A referral wasn't tracked
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A referrer says a friend ordered, but no reward landed. One rule explains most cases, so start there.
Look at: the referee's order in Shopify admin, specifically the discounts applied to it.
You'll see: whether the referrer's code appears as a discount on the order. This is decisive: attribution is code-based. A referral counts only when the referee's order used the referrer's discount code. There is no cookie or link-only attribution. Sharing a link, visiting the store from it, or mentioning a friend at checkout does nothing by itself; the code must be applied to the order.
Fix: if the code isn't on the order, the referral can't be tracked automatically; credit the referrer manually if you wish. Going forward, remind customers their friend must enter the code at checkout.
Look at: the referral config's minimum order value condition.
You'll see: the referee's order total below the minimum; the code either wouldn't apply at checkout or the reward was skipped.
Fix: expected behavior; lower the minimum if it blocks too many orders. An order paid entirely with store credit and gift cards is also skipped; the reward base is calculated after those deductions.
Look at: the "new customers only" condition on the config, and the referee's order history in Shopify.
You'll see: a referee with previous orders while the config requires new customers.
Fix: expected behavior. The condition exists to stop existing customers cycling codes. Disable it on the config if you want to reward all referred orders.
Look at: the config's max-uses limit and the referral logs (DollarBack admin → Analytics, referral section) for earlier orders with that code.
You'll see: the code already used the maximum number of times.
Fix: raise or remove the limit for future referrals; past over-limit orders won't be rewarded retroactively.
Look at: the referral config's status and expiration date in DollarBack admin → Referral.
You'll see: the config expired or paused at the time of the order; its codes stop attributing rewards.
Fix: reactivate or extend the config. Also check config priority if you run several: the reward comes from the first config matching the referrer's tags, which may not be the one you expect.
One more nuance: each referee order is rewarded at most once, so a duplicate complaint about the same order is expected behavior, not a bug.
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