Partner reports fail by overstating, with introductions counted as companies and estimates as income, or by leaking a company's licensing conversation to people its CEO never agreed to tell. One split fixes both: a register that holds the facts, and an edition that holds only what its audience may see.
Whose information sits in a partner report
Three parties own different parts of it, and each part travels only as far as its owner allows.
| Information | Whose it is | What limits it | Who may read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| The fund's own introductions, accounts, consent notes and internal credit | The fund's | The fund's own policy | The fund team; counts can travel further |
| That a company is exploring licensing, plus its headcount, systems and record history | The company's | The scope of its CEO's consent; board-pack duties | Only the people that consent covers |
| SourceX statuses, reference codes, credit and duplicate decisions, reward statements | SourceX's, under the Channel Partner Agreement | Sections 4.2, 4.5 and 4.6 of the agreement | People who need it and are bound by confidentiality |
| Acquisition Partner names, prices and SourceX's margin | Not shared with partners | Section 4.6 and the program terms | Nobody at the fund receives it |
The agreement is precise about the third row. Its definition of confidential information covers introduced contact identities and introduction records, and section 4.2 allows disclosure only to employees, professional advisers and service providers who need it and are bound by equivalent duties. Limited partners, co-investors and portfolio founders are not on that list. Section 4.5 bars either party from publicly identifying the other as a partner, or disclosing non-public deal details, without written authorization. So the edition circulates inside the fund, and an excerpt for an LP letter waits for written authorization from SourceX and, for anything about a company, from its CEO.
Company facts carry a separate duty. Funds often learn a portfolio company's systems from board packs, and NVCA's model management rights letter routes confidential information received under it into the Investors' Rights Agreement's confidentiality provisions, which outlast the rights themselves. The register records only the fit facts the CEO or the relationship owner supplied for this introduction, never figures lifted from a board deck.
What has to be true before a company gets a row
A row opens on the day the CEO says yes, not on the day someone has an idea. The CEO authorizes a licensing discussion and signs for the company; under SourceX's screening guidance, introducing a company before its decision maker knows is usually not a fit. Before anyone submits, the person introducing needs a signed SourceX Channel Partner Agreement.
The consent note sits next to four fit facts, each recorded as pass, fail or unknown:
- Size: 50+ full-time employees at peak, contractors excluded.
- History: documented operating records the company created itself.
- Rights: the company can license the records without breaching client, employee or third-party obligations.
- Location: Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 70% of the data is in English.
Discovery stays at metadata level: record type, rough volume, span of years, the system and its administrator. The agreement gives a partner no authority to share a company's records, raw data or personal information, so none of it enters the register. Only SourceX's review settles whether the records fit a current program, whether customer contracts limit reuse and what a license would cover; SourceX licenses directly as the company's counterparty, as what an AI data partner is explains.
Treat a parent and its subsidiaries as one row: the USD 50,000 floor applies once per referred company, so the group counts as one company for it. Whether a sister company's earlier contact with SourceX affects credit is decided by SourceX in duplicate review, so that cell stays unresolved until SourceX decides.
Definitions that open every edition
Print these above the first number, so every edition counts the same thing.
| Stage | What marks it | Where the date comes from |
|---|---|---|
| CEO consent | A dated note of the CEO's yes and its scope: who may know, what, until when | Fund register |
| Introduction | A written record: portal submission, tracked verified application, email or acknowledged log; oral introductions confirmed in writing | The introduction record |
| Application | The company submits its verified application, and attribution locks | Partner portal |
| Credited | SourceX credits the company to one of the fund's accounts | SourceX's attribution decision |
| Accepted | SourceX's stage update for the Acquisition Partner's final written acceptance | SourceX stage update |
| Reward paid | The payment reaches the fund's account | Bank record |
Population. Unique companies introduced by any of the fund's partner accounts, grouped by month of introduction. A company two colleagues introduced is one row with two records, because one partner is credited per company.
Period and cutoff. One edition per calendar month, with statuses from a portal export taken on the last business day and its time printed in the header. Every event keeps its own date.
The permission-aware monthly report, block by block
Six blocks, always in this order. The register feeds every block; only the edition circulates.
| Block | What it shows | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Header | Edition month, cutoff date, export times, the named audience and the editor | Fund records |
| 2. Definitions | Stages, population, cohort months and the code key | This method |
| 3. Cohort grid | One row per reference code, one column per stage, a date or a code in every cell | Register, portal export, bank record |
| 4. Reconciliation | For each stage, how many rows are reached, unresolved, closed, not applicable or not available, summing to the visible rows | Computed from block 3 |
| 5. Movements and gaps | Cells that changed since the last edition, restated past cells, and each unconfirmed cell with an owner and a fix date | Register |
| 6. Learning and cash | Close reasons by category, what the team will change, rewards received and reward statuses as counts | Register, bank record, portal |
Each register row carries its consent scope; when an edition's audience is wider than that scope, the row prints as withheld. That rule makes the report permission-aware: the scope travels with the row, so nobody has to remember which CEO asked for discretion.
How do you explain missing data in a partner report?
Give every empty cell a code that says why it is empty, and keep zero for the one case where the fund checked and nothing happened. Readers take a blank as zero.
Statistical agencies settled this long ago. The Census Bureau's Economic Census data dictionary uses D for figures withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual companies, which still count in higher-level totals, and its County Business Patterns glossary uses N for not available or not comparable and X for not applicable. None of them is a zero. The missing-versus-zero guide below borrows that discipline for a referral cohort.
| Code | What it says | Use it when | What must sit beside it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Checked at cutoff; none | The source was read and nothing happened | The export time in the header |
| U | Unresolved; can still happen | A window, review or condition is open | The next event and, where known, its date |
| C | Closed for this company | The window lapsed, a duplicate was found, the CEO declined or SourceX declined | A reason from a fixed list |
| X | Not applicable | An earlier stage closed, so this one cannot occur | Nothing |
| N | Not available at cutoff | The source was not read, the export failed or two sources disagree | An owner and a fix date |
| W | Withheld from this audience | The value exists, but consent or authorization does not cover these readers | The number of withheld rows |
Four rules keep the codes honest:
- A U whose named event has passed becomes N. Otherwise a stale case looks like live work.
- An N that survives two editions goes to the COO. It is a data problem, not a company outcome.
- C reasons come from a fixed list. "Already known to SourceX" or "no application in window", never free text that carries company detail.
- W rows stay out of the stage totals. A Census total can carry D figures because it aggregates many businesses; in a cohort of seven, subtraction would expose the row. A W row counts once, in the cohort size.
Then say it in words, as the worked edition below does.
Methods note. The blocks, stages and codes restate the program terms (version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04), the rewards page, the Channel Partner Agreement sample and the Census Bureau symbol definitions, all checked 2026-10-26. It measures where each company stands and who may see it, not record quality, demand or earnings, and it uses no SourceX figures; the edition below is invented.
The September edition, reconciled (Illustrative)
Illustrative: an invented fund whose platform team and two partners hold accounts, reporting with a 30 September cutoff. Seven companies, eight introduction records.
| Ref | CEO consent | Introduction | Application | Credited | Accepted | Reward paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-01 | 3 Jun | 5 Jun | 24 Jun | 9 Jul | U: acceptance pending | U |
| R-02 | 12 Jun | 13 Jun | C: no application in window | X | X | X |
| R-03 | 27 Jun | 30 Jun | 28 Jul | C: already known to SourceX | X | X |
| R-04 | 14 Jul | 15 Jul, two records | 19 Aug | U: duplicate review | U | U |
| R-05 | 4 Aug | 6 Aug | U: window open to 4 Nov | U | U | U |
| R-06 | 25 Aug | 26 Aug | N: CRM and portal disagree | U | U | U |
| R-07 | W | W | W | W | W | W |
| Stage | Reached | U | C | X | N | Visible rows |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CEO consent | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Introduction | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Application | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Credited | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Accepted | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Reward paid | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
Reconcile before anyone reads it:
- Records to companies. Eight records, seven companies: R-04 was introduced by two colleagues and counts once.
- Every row sums. Each stage adds to six visible rows; the header shows one withheld row, R-07, whose CEO limited the conversation to the deal partner and platform lead.
- Denominators are written out. Three companies had their 90-day window close before cutoff (R-01, R-02, R-03); two of the three applied. With numbers this small, the report gives counts, never percentages.
- Movements. Since August, R-02's application moved from U to C when its window closed on 11 September, R-03's credit moved from U to C, and R-06's application is a new N.
The paragraph for the partners' meeting: "Of six companies shown, three have applied. One can still apply until 4 November. One did not apply before its window closed. For one, the company says it applied on 22 September, but the portal export at cutoff does not show it; the platform analyst will confirm with SourceX before the October edition. One more company is in the cohort but withheld at its CEO's request."
Block 6 records what the closes taught, without names. R-03 was already known to SourceX, and under the current terms any earlier lead, account or email counts as an existing relationship, so the team now asks each CEO beforehand whether anyone there has corresponded with SourceX. R-02 consented without an application date; the team now agrees one at consent.
Cash in the month it lands, and no run rate
The rewards block reports cash received this month, from the bank record, and reward statuses as counts, using the rewards page sequence of Estimated, Eligible, Approved, Processing and Paid. In September: "0 received; one company at Estimated." Booking cash in the month it arrives mirrors how a chapter 11 debtor reports license receipts, as the Form 11-MOR guide describes.
The temptation is the run rate. Illustrative: suppose the portal showed R-01 at Estimated with a USD 55,000 reward, based on a proposed supplier payout of USD 100,000. A slide that treats that as monthly income shows USD 660,000 a year, and none of it exists. Before SourceX pays the company, any reward shown is an estimate based on proposed compensation; portal estimates are projections, not promises; and a lead, meeting or signed agreement alone earns nothing payable. Even once paid, it is one payment for one company's first qualifying transaction; the USD 50,000 floor applies once per company, a repeat inside the 12-month Repeat Window pays 15% with no floor, and the reward is reduced proportionately if the supplier payout is later reduced.
Per-company reward amounts stay out of the edition for a second reason: the reward is a set formula on what SourceX pays the company, so a reward beside any identifier discloses that company's payout. The guide to reporting outcomes without exposing deals works through that arithmetic.
Where the report can still mislead
- Small cohorts. One company moves a column by a sixth. Read three editions together, because applications and acceptance trail introductions by months. The active-partner definition applies the same caution to account counts.
- Withheld rows bend the lessons. If the CEOs who limit circulation run a particular kind of company, lessons drawn from visible rows skew. Print the W count every month, and have the deal partner check W rows against each lesson privately.
- SourceX's view is partial by design. Partners receive generic stages or reference codes, and SourceX need not reveal Acquisition Partner names, contracts, prices, margin or full acceptance evidence. "Accepted" is the stage SourceX reports. For attribution or reward questions, the agreement provides reference codes, status information and redacted calculations.
- Closed is not permanent. Each SourceX program has its own criteria, and a company declined under one of them could match another down the line. A C for a SourceX decline carries a revisit note.
- Definitions beat dashboards. In PartnerStack and Wynter's survey of 100 senior leaders at B2B SaaS companies with $50M or more in revenue (charts dated September 2025), 14% named lack of visibility into partner impact as the blocker to partner-driven revenue, behind team alignment (37%) and no clear partner program (20%). It is a vendor survey of software firms, not funds, but it suggests agreed definitions matter more than a better grid.
Related reading: tagging introductions by network segment, SourceX's referral funnel overview, the venture platform page and the guides index.
Next step
Refer a company. No cap on rewards. Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
Once a company has a consent note and a written introduction record in your register, register for a partner link, check it against who qualifies and read the program terms on attribution and duplicates before the first edition circulates.
Building this report is referral work; judging SourceX as a company is a separate decision, and diligence materials for it are requested through the SourceX investor overview.
This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.