Free referral agreement template
Fill in your terms and get a complete referral partner agreement assembled live as you type: lead registration, protection window, fee structure, non-circumvention, payment terms, and a clean exit. Built for B2B lead-passing deals, consultants, and agency partners. When it reads right, download it and hand it to your lawyer for the final pass. The builder is fully client-side: your deal terms never leave the page.
This is a starting point to take to your lawyer, not legal advice. Laws differ by state and country; have a professional review the final document before anyone signs it.
REFERRAL PARTNER AGREEMENT
This Referral Partner Agreement (the "Agreement") is entered into between [Company Name] (the "Company") and [Partner Name] (the "Partner").
1. PURPOSE
The Partner will introduce prospective customers ("Referred Prospects") to the Company for the Company's products and services. This Agreement sets out how referrals are registered, when a referral fee is earned, and how it is paid.
2. LEAD REGISTRATION
The Partner registers a Referred Prospect by submitting the prospect's name, company, and contact details through the Company's designated channel (referral link, form, or written notice). A registration is accepted unless the Company notifies the Partner within 10 business days that the prospect is already an active customer, in an active sales process, or was previously registered by another partner. Accepted registrations are protected for 180 days (the "Protection Window"): a deal the Company closes with that prospect inside the window is credited to the Partner.
3. QUALIFIED REFERRAL
A registration becomes a Qualified Referral upon the Referred Prospect signing a paid agreement with the Company within the Protection Window.
4. REFERRAL FEE
The Company will pay the Partner a referral fee of 10% of the revenue the Company actually collects from each Qualified Referral, net of refunds, chargebacks, and taxes, during the Referred Prospect's first 12 months as a customer.
5. PAYMENT
Referral fees are paid within 30 days after the end of the month in which the underlying customer payment is collected. If a referred customer's payment is refunded or charged back, the corresponding fee is reversed and may be offset against future payments. The Partner is responsible for providing accurate payout details and any tax information the Company reasonably requests before payment can be made.
6. NON-CIRCUMVENTION
For 12 months after a registration is accepted, the Company will not knowingly route the registered prospect through another channel to avoid paying the Partner's fee, and the Partner will not divert the prospect to a competitor of the Company. Prospects the Company can demonstrate it was already engaged with before registration are excluded.
7. CONDUCT
The Partner will describe the Company's offering accurately, will not make commitments on the Company's behalf, will not send unsolicited bulk outreach in the Company's name, and will disclose the referral relationship to prospects when asked. The Company remains solely responsible for its sales process, pricing, and contracts with Referred Prospects.
8. RELATIONSHIP OF THE PARTIES
The Partner is an independent contractor. Nothing in this Agreement creates employment, agency, exclusivity, or any obligation on either party to a minimum number of referrals or deals. Either party may work with other partners and providers.
9. CONFIDENTIALITY
Each party will keep the other's non-public business information confidential and use it only to perform this Agreement. Prospect information the Partner submits is used by the Company solely to evaluate and pursue the referral.
10. TERMINATION
Either party may terminate this Agreement with 30 days' written notice. Referral fees continue to accrue and be paid for Qualified Referrals whose registrations were accepted before the effective date of termination, for the duration those fees would otherwise run.
11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
The Company's total liability to the Partner under this Agreement is limited to referral fees owed and unpaid at the time a claim arises. Neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages.
12. GOVERNING LAW
This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.
AGREED:
Company: [Company Name] Partner: [Partner Name]
Signature: ______________ Signature: ______________________
Date: ___________________ Date: ___________________________Referral deals live or die on registration
Almost every referral partnership dispute is the same argument: whose lead was it, and does a deal that closed five months later still count? A good referral contract template settles both in advance, which is why the registration and protection clauses come before the money in this document.
Registration. A referral exists when it is written down: name, company, date, through a defined channel. The company gets a short window to flag prospects it already knows, and silence counts as acceptance, so registrations cannot sit unacknowledged forever.
The protection window. B2B deals close slowly. The window (180 days in the default) means a slow yes still pays the partner who caused it. It also gives the company a clean answer when a prospect resurfaces a year later through a different door.
Non-circumvention. The trust clause. Partners send their best contacts only when the agreement says the fee cannot be dodged by routing the deal sideways, and companies sign it happily when it is time-boxed and excludes prospects they can prove they already knew.
Four ways to pay for a referral
First-year revenue
The B2B default. Meaningful for the partner, self-limiting for the company, and it tracks the deal's real size instead of a guess made at signing.
Recurring window
A smaller rate paid longer. Fits subscription businesses where year one understates the relationship, and keeps partners invested in referring customers who stay.
Percent of contract
For one-time projects and fixed-scope work where there is no recurring revenue to share. Simple, but define contract value precisely (initial signed agreement, not expansions).
Flat finder's fee
One number per closed deal. Cleanest to administer and to advertise; the trade is over- or under-paying when deal sizes vary widely.
One partner is a document. Ten partners is a system.
A single partner agreement can be administered from a spreadsheet: one tab of registrations, one of payments. The model breaks the day you have several partners, because registration conflicts, protection-window math, and monthly fee runs become somebody's job.
That is the point where the paper needs software: give each partner a tracked link so registration happens automatically, let the system hold the who-referred-whom record both sides agreed to trust, and let payouts run on the schedule Section 5 promises. It also answers the partner's favorite question, "what happened to my lead?", without a single awkward email.
If your partners promote publicly to audiences rather than making named introductions, you want an affiliate structure instead; that variant is our affiliate agreement builder, and for creator content deals there is the influencer contract builder.
Referral partner questions, answered.
Is this referral agreement template free?
Yes, and there is no signup or email gate attached. Your terms are assembled locally in the browser and never sent to a server. Treat the output as a lawyer-ready first draft rather than a finished contract: it covers the standard clauses, and your counsel tailors it to your jurisdiction.
How is a referral partner deal different from an affiliate program?
Mechanics and volume. Affiliates promote publicly through links and content to audiences; referral partners make direct, usually named, introductions, often a handful per year with large deal sizes. That changes the paperwork: referral deals need lead registration and protection windows where affiliate programs need cookie windows and promotion rules.
What referral fee is standard for B2B?
The most common band is 10-20% of first-year revenue, paid as the company collects. Percent-of-contract suits one-time projects, flat fees suit predictable deal sizes, and a smaller percent paid over a longer recurring window suits subscription businesses. Whatever the structure, calculate fees on collected revenue, not booked revenue.
What is a lead protection window and how long should it be?
The period after a registered introduction during which a closed deal still credits the partner, even if the sales cycle runs long. 90 days is common for transactional products; 180 days fits most B2B sales cycles; enterprise deals sometimes justify a year. Without this clause, every slow deal becomes an argument.
Do I need a non-circumvention clause?
It is the clause partners look for before sending you their best contacts. It promises the company will not route a registered prospect through another channel to dodge the fee, and in return the partner will not shop the prospect to competitors. Time-box it to match the protection window or slightly beyond.
When does the referral fee stop after termination?
Fairest practice, and the default in this template: registrations accepted before termination keep earning for however long their fees would normally run. Cutting fees off at the termination date incentivizes companies to terminate right before big deals close, and partners know it.
Give every partner a tracked link and an automatic ledger.
Rekomi turns this agreement into a running system: per-partner links and codes, automatic referral records both sides can trust, fee calculation on collected revenue with clawbacks handled, and payouts to 165+ countries with tax forms done. 14-day free trial, from $29/mo.