Going live
The point where the sandbox comes off and real members start earning real money. Worth half an hour of checking, because several of the things below are awkward to undo afterwards.
Before anything else
Is the site currency right? Settings → General → Site currency. This is the one that is genuinely hard to change later — every balance is stored in it. Check it now, while no real money exists.
Is the ledger initialized? If a yellow setup card still appears at the top of your admin pages, balances are not being recorded. Complete it.
Turn the sandbox off
Cashback Tracker → Sandbox.
Switch it off and remove its data. Sandbox shops, orders and members are obvious in testing and confusing in production — a fake shop left in your directory is a real customer clicking a link that goes nowhere.
See The sandbox.
Check the network is really connected
Cashback Tracker → Networks:
The network reads Active
Shops shows a count and a recent refresh
Orders shows a recent check
Then press Check orders once by hand. If your network has been sending you sales during testing, this pulls in what is already there.
Money settings
Cashback rates are what you intend, on every active network
Networks → Configure
Minimum payout is set to an amount worth paying
Settings → Members
Payout methods are ones you can actually send money by
Settings → Members
Holding period is deliberate — 0 is fine, but decide it
Settings → General
Do not offer a payout method you have not tested yourself. The first time you use it should not be with a member waiting.
The member's side
Register a real second account — not your admin login — and walk through it as a member would:
The account page loads and shows a balance of zero.
A shop page shows a cashback rate.
Go to shop takes you to the merchant.
Signed out, the same button asks you to register.
If any of those is wrong, fix it now. Every one of them is something a member will hit in their first minute.
Send yourself one of each: Settings → Emails has a preview.
Check the sender address is one your domain is allowed to send from — a cashback email landing in spam is a support ticket you never see, because the member simply thinks nothing happened.
Set Alerts to an address you actually read. See Logs and alerts.
Background jobs
Everything the plugin does on its own — importing orders, refreshing shops, sending emails — depends on WordPress cron.
Cashback Tracker → Overview shows whether jobs are running. If they are not, nothing below the surface works and you will not find out until a member asks where their cashback is. See Scheduled tasks.
Caching
If you use a caching plugin, exclude the member account page and anything showing a balance before you have members. See Caching and performance.
Tell members what to expect
The single best thing you can do for your support load. Put it on your FAQ page, in plain words:
Purchases usually appear within 24 hours, sometimes longer
Cashback stays pending until the shop confirms it — typically 30 to 90 days
You must be signed in and use the link on this site
Returned or cancelled orders lose their cashback
Almost every angry email is one of those four, from someone who was never told.
After launch, for the first month
Orders — are they arriving from every network?
Logs — anything repeating?
Networks — is every row still checking successfully?
A network that quietly stops reporting looks exactly like a network with no sales. Checking weekly for the first month catches it while it is still a small problem.
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