Two tests decide whether a handoff worked: no founder noticed the leave, and the colleague who covered spent minutes a week, not hours. The base case assumes no reward income at all.
A twelve-week leave fits inside one attribution window
The program credits the first valid introduction of a new company when that company submits a verified application within 90 days of the recorded introduction. Leave runs on a similar scale. The U.S. Department of Labor's FMLA guidance gives eligible employees of covered employers up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave a year: 84 days, nearly a full window. Many leaves follow firm policy or state law instead, but any leave of about three months has the same effect. An introduction recorded the week before you go can see its entire window open and close while you are out.
So a handoff is not there to keep the work going, which SourceX and the company mostly do. It is there to write down every date, wish and limit before the one person who knows them is gone for a quarter.
The continuity checklist for active referrals
One row per company, ten fields. Write them from your records and the dashboard, which shows each referral's stage and reward status (Estimated, Eligible, Approved, Paid). No company records go in the sheet: names, dates and stages only.
| Field | What to write | Why the cover needs it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Company and domain | Legal name and web domain | To match any question from SourceX to the right row |
| 2. Stage | Asked, CEO yes, introduced, applied, in review, deal or paid | Each stage carries different rules below |
| 3. Introduction date and method | For example, portal submission on 2 November | It starts the 90-day window |
| 4. Window end | Introduction date plus 90 days, or "applied on [date]" | The one date that can pass during the leave |
| 5. Relationship owner | The deal partner or LP principal who asked the CEO | The only person, besides you, who speaks to the CEO about the ask |
| 6. The CEO's stated wishes | "No chasing", "ask me in March" | The cover follows them word for word |
| 7. The cover may | Forward questions from SourceX or the CEO; answer from the public program pages | Keeps things moving without new commitments |
| 8. The cover may not | Resubmit, re-ask, promise outcomes, request records, commit SourceX to anything | Protects the attribution and the CEO |
| 9. The named Partner | The firm or you, as the signed agreement says | Decides whose referral it is |
| 10. First check on return | What to reconcile in your first week back | Closes the loop |
Field 8 comes from the partner agreement. A partner is not SourceX's agent and may not commit SourceX to prices, licenses or payouts, a purchase or reward is never to be presented as guaranteed, and a dashboard edit does not amend the agreement. A company with an earlier valid introduction is reviewed as a duplicate, so a cover who resubmits "to be safe" only adds a record to explain.
Three items sit outside the rows:
- Confidentiality. The agreement allows sharing with employees, advisers and service providers who need the information and are bound by confidentiality duties at least as protective, and the sharing party answers for them. A fund colleague can fit that when the fund is the named Partner; if you signed in your own name, ask SourceX first. A partner changes employers explains why the signature page matters.
- Notices. Formal notices go to the notice email in the signature block, as updated by written notice, and take effect on acknowledged receipt. If you will not read that inbox, update it in writing or have someone read it.
- Credentials. Do not hand over your portal login. Tell SourceX in writing who is covering and until when, and keep the sheet as the cover's working copy.
Seven rows, three decisions (Illustrative)
A platform manager writes the sheet on Monday 16 November 2026 for a leave from Monday 30 November 2026 to Sunday 21 February 2027, twelve weeks. Companies and dates are fictional.
| Row | Company (Illustrative) | Stage on 16 November | Window end | Decision before leave |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 310-person industrial distributor | Introduced 19 Oct; applied 4 Nov; in review | Met: applied on day 16 | Hand over: forward questions only |
| B | 240-person IT services firm | Introduced 2 Nov; not yet applied | 31 Jan 2027, during the leave | Hand over as a date to record; nobody chases |
| C | 190-person engineering consultancy | CEO said yes on 13 Nov; not introduced | Starts when introduced | Introduce on 23 Nov, before leaving |
| D | 150-person claims servicing firm | Asked 5 Oct; no reply | None | Close with a courtesy note |
| E | 420-person facilities services company | Asked 8 Oct; no reply | None | Close with a courtesy note |
| F | 95-person software reseller | Asked 12 Oct; no reply | None | Close with a courtesy note |
| G | 70-person payroll bureau | CEO said "ask me in March" | None | Leave it: the return is 22 Feb |
Row C is where leave does real damage, so it is settled before leaving. Introduced on 23 November, its window ends on 21 February 2027, the last day of the leave, which makes it a second date for the cover to record alongside row B.
Rows D to F are closed, not handed over. Five weeks of silence is an answer, and a follow-up from a colleague the CEO has never met is a cost to the CEO, not a service. The note is two sentences: "I'm away from 30 November until late February and won't follow up on the SourceX idea. If it's ever useful, just reply and I'll pick it up when I'm back."
Row G waits. The CEO chose March, the platform manager is back on 22 February, and nobody needs to act in between.
What each row says about fit, and what it leaves to SourceX
A row records only what you know at metadata level: confirmed headcount, the kind of records and how many years they span, the system they live in, and whether the CEO, who authorizes any licensing discussion, has said yes in their own words. SourceX's published screen asks for a peak full-time workforce of 50+, with contractors outside that number, operating history backed by documents, records the company has the rights to license and that authorization. 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.
Everything else stays unknown until SourceX reviews the company: whether its records match current data needs, whether customer contracts limit their use and what a license would cover. If a CEO asks the cover about any of that, the answer is "SourceX decides that in its review" and the question gets forwarded. Nobody asks for samples, exports or logins.
The cover's weekly load, with reward income at $0
| Stage | Rows | Cover's job | Minutes a week (Illustrative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In SourceX review | A | Forward any question within two business days | 10 |
| Introduced, not applied | B, C | Note whether the company has applied; no outreach | 5 each |
| Closed before leave | D, E, F | None | 0 |
| The CEO's own date | G | None | 0 |
| New asks | None | Paused from 16 November | 0 |
| Total | 20 | ||
| Reward income assumed | $0 |
Rows B and C are recorded, not chased. Pushing a CEO to apply before day 90 so the referral keeps its credit would put the partner's interest ahead of the company's; the program terms decide credit, and the handoff only makes sure the dates exist. The minutes are placeholders: replace them with the cover's own log and compare it with the stage weights in how many active referrals one operator can manage.
Expand, pause and stop at the handoff
| Decision | When it applies | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Pause new asks | Always, from two weeks before leave, unless a colleague owns both the relationship and the follow-through | No CEO conversation starts that nobody can finish |
| Close instead of handing over | Any ask with no reply for four weeks or more | A two-sentence courtesy note, recorded as closed |
| Stop the program at the leave | Two quarters with no CEO who wanted a conversation | Hand over only rows in review; close the rest |
| Expand after the return | The cover handled every inbound question without escalation and no founder noticed the gap | The process is documented well enough for a second operator |
A team where the handoff should be a stop (Illustrative). A platform manager at a seed fund goes on leave after two quarters of the program: six asks, no CEO who wanted the conversation, and two companies that turned out to sit below the program's size floor of 50 full-time employees at peak. A continuity sheet would preserve work that is not working. The better handoff is none: six courtesy notes, a paragraph on what was tried and why it stopped, and a restart trigger such as a portfolio company crossing the size floor.
Back at your desk: reconcile in one sitting
- Compare every row with its dashboard stage and status.
- Check whether rows B and C recorded an application and on what date. If a question about credit arises, put the dates to SourceX in writing; do not resubmit.
- Restart row G on the CEO's date, not before.
- Ask the cover what was unclear and fix the sheet's wording for next time.
- Restart new asks only when you have the hours, using the fund allocation worksheet to decide which fund's companies come first.
Accountants taking over bookkeeping from a previous accountant and finance leaders writing a CFO handover document follow the same habit: write down what only you know, by date, before you go.
Where a handoff sheet falls short
- Agreements in your own name. A colleague cannot step into a personal agreement. The sheet helps them answer questions; it does not make them the partner.
- Leave that changes length. Medical and family leave can extend. Write window ends as dates, not as "before I'm back", so they still mean something if the return moves.
- Credit and contact protection are different clocks. The 90-day attribution window is not the agreement's six-month protection period; referral attribution vs contact protection separates them.
- No published data. How often referrals stall during a partner's leave has not been published. Log minutes per row, escalations and stage changes, and ask founders on your return.
Methods note. The ten fields and the cover's limits come from the program terms, the Channel Partner Agreement sample and the dashboard statuses on the how-it-works page, all checked 2026-10-26; the leave length comes from the Department of Labor's FMLA guidance. Rows, dates and minutes are Illustrative, and nothing here measures demand, record quality or payouts.
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 your platform team has no partner account yet, settle whether the firm or a named person signs before anyone's leave makes the question urgent: start registration, check open rows against who qualifies and keep a copy of the program terms with the handoff sheet; the overview for venture platform teams and other guides cover the rest.
Writing a handoff for active referrals is program work. Anyone weighing SourceX as a possible investment should treat that as its own decision and request materials 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.