How to Set Up Lead and Sale Tracking in CutMe Short (Step-by-Step)

This guide takes you from zero to your first attributed sale in CutMe Short Events. It's written for marketers and developers working together: the first half is all clicks in the dashboard, and the second half has the code your developer needs.

New to the idea? Read how click, lead and sale tracking works first. Selling on Shopify? Use the Shopify setup guide instead; it needs no code.

How it fits together

1. A visitor clicks a short link with tracking switched on.
2. CutMe Short redirects them to your site and adds ?cms_rf=<click ID> to the URL.
3. The tracking script on your site saves the click ID in a cookie called cms_id.
4. Later, the visitor signs up or buys.
5. Your server reads the cms_id cookie…
6. …and sends a lead or sale event to CutMe Short with that click ID.

What you'll need

• A CutMe Short plan that includes lead and sale tracking. If you see Upgrade to unlock on the Events page, your plan doesn't include it yet.
• Access to your website's <head> (or whoever manages your site).
• A developer, for about an hour, to send lead and sale events from your backend.

Step 1: Start the setup journey

1. In the left sidebar, click Events.
2. You'll see a welcome card: "Track every click, lead & sale in one place." Click Start Journey.
3. The Lead & Sale Tracking checklist opens, with five steps and a Setup Progress counter.

Steps 1 and 2 are marked Required. Each later step unlocks when the one before it is done.

Step 2: Create your first short link

If you already have links, this step is ticked automatically. Otherwise, click Create Short Link and create one pointing to the page where your campaign lands, for example your pricing or sign-up page.

Step 3: Enable attribution tracking on your links

In step 2 of the checklist, Enable attribution tracking, use Search links... to find your link and turn on its switch. The link shows an Active badge.

You can also do this at any time from your Links page: each link card has a Track leads & sales switch. When it's on, you'll see "Tracking leads and sales for this link" and a View details → link that opens Events filtered to that link.

Step 4: Learn how attribution works

Step 3 of the checklist, Learn how attribution works, has an Open Docs button that opens the Lead & Sale Tracking documentation. Worth five minutes for whoever writes the code.

Step 5: Install the tracking script

In step 4, Install tracking script, copy the snippet shown in the app and add it inside the <head> tag of your website:

<script
  src="https://cut-me-short-public.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/production/track.js"
  data-config='{"days":30,"attribution":"last"}'
></script>

Add it to every page if you can, and at minimum to the pages your links land on.

The data-config settings control attribution:

Verify the installation

Back in the checklist, enter your Website URL and click Verify Installation. CutMe Short fetches your page and looks for the script. You'll see either:

• "Tracking script detected successfully.", or
• "Tracking script not found. Please ensure the script is installed correctly."

Manual check: open https://yourwebsite.com/?cms_rf=test in your browser, open DevTools (Application → Cookies) and look for a cookie named cms_id with the value test. If it's there, the script is working.

Step 6: Generate an API token

Your backend needs an API token to send leads and sales.

1. Click Settings in CutMe Short.
2. Open the Link card, then Links Settings.
3. Click API Tokens.
4. Click Generate API Token and copy it.

Step 7: Send leads and sales from your backend

In step 5 of the checklist, Send your first lead or sale event, click View SDK docs to open the SDK documentation. Here's the essentials using the TypeScript/Node.js SDK.

Install the SDK

npm install cutmeshort

Read the click ID

The tracking script stores the click ID in the cms_id cookie on your domain. Read it on your server when the visitor converts. For example, in an Express app with cookie-parser:

const clickId = req.cookies["cms_id"]; // undefined if the visitor didn't arrive via a tracked link

If your backend runs on a different domain from your website, read the cookie in the browser and send it to your backend along with the sign-up or checkout request.

Send a lead

Call trackLead when someone does the thing you count as a lead, such as creating an account:

import { CMS } from "cutmeshort";

const cms = new CMS({ apiKey: process.env.CMS_API_KEY! });

await cms.trackLead({
  clickId,                          // value of the cms_id cookie
  eventName: "Sign Up",
  customerExternalId: user.id,      // your own stable ID for this customer
  customerName: user.name,          // optional
  customerEmail: user.email,        // optional
});

Send a sale

Call trackSale when a payment succeeds, ideally from your payment confirmation handler or webhook, not from the browser:

await cms.trackSale({
  clickId,
  eventName: "Purchase",
  customerExternalId: user.id,      // the same ID you used for the lead
  invoiceId: order.id,              // unique per order
  amount: 49.99,                    // in major units: 49.99 means $49.99
  currency: "USD",                  // ISO currency code; converted to USD for reporting
});

Fields at a glance

Not using Node.js? CutMe Short also offers Python and PHP SDKs, and you can call the API directly. See the Lead and Sale API references.

Step 8: Test end to end

1. Open your tracked short link in a private browser window.
2. Check that the landing page URL contains ?cms_rf=… and that the cms_id cookie is set.
3. Complete a test sign-up, and a test purchase if you can.
4. In CutMe Short, click Events and check the Leads and Sales tabs.

Once the journey is complete you'll see Journey Completed; click Go To Dashboard to open the full Events dashboard.

Reading the Events dashboard

• Clicks, Leads and Sales cards at the top. Sales shows total attributed revenue in USD. Each card has a 30-day trend line.
• Tabs for clicks, leads and sales, each with a detailed table.
• Filters for links, date range, country, state, city and device.

Troubleshooting

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find my CutMe Short API token?

Go to Settings → Link → Links Settings → API Tokens and click Generate API Token.

Should I send sales from the browser or my server?

From your server. Your API token must stay secret, and sending sales from your payment confirmation (for example a payment provider's webhook) means only completed payments are counted.

Can I track several types of lead?

Yes. Use a different eventName for each, such as "Sign Up", "Demo Booked" or "Trial Started". The event name appears in the Leads table.

Do I need the tracking script if I send events from my server?

Yes. The script captures the click ID when the visitor lands on your site. Without it, your server has no cms_id cookie to read, and leads and sales can't be linked to the link that was clicked.

Can I use first-click attribution instead of last-click?

Yes. Change "attribution":"last" to "attribution":"first" in the script's data-config.