Why do referral calculation bases matter alongside advertised caps?
Because the cap only binds on large deals, and most of the arithmetic happens below it. A reward is base × rate, then limited by the cap if the program has one. If the base is small or the rate is low, a generous cap is never reached, and the advertised maximum describes a deal you may never see.
There are three common bases in company referrals:
| Base | What it means | Effect on the reward |
|---|---|---|
| The company's payout | A percentage of what the referred company is actually paid | Moves directly with the company's deal |
| The platform's fee or margin | A percentage of what the platform keeps | Usually much smaller than the company's payout |
| A fixed or tiered amount | A set figure, sometimes "up to" a ceiling that depends on deal size | Unclear until the tiers are written down |
SourceX uses the first: on a company's first qualifying transaction, the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap, and 15% on each further qualifying transaction first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing. Actual Supplier Payout means the compensation SourceX actually pays the referred company for the qualifying completed data handoff, excluding separately itemized taxes and expense reimbursements. It is never calculated on SourceX's fees or revenue.
Three offers, normalized to the same company payout
Illustrative. Offers B and C are fictional, built only to show the arithmetic; they describe no real program. Offer A is SourceX's default formula for a company's first qualifying transaction. None of these numbers is a forecast, a quote or a completed deal.
- Offer A: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of the company's payout, with no cap; the USD 50,000 floor applies once per company.
- Offer B: 10% of the company's payout, advertised cap $250,000.
- Offer C: 10% of the platform's fee, advertised cap $500,000. Assume the platform's fee equals 30% of the company's payout.
Apply all three to the same company payouts:
| Company is paid | Offer A (no cap) | Offer B (cap $250,000) | Offer C (cap $500,000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $120,000 | $56,000 | $12,000 | $3,600 |
| $400,000 | $70,000 | $40,000 | $12,000 |
| $800,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 | $24,000 |
Read the table from the right. The offer with the biggest headline cap pays the least in every row, because 10% of a fee that is itself 30% of the payout works out to 3% of the payout. Offer B never overtakes Offer A: its 10% stays below Offer A's floor on small deals and below 15% on large ones, and it stops growing at its own cap once the company is paid $2,500,000. Offer C would need a company payout of roughly $16.7 million before its $500,000 cap mattered.
The lesson is not that caps never matter. It is that you cannot rank offers without the base and the rate, and that the deal sizes you actually expect to introduce decide which formula matters.
What do real programs publish today?
Checked on 2026-10-18, on each publisher's own pages; the SourceX row reflects its terms of 2026-11-04:
| Program | Advertised figure | Base stated | Cap scope stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| SourceX | the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap, on the first qualifying transaction; 15% on repeats within 12 months | Actual Supplier Payout | No cap; the USD 50,000 floor applies once per company |
| micro1 company referrals (checked 2026-10-26) | $50K for enterprise data partnerships up to $700,000, then 7.5% of the deal value above that; $75K for defunct-company partnerships up to $1 million, then 7.5% | Deal value above each threshold; referral terms keep a default of 7.5% of the total license or purchase price paid to the company when no payout is listed | No cap published above the thresholds |
| Mercor company referrals | Not published | Not published; bonus once the company starts earning | Not published |
Two cautions. micro1's figure has moved: a micro1 forum post dated 2026-06-16 described the same program with up to $25,000 per company, and its page said "up to $50K per referral" when checked on 2026-10-18. And a blank cell is not a zero; Mercor's data page describes a bonus without stating an amount. The Mercor comparison covers that in detail. A higher advertised cap does not establish higher expected earnings, and SourceX does not claim to be the highest-paying program.
Which other terms change the real number?
Beyond base, rate and cap, four clauses move the amount you would actually receive:
- Cap scope. Per referral, per agreement, per year, per company for life, or none at all. SourceX's terms set no cap per transaction, per company or in total; the USD 50,000 floor applies once per referred company, to its first qualifying transaction, and does not apply again on a repeat, renewal or amendment. A transaction qualifies only if its Actual Supplier Payout is at least USD 100,000 unless SourceX agrees otherwise in writing.
- Payment trigger. A signature, a go-live, a first invoice or cleared payment. A reward becomes payable after SourceX has paid the referred company under its signed agreement and the payout conditions in the program terms are met, including finance approval and your tax and payment details.
- Reversals. If the company's payout is reduced or reversed, does the reward follow? Under SourceX's terms it is reduced proportionately.
- Who funds it. A reward deducted from the company's compensation is a cost to your client. SourceX funds rewards separately and never deducts them from the company's payout.
How should an introducer compare offers in practice?
Use one company payout you consider realistic for the client in front of you, and run every program through it.
- Write each program's base, rate, minimum deal size, cap and cap scope in one row. If a field is not published, write "not published" and ask in writing.
- Convert every base to a share of the company's payout. A percentage of a fee becomes a much smaller percentage of the payout.
- Apply any floor, minimum and cap last.
- Note the trigger and deadline beside the number, because a reward that pays on cleared money is a different promise from one that pays on a milestone.
The earnings calculator runs SourceX's formula for any payout, and the payout calculation examples show installments, the once-per-company floor and refunds. For the general mechanics, see what a referral bonus is and what a referral program is.
What does the company need before any of this matters?
None of the arithmetic applies unless the introduced company qualifies and completes a handoff. It needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), documented operating history, rights to license its records and an authorized contact, and it must sit within the published geography on who qualifies. What the company would be paid stays unknown until SourceX reviews its records and agrees terms with it, which is why every figure on this page is illustrative.
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.
If the base and trigger matter more to you than the headline, register as a partner, check your candidate against who qualifies, and read the full calculation rules in the program terms.