A referral program for client accounting services (CAS) firms

Why CAS firms are well placed to make introductions

Client accounting services teams work inside a client's finance function every month. You log in to the ERP, chase approvals in the AP tool, read the bank feeds, build the close package and walk the owner or CFO through results. That gives you something few outsiders have: working knowledge of which systems a company runs, how far back its records go and who makes decisions.

The SourceX referral program turns that knowledge into a permissioned introduction. If a client licenses its operational records through SourceX and the deal closes, the referring partner earns a share of SourceX's fee. Your job is the introduction. SourceX runs everything after it: checking fit, guiding the inventory, pricing, buyer review, the contract and delivery.

Which CAS clients fit

Company size and depth of records matter more than industry. Look for these signals in the clients you already serve:

Back offices of B2B software, IT services, professional services, engineering, logistics, distribution and manufacturing businesses tend to screen well. See who qualifies for every criterion.

The 4C screen for CAS teams

Run four checks on a client before you raise a license. A clear no on any one of them means park it.

• Count: did the company reach 50+ full-time employees at peak, contractors excluded?
• Continuity: are several years of records still retained, including systems that were replaced?
• Content ownership: did the company create the records itself, rather than holding its own customers' data under contract?
• Champion: will the owner, CEO, CFO or an authorized representative entertain granting exclusive AI-training rights for a set period?

The client can run a preliminary version in the company fit checker without entering contact details. A good result is a signal, not an approval.

When to raise it in the CAS calendar

How the introduction works

1. Your firm clears its independence and fee check for this client (below).
2. You ask the sponsor for permission, and share the fit checker if they want a first look.
3. You submit the company through the referral form, or send your referral link so the company applies at sourcex.si/apply with your code attached.
4. SourceX qualifies the company on size, history, data breadth and rights.
5. The client lists its systems, years of history and exportable records in a data inventory, then settles price and terms with SourceX; it is not bound until it signs.
6. AI labs and data buyers assess the dataset; at closing, the data goes out under the agreed redaction rules and the client is paid.
7. Your reward becomes payable once SourceX has received its fee.

At no step does your team export, upload or describe client records.

What to say to the client

If your rules or firm policy allow a reward, say so in the same conversation and confirm the disclosure in writing.

Independence and referral-fee checks to run first

Run this check before you mention rewards. Under the AICPA Code's commissions and referral fees rule (ET 1.520), a member in public practice may not accept a commission for recommending a product or service to a client when the member or the firm also performs an audit, review, certain compilations or an examination of prospective financial information for that client, and permitted commissions and referral fees must be disclosed to the client (AICPA Code of Professional Conduct). State law can add its own requirements: Florida, for example, regulates CPA commissions and referral fees by statute (Fla. Stat. 473.3205, 2017 text), so check the current version of your own state's rule. If your CAS practice sits inside a CPA firm that also performs attest work, map those relationships client by client.

Questions to take to your firm's ethics partner or state board:

• Does the firm perform any attest service for this client, including compilations?
• Does our state's rule differ from the AICPA Code, and how?
• How must a referral fee be disclosed to the client, and in what form?
• Does firm policy let individual professionals accept rewards, or only the firm?

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

How rewards work for a CAS firm

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, and the reward becomes 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 comes out of SourceX's fee, so the client's payment is untouched.

Credit goes to the first valid referrer whose introduction leads to a verified company application within the attribution window, so agree internally who registers and who submits. Anything beyond these points is set by the program terms. For a primer on how referral arrangements are usually structured, see what is a referral program.

When not to bother

• The firm audits or reviews the client and policy bars referral fees; you can still tell the client it may apply on its own.
• The client is itself an outsourcer or bookkeeping provider whose records mostly belong to its customers.
• The bulk of the records is consumer personal data or patient health information.
• A previous AI-training license already covers the same records.
• A past migration wiped the archives and nobody can export what remains.
• The owner will not consider an exclusive license.

Next step

Run the 4C screen across your largest CAS clients this month. When one passes and the sponsor agrees, register as a partner and submit the introduction. Fractional CFOs in your network can read referral opportunities for fractional CFOs, and the guide to agentic AI in accounting explains why finance workflow records are in demand.