How to clear a referral relationship through your accounting firm's alliance review

The short answer: clear the relationship once, before any client hears about it

An accounting firm alliance program review is the internal approval a third-party relationship needs before partners use it with clients. For a SourceX referral relationship, risk management will want five things in writing: who pays whom and when, a restricted entity list search on SourceX, a firm rule for attest clients, a disclosure method, and confirmation that no client records leave the firm.

Clearing it centrally once beats every partner asking separately. It gives the independence team one approved procedure to point to when a tax partner, a client accounting services (CAS) manager and an advisory director each want to introduce a different client in the same quarter.

SourceX manages data licensing for US companies that hold valuable operational records, from rights review through delivery and payment, with AI labs and data buyers as licensees. The firm's part is an introduction and nothing more.

What the alliance team is actually testing

Firms send referral, vendor and co-marketing arrangements through an alliance or third-party relationships review because one arrangement can touch independence, professional ethics, data security and the firm's brand at once. A referral relationship looks small, but it creates a payment that depends on what a client decides, which is exactly what the ethics rules examine.

Put one more fact in the packet: the reward is a share of SourceX's own fee and is never deducted from what the client company receives. A reviewer will want to know whether the client pays more because of the introduction, and the answer is no.

What to have ready before you open the intake form

Requests stall when the reviewer has to come back for basics. Assemble these first:

• A sponsoring partner who owns the relationship and answers follow-up questions.
• The current program terms and a short description of the reward using the published formula. 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, and no reward is guaranteed.
• SourceX's details for the independence search: legal address 16192 Coastal Highway, Lewes, Delaware 19958, with headquarters in Los Angeles, California.
• A decision on who would receive any reward: the firm, or an individual partner with the firm's consent. The guide to origination credit at accounting firms covers how that choice plays out on partner scorecards.
• The service lines expected to make introductions, for example CAS, outsourced CFO, tax and transaction advisory.

How to take the relationship through review, step by step

1. Classify the arrangement. Describe it as a one-way introduction relationship: the firm does not resell, co-deliver or co-brand any SourceX service, and SourceX performs no services for the firm. The classification decides which questionnaire applies, so get it right at intake.
2. Search the counterparty. Run SourceX's legal name through the restricted entity list and save the dated result. Ask the independence team to record whether the arrangement creates any business relationship of the kind independence policies treat as a cooperative arrangement; the question belongs on file even when the answer is simple.
3. Turn the attest-client rule into a firm rule. Under ET 1.520, the AICPA Code's rule on commissions and referral fees, a member in public practice may not take a commission for recommending a product or service to a client that the member or the firm audits or reviews, performs certain compilations for, or whose prospective financial information it examines; where commissions and referral fees are allowed, the client must be told (AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, sections 1.520 and 1.510). Write the firm rule in one line: no reward on any company the firm attests for, and written disclosure wherever a reward is allowed.
4. Record a view on contingency. A reward is paid only if a licensing deal closes and the buyer pays, so reviewers may ask whether the contingent fees rule (ET 1.510) is engaged. That rule concerns fees for services a firm performs for a client where the amount depends on a specific result, and it bars them for the same attest clients the commissions restriction covers, as the NYSSCPA explainer on contingent fees describes. The reward is paid by SourceX rather than charged to the client; let the independence team weigh that and note its conclusion.
5. Map the data path. Confirm in writing that partners share only the owner's contact details and basic fit information, and only with the owner's approval: no ledgers, no tax returns, no engagement files. The FTC lists tax preparation firms among the non-bank businesses its Safeguards Rule can treat as financial institutions that must keep a written information security program (FTC Safeguards Rule guide). A referral process that moves no client data is easy to reconcile with that program.
6. Agree public-facing language. If marketing will mention SourceX in a client newsletter, webinar or post while the firm can earn a reward, put a plain disclosure next to the mention. FTC staff guidance says a clear statement that the speaker is paid works, while a bare label such as affiliate link may not be understood (FTC Endorsement Guides FAQ).
7. Write the per-client procedure. One page is enough: restricted entity list check, service-line check, owner approval, disclosure letter where a reward is permitted, and a log entry. The restricted entity list checklist works as the operating version.
8. Register the approval and diary the re-check. Record the approval and its conditions in the alliance register, name one registrant per client, and schedule an annual review plus an immediate one if the firm merges or takes outside investment. The guide to accounting firm M&A in 2026 explains why a combination reopens approvals like this one.

The single-registrant rule matters because SourceX credits the first valid referrer whose introduction leads to a verified company application within the attribution window. Two registrations of the same company from one firm cannot both count.

Common mistakes that send the request back

Illustrative: one review cycle, three requests

Illustrative and fictional. A 40-partner regional firm with construction and technology niches receives three partner requests in one month to introduce clients to SourceX. Instead of three separate reviews, the director of risk management asks the advisory partner to sponsor a single alliance request.

The packet holds the program terms, a dated restricted entity list search on SourceX, a firm rule that no reward is accepted on any company the firm audits, reviews or performs a covered compilation for, a template disclosure letter, and a data-path note confirming that only owner-approved contact details leave the firm. The independence team notes that SourceX, not the client, would pay any reward.

Approval comes with two conditions: a restricted entity list check before every introduction, and a second check before the firm accepts any payment. Of the three clients, one is an audit client and comes off the reward path; its owner applies directly through the public application instead. The other two proceed.

After approval: make the procedure easy to follow

Publish the approved procedure on the intranet page for third-party relationships and brief the CAS and advisory managers who see client systems every month. Our accountant referral hub explains which clients tend to fit, and the company fit checker gives a preliminary, non-binding screen with no contact details required.

Give reviewers the company baseline too, so nobody introduces clients that cannot qualify: US companies with 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), several years of documented operations, the rights to license their records and an authorized sponsor such as the owner, CEO or CFO.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting; state boards of accountancy can set rules stricter than the AICPA Code.

Next step

Send the packet to your alliance or risk management team this week. Once the relationship is approved, register as a partner under the name the approval specifies, and send your referral link only to owners who have agreed to the introduction.