How do I track referral credits over a period of several months for multiple customers without getting confused?
March 29, 2012 12:59 PM   Subscribe

How do I track referral credits over a period of several months for multiple customers without getting them confused? Lots of confusing details ahead...

At work, we have a referral program in place that allows existing customers to earn a "referral credit" when they send a new client our way.

Most of our clients pay $40 per month for our services (on a recurring revenue basis). The boss is extremely adamant that the amount of the referral credit is $40 per month for three months, for a grand total of $120.

The referral program is designed to reduce/cancel their billing for 3 months in order to fulfill the referral credit. The thing is, we do not have any software or anything to track these referral credits at present, so it all has to be done manually.

We are generating much more business lately (yay!), and consequently we are seeing a lot more of these referrals. However, with each customer starting at a different time/month, it is becoming increasingly difficult to track these multi-month referrals in terms of who starts when, who finishes when, and so on.

Are you familiar with any system or software program of any kind that might be of assistance to us in this matter? Because I am regarded as being the responsible, capable one around here, I've been put in charge of tracking these referrals. With everything else I have to work on, tracking them is becoming a separate job in and of itself, and I'm beyond frustrated. I also have zero background in billing, finance, bookkeeping, etc., which would probably help me here.

I have already attempted to negotiate with the boss on how these referrals are handled. I have suggested sending gift cards or rebate checks in lieu of what we're doing now, but the boss says that the terms of the referral program are non-negotiable. Obviously, this is becoming a major point of contention.

Please help me find a way to track these credits before I go nuts or quit in frustration!
posted by chatelaine to Work & Money (1 answer total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Could you issue a three month credit to the referrer's account when you first receive the referral? This way you can continue with your normal billing cycle without ongoing tracking on your end. Their billing statement would be the method of tracking, showing their (shrinking) referral credit as a negative balance over the three months.

This keeps you from having to manually track all the referral credits month-to-month, and you can simply keep one master tracking sheet showing which client got the credit and when it was applied to their account.
posted by trivia genius at 1:37 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]


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