashback starts as pending |
| **Order approved**     | The shop confirms the sale and the cashback becomes available          |
| **Order declined**     | The shop rejects the sale                                              |
| **Payout requested**   | They ask to be paid                                                    |
| **Payout paid**        | You mark the payout as paid                                            |
| **Payout rejected**    | You refuse the request                                                 |
| **Payout failed**      | You sent it and it came back                                           |
| **Friend signed up**   | Someone registers through their invite link                            |
| **Referral bonus**     | Someone they invited earns their first cashback                        |
| **Welcome bonus**      | A new member qualifies for a signup bonus                              |
| **New payout request** | Sent to **you**, not to a member                                       |

Switch any of them off and nothing else changes: the cashback still moves, the payout still goes through, the member simply is not written to.

{% hint style="info" %}
Nothing is sent while the ledger is switched off, because every amount and balance in these messages would be a zero. Nothing is sent for the sandbox's generated orders either — those are dated weeks in the past, and "your cashback is confirmed" about a two-month-old invented purchase is wrong on its own terms.
{% endhint %}

### Writing a message

The message box is a normal editor. Type the words; the plugin supplies everything around them — the header, the width, the spacing, the footer. You are writing the contents of the email, not the whole page.

Under the box is a row of **tags**. Click one and it drops into the message where your cursor is.

* **`%USER_NAME%`** — what to call them
* **`%AMOUNT%`**, **`%ADVERTISER%`**, **`%ORDER_ID%`** — the purchase
* **`%AVAILABLE_BALANCE%`**, **`%PENDING_BALANCE%`** — what they hold
* **`%ACCOUNT_URL%`** — a link to their account page

Each email offers only the tags it can actually fill. The welcome email does not offer `%PAYOUT_AMOUNT%`, because at that point there is no payout — a tag an email cannot fill comes out as nothing at all, leaving a sentence with a hole in it.

**Button** adds a call to action. It is a real button in the delivered email, not a link that looks like one — worth using once per message and no more.

**Reset to the original wording** puts back the message the plugin ships with. Useful when you have edited something into a corner, and worth doing once after an upgrade: your saved messages are never overwritten by an update, so improved wording only reaches you if you ask for it.

![The Emails tab, with every message and its on/off switch](https://3545740495-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-M69sU0hfZj3QsteYxmI%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-8ee8cbc72aded33fc675e42100c9158cf8239d9c%2Femails-tab.webp?alt=media)

### The preview

The preview under the editor is rendered by the plugin, down the same path a real send takes. What you see there is what arrives.

The names, amounts and shops in it are invented. A real send fills them from the member and the order.

* **Show plain text** switches to the text-only copy that goes out alongside the formatted one. Some people read mail this way, and most spam filters read it too — worth a glance to check it still makes sense.
* **Send a test to me** delivers it to your notification address, subject prefixed `[Test]`. It never goes to a member.

{% hint style="warning" %}
The preview shows unsaved edits, and the test sends them. Neither one saves. Press **Save changes** when you are happy.
{% endhint %}

![Previewing a message before it is sent](https://3545740495-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-M69sU0hfZj3QsteYxmI%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-6a408b40ea660e02d092ddd7a6fb702853d3804b%2Femail-preview.webp?alt=media)

### How they all look

The three cards at the top of the tab apply to every email at once.

**Sender** is who they come from. Set **From Email** to an address at your own domain — mail claiming to be from a domain it was not sent by is the fastest route to a spam folder.

**How they look** is the shell around every message.

|                         |                                                                                                                                                                   |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Logo**                | Shown at the top. Leave empty and your site name is used instead. Upload one about 360 pixels wide; it displays at half that, so it stays sharp on a good screen. |
| **Email accent colour** | Links, the heading and the rule under it. Leave empty to follow your storefront colour.                                                                           |
| **Footer text**         | The small print at the bottom. Leave empty for a sentence naming your site.                                                                                       |
| **Plain emails**        | Sends the message with no header and no footer.                                                                                                                   |

**Emails to you** is covered in [The summary email](/running-your-site/admin-digest.md).

### When email does not arrive

Almost always the site, not the plugin: WordPress hands mail to the server and the server drops it silently.

1. **Send a test** from the template you are worried about. If the plugin cannot hand it over at all, it says so here.
2. If the test reports success and nothing arrives, the mail left WordPress and was lost after that. Install an SMTP plugin and send through a real mail service — most hosts cannot send mail reliably on their own.
3. Check the **From Email** matches your domain.
4. Check the email is switched **on**, and that the member's own address is right.
5. Look under `Cashback Tracker` → `Logs` for the event that should have triggered it. No event means no email, and the reason is upstream.