Tracking Conversions

A conversion happens when a referred customer makes a purchase at your business. ViralRef handles this entire process automatically — from detecting the payment to calculating the referrer's reward.

How It Works

Here's the simple version of what happens behind the scenes:

1. Someone clicks a referral link and signs up through the referral form
2. They become a "referred customer" linked to the person who shared the link
3. When they make a purchase at your Square location, ViralRef detects it automatically
4. A conversion is created with the reward amount calculated based on your program rules
5. The referrer earns their reward (gift card top-up or tracked for manual payout)

You don't need to do anything manually. As long as your Square account is connected and the customer was referred through a link, the system handles everything.

Conversion Statuses

Every conversion has a status that tells you where it is in the process:

When Does a Conversion Get Created?

A conversion is created when all of these are true:

1. A referred customer makes a payment at one of your tracked Square locations
2. That customer was previously linked to a referrer through a referral link
3. The referrer's program rules allow the conversion:
   • First Purchase: Only the customer's very first payment counts
   • All Purchases in Window: All payments within a set time period count
   • Lifetime: Every payment the customer ever makes counts

How Rewards Are Calculated

The reward amount depends on your program settings:

Percentage of Revenue: The referrer earns a percentage of the purchase. For example, 10% of a $150 payment = $15 reward.

Fixed Per Conversion: The referrer earns a flat dollar amount per referral, regardless of how much the customer spent. For example, $20 per referral.

If the referrer qualifies for a higher commission tier or belongs to a group with custom rates, those rates are used instead.

Viewing Conversions

The Conversions page gives you a complete view of all referred purchases:

Navigate to Conversions in the sidebar to see:

• Date of the purchase
• Customer name (the referred customer who paid)
• Referrer name (the person who earns the reward)
• Payment amount from Square
• Reward amount calculated
• Status (Pending, Approved, Rejected, etc.)
• Program the conversion belongs to

Filtering

Filter conversions by:

• Status (Pending, Approved, Rejected, Reversed, Fraud, Duplicate)
• Date range
• Referrer
• Program

What Happens with Refunds

If a customer gets a refund on a purchase that was tracked as a conversion:

1. ViralRef detects the refund automatically
2. The conversion status is updated to Reversed
3. If a gift card reward was already issued, the reversal is logged for your review

Refunds are tracked to make sure referrers aren't overpaid.

Reviewing Conversions Manually

For conversions in Pending status, you can:

• Approve — Confirm the conversion and make the referrer eligible for their reward
• Reject — Reject the conversion (e.g., it was a test purchase or an error)
• Mark as Fraud — Flag the conversion as suspicious

When Something Goes Wrong

Occasionally, an external service might be temporarily unavailable (Square having a brief outage, for example). When this happens:

• The conversion is still created in ViralRef
• The associated reward (like a gift card top-up) is saved and retried automatically
• You can see and manually retry any stuck operations from Partners > Failed Operations

Next Steps

Payouts

Learn how to manage payout periods and distribute rewards.

Fraud Detection

See how ViralRef automatically catches suspicious activity.