In short, a designer is typically notified of sales a few hours after the customer has placed their order.
When orders are placed, they are not sent to the third-party fulfiller right away. They are held for a few hours to give the customer some time to fix any mistakes within the order, like their address, or the size they’ve picked, or even cancel if necessary. When the order is finally pushed to the fulfiller, that's when sales notification emails are sent, and account dashboards and earnings reports are updated!
All this to say - when your friend tells you they just bought your awesome design on a t-shirt, don't panic if that sale is not immediately reflected on your end.
Have questions about your sales? Shoot us an email at community@teepublic.com!