How quality of earnings providers can refer clients to SourceX for data licensing

The short answer for QoE teams

Quality of earnings providers can refer owner clients to SourceX, but the referral has to sit outside the QoE engagement. Check that your firm does no attest work for the client and that firm policy allows a reward, raise the idea in a separate conversation, and let the owner decide whether to speak to SourceX. You never move, summarize or describe the company's records.

The fit comes from where you sit. A sell-side QoE puts your team inside a company months before a banker takes it to market: you work through the payroll register, rebuild monthly EBITDA from general ledger detail and learn which systems produce revenue and margin. That is the same vantage point needed to sense whether a company holds the years of connected operational records that AI labs and data buyers license.

Why diligence teams spot candidates other advisors miss

Most advisors hear about a client's systems second-hand. A QoE team sees them through the request list and the management meetings.

• Headcount history: payroll registers and headcount bridges show whether the company reached 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), the first line of SourceX's baseline.
• Operating history: monthly closes, prior-year returns and comments about legacy systems show how long the business has documented its work.
• System breadth: revenue and margin testing draws on the ERP, CRM, billing platform, PSA or help desk, which tells you how many systems hold history.
• Ownership of the work: the customer contracts you read for revenue recognition show whether the records describe the company's own work or belong to its clients.

None of that leaves the engagement. You are not using findings in a pitch; you are deciding which owners deserve a separate, consent-based conversation.

Which clients in a QoE pipeline fit

B2B software, IT services, professional services, engineering, logistics and distribution businesses often show most of these signals in a single request list. The who qualifies page sets out the full baseline.

The three-wall check before you mention it

Work through three walls in order. If any wall stops you, do not raise the idea yourself.

Wall 1: independence and fee rules

The AICPA Code's commissions and referral fees rule, ET 1.520, bars a member in public practice from accepting a commission for recommending a product or service to a client when the member or firm also performs an audit, a review, certain compilations or an examination of prospective financial information for that client. Permitted commissions and referral fees must be disclosed to the client. The contingent fees rule, ET 1.510, restricts the same attest relationships. State boards can be stricter than the AICPA Code, as the New Jersey Society of CPAs explains, so read the rule where you are licensed.

• Nobody in the firm performs audit, review, compilation or prospective financial information work for this client.
• Your state board's rule adds no restriction that applies here.
• Firm policy allows the reward, and you know whether the firm or the individual registers.

Wall 2: keep it out of the engagement

• The idea comes up in a separate conversation, not in the report, a management meeting or the data room.
• No workpapers, schedules or client files go to SourceX.
• The engagement partner and the firm's risk or independence team know before you speak to the owner.

Wall 3: the owner's consent

• The owner, CEO or CFO agrees before you share the company's name.
• You disclose in writing that you may receive a referral reward from SourceX.
• The owner understands SourceX is independent of your firm and of any sale process.

If you are unsure whether the introduction itself touches independence, the question on whether helping a client license data affects CPA independence walks through it. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

When to raise it in the QoE calendar

If a process is live, with a CIM out or an LOI signed, the owner should bring in the banker and deal counsel before anything else. The guide to disclosing a data license in M&A due diligence covers how a buyer will look at it.

How a license payment should read in a QoE

Treat it as non-recurring proceeds. A SourceX deal is a one-time payment for a license that is typically exclusive for AI training over an agreed term, and payment typically arrives within about 60 days of invoicing once the buyer selects the data. Because it is a one-time payment, presenting it as run-rate EBITDA would overstate recurring earnings and damage the credibility of the whole report.

1. Show the license as a separate, non-recurring item in the adjusted EBITDA bridge, with the term, scope and exclusivity described.
2. Consider whether one-time preparation costs, such as inventory and redaction work, belong in the same adjustment rather than in recurring operating expense.
3. Ask the company's auditors how the license is recognized. Under ASC 606 the timing depends on whether the customer gets a right to use the IP as it exists or a right to access it over the term, as Deloitte's revenue recognition roadmap explains.
4. Note any restriction the license places on the data so a buyer's counsel sees it early.

The longer treatment is in how a one-time data license affects adjusted EBITDA and QoE.

How the introduction works

1. The three walls are clear and the owner agrees to a conversation.
2. You register as a partner, then send the owner your referral link, which opens sourcex.si/apply with your code attached, or submit the company through the referral form.
3. SourceX qualifies the company on size, history, data breadth and rights, directly with the owner or CFO.
4. The company completes a data inventory of its systems and years of history; you play no part in it.
5. SourceX and the company agree one all-in price and terms before buyers see anything, and nothing binds until the company signs.
6. AI labs and data buyers review the opportunity; once a company is deal-ready, buyers typically respond within about two weeks.
7. The deal closes, the data is delivered under redaction rules agreed in advance, the company is paid, and your reward follows once SourceX receives its fee.

What to say to the owner

The introduction email template for transaction advisory and QoE partners gives a written version you can adapt.

How rewards work for a transaction advisory practice

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; a lead, meeting or signed agreement alone does not trigger payment, and no reward is guaranteed.

The reward is a share of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what the company receives, which keeps the written disclosure to your client simple. Decide with your firm before registering whether the practice or an individual partner is the partner of record, and how the payment is recorded. Past sell-side clients whose engagements have closed are often the cleanest place to start; the network opportunity finder helps you list them.

When not to raise it

• The firm audits or reviews the client, or performs other attest work for it.
• You were engaged on the buy side.
• The records mostly belong to the company's clients, as at many agencies, staffing firms and outsourcers, and those clients have not agreed.
• The data is mainly consumer personal information or medical records.
• Archives were deleted when systems were replaced, or the data is already licensed for AI training.
• The owner will not consider an exclusive license for an agreed term.

If you also work the ACG circuit, the playbook for ACG chapter members shows how to raise the same idea with sponsors and lenders.

Next step

Pick one closed sell-side engagement with no attest relationship, run the three-wall check and ask the owner. If they agree, register as a partner and send your referral link, or have the owner apply directly at sourcex.si/apply.