# Referral partner offboarding checklist | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/guides/how-to-offboard-a-partner-while-preserving-active-company-relationships
Last updated: 2026-11-04

Offboarding ends a partner's role in your network, not the conversations their companies are having. Before the exit date, list every company the partner touched, sort each by stage, give each CEO one named contact, leave credit exactly where the dated record puts it, and remove the partner's access to shared trackers while keeping the records. Start by checking whose name is on the SourceX agreement, because that decides whether the departing person or your firm stays the credited partner.

Three things go wrong when this is skipped. A CEO who agreed to a conversation hears nothing for a month. A well-meaning colleague resubmits a company "to keep it alive" and creates a conflicting record. The departing partner leaves with a spreadsheet of CEO contacts that no longer belongs to the role.

## Whose agreement is it, and who counts as active?

**Check the signature first.** Networks run on one of two structures, and offboarding differs sharply between them.

- **The firm signed.** Your firm holds the SourceX Channel Partner Agreement and individual advisors introduce on its behalf. The agreement lets a party share confidential information with employees and advisers who need it and are bound by confidentiality, and makes the party responsible for them. When one advisor leaves, your contact list changes; the credited partner does not.
- **Each person signed.** Every advisor holds their own agreement. Their introductions are then theirs: the terms credit one partner per company from the dated record, and the agreement cannot be assigned without the other party's written consent. An internal memo cannot move their credit to a colleague.

**Define activity before you decide who leaves.** Write two definitions down and apply them the same way to everyone:

- **Active partner:** a signed agreement and at least one introduction in the last two quarters where the CEO knew about it and wanted the conversation.
- **Referral quality:** the share of a partner's introductions where the CEO wanted the conversation, the fit facts were known before submission and no duplicate flag came back.

SourceX has published no activation or quality benchmarks, so measure your partners against your own register, not against a borrowed number. The [referral partner overview](/proof/what-is-a-referral-partner) sets out the role being measured.

## Which clocks keep running after the exit date

Offboarding does not stop the program's clocks. Each runs on its own schedule, set by the terms and the agreement.

| Clock or right | What the documents say | What it means for offboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Notice | The agreement runs for one year and either party may end it on 30 days' written notice | Use the notice month for handoffs |
| Attribution window | 90 days from the recorded introduction, and it does not stretch because contact protection continues | An open introduction keeps its own deadline |
| Contact protection | Introductions recorded during the term stay protected for six months after the agreement ends | Protection guards against circumvention; it is not a reward and adds nothing to the 90 days |
| Confidentiality | Lasts three years after the agreement ends; on termination each side returns or deletes the other's confidential information, apart from records kept for legal duties, reward accounting or dispute evidence | Collect working notes; keep the register |
| Earned rewards | Stay payable when their conditions are met, unless they arose from fraud or a breach; closing an account waives no accrued right | Keep the departed partner's payment and tax details current |
| Repeat licenses | Valid attribution continues for qualifying repeat licenses and renewals agreed during the term or the six-month protection period | Note any renewal already under discussion |

One case falls between the rows. The terms protect rewards already earned, and the agreement keeps attribution alive for transactions agreed during the term or the protection period, but neither document settles in plain words an introduction that is still moving through SourceX's review on the day its introducer leaves. SourceX decides that case on the dated record, so do not promise the partner, the company or a colleague any particular outcome.

## The six-stage continuity checklist

Give every company the partner touched one row, and sort it into exactly one stage. The stage decides who speaks to the CEO and what must not happen.

| Stage | Check before the exit date | Who tells the CEO, and what | Never |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Named, never asked | Is the company only on a list? | Nobody; the CEO never heard of it | Contact the CEO on the departed partner's behalf |
| 2. Asked, CEO still deciding | Date of the ask and who hears the answer | The departing partner introduces a successor, with the CEO's agreement | Pitch the idea again |
| 3. Introduced, window open, no application yet | Date of the written introduction and day 90 | Departing partner and successor together, in one message | Submit the company again under another name |
| 4. Verified application or in review | Reference code and stage only | The successor confirms they are the CEO's contact; SourceX deals with the company directly | Ask SourceX for buyer names, prices or margin |
| 5. Agreement signed, data in preparation | Stage only | The same contact, with no new asks | Describe acceptance or a reward as certain |
| 6. Reward pending | Dashboard status: Estimated, Eligible, Approved or Paid | Not a matter for the CEO | Redirect a reward the record credits to someone else |

Then close access. Security teams already have a checklist for people who leave. NIST's control catalog, paraphrased, asks organizations to disable a departing person's access within a set time, revoke their credentials, hold an exit interview that can include a reminder of nondisclosure duties, recover organizational property and keep access to the information the person used to control. For a referral network that means removing the partner from shared trackers on the exit date, reminding them in writing that confidentiality runs for three years, collecting their working notes on companies and keeping the company register under the firm's control.

Offboarding takes back access, not friendships. The agreement lets a partner keep existing relationships, so a CEO who knew the departing advisor before the program may keep talking to them. What leaves with the role is the firm's tracker, its notes and its standing to make new introductions.

## Three offboarding cases (Illustrative)

Illustrative. Invented partners and companies; counts are examples, not benchmarks.

**An underperforming cohort.** Nine partners joined after one conference. Two quarters later they had made two introductions between them, and both CEOs declined. Every row sits in stage 1 or is empty, so the whole cohort can be offboarded in one week with one message each, tracker access closed and their stage-1 lists deleted unless someone else holds those relationships. Before recruiting the next cohort, find out whether the cause was training or the wrong recruits.

**A duplicate risk.** A departing advisor introduced a 240-person claims processor 50 days ago, and no application has arrived. A colleague who also knows the CEO offers to submit it fresh so it does not lapse. The terms credit the first valid introduction, and a company SourceX already knows is reviewed as a duplicate, so a second submission restarts nothing; it only adds a conflicting record. The colleague becomes the CEO's contact and mentions that the window closes on day 90, while credit stays where the record puts it. The [written introduction versus link page](/proof/written-introduction-vs-referral-link-attribution) shows how conflicting records are read.

**A capacity limit.** A senior partner who resigns holds 14 of the network's 31 active companies. The successor can manage four handoff calls a week alongside other work, so the calls take four weeks: roughly the 30-day notice period. Order them by urgency: stage 3 first, because those windows are running, then stage 2, then stages 4 and 5. If notice is shorter, write to the stage 4 and 5 CEOs and save calls for stages 2 and 3.

## Map capacity, support, concentration and overlap before anyone leaves

The best offboarding is prepared while everyone is still there. Track four signals in your register.

| Signal | How to measure it | Act when |
|---|---|---|
| Concentration | Share of active companies held by one partner | One partner holds more than a quarter: name a second contact for each of their companies now |
| Capacity | Handoff calls a successor can take per week, against that partner's active companies | The calls would outlast the notice period |
| Support | Questions the partner's companies sent in the last quarter | The same question recurs: fix the briefing before the handoff |
| Overlap | Companies on two partners' lists | Any overlap: settle it in the register before the exit, not after |

These thresholds are starting points; no benchmark has been published. The [identity register guide](/guides/how-to-avoid-counting-the-same-company-across-three-networks) shows how to keep one row per company across networks, and the [leave handoff page](/guides/the-platform-manager-s-handoff-when-taking-leave) covers a temporary absence rather than a permanent exit.

## Evidence gates after the exit, and how to correct a miss

**At 30 days**, check three things: every stage 2 to 5 company has a named contact who has spoken to the CEO; nobody resubmitted a company; no CEO has complained about being dropped or chased.

**At 90 days**, check that each stage 3 window has either produced a verified application or closed, and that rewards for earned introductions still route to the partner the record credits.

**When something was missed**, correct it in the open. A forgotten company gets a call from the successor with an apology. A duplicate submitted by mistake is withdrawn and SourceX is told. A disagreement over credit goes through the agreement's dispute route: an email to hello@sourcex.si with the supporting evidence, which SourceX reviews in good faith without showing either side the other partner's records. The guide to [explaining attribution without promising exceptions](/guides/how-to-explain-attribution-without-promising-manual-exceptions) helps when the departing partner asks for a manual fix, and the comparison of [how involved a partner stays after an introduction](/compare/how-involved-is-a-referral-partner-after-introduction) sets expectations for the successor.

## 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 an exit leaves a successor holding CEO relationships of their own, make sure they have [registered for a partner link](/register) and signed the agreement before making any new introduction, check each company against [who qualifies](/who-qualifies) and keep the [program terms](/terms) open during the handoff.

## Sources

- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms
- https://sourcex.si/documents/partner/SourceX_Channel_Partner_Agreement_Sample.pdf
- https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-53r5.pdf
- https://refer.sourcex.si/how-it-works