SaaS referral program template

Turn a referral idea into a one-page operating brief. Define who qualifies, which payment earns a reward, and who handles delivery and exceptions.

01Make it yoursEditable asset

Editable program brief

Replace the bracketed fields here, then copy. Edits stay in this page only and are lost when you leave or reload. No account required.

PROGRAM BRIEF — [Product / owner / version]
Goal: acquire [customer segment] who complete [valuable product action].
Pilot: [start/end dates], [maximum qualified referrals], [total reward budget].

Who can refer: [eligible existing customers].
Who can be referred: [new individual or new company account].
Identity boundary: [one account per person OR one customer company]; invitations to the same company do not create extra rewards.
Qualification: [first successfully collected subscription payment], excluding [tax, refunds, ineligible plans]. A click or trial alone does not qualify.
Attribution: [documented link/code rule and eligibility window]. Define what happens when two people refer the same customer.

Referrer receives: [amount and reward type].
New customer receives: [amount and reward type, or none].
Release condition: [verification/hold period and refund policy].
Limits: [per referrer, per new customer, total budget].
Delivery owner: [team/system]; delivery evidence: [provider reference or receipt].
Customer wording: [when the reward is earned, available and usable].

Exceptions: [self-referral, existing customer, duplicate payment, refund, cancellation, disputed attribution].
Support owner: [contact and response target].
Measurement: invitations → accepted signups → paid customers → retained customers; include reward cost, software and operator time.
Decision date: [date]; continue if [retained-customer and contribution criteria].

02Worked exampleIllustrative

Worked example: a $60/month team product

Illustrative policy: reward the company account that refers a new company after its first collected payment and a 30-day review period. Offer $15 of account credit to the referrer and no new-customer reward. At 80% contribution margin before referral costs, one $60 month contributes $48; reserving the full $15 credit leaves $33 before program software and support. Cap the pilot at 40 qualified referrals: $600 of face-value reward exposure. These are planning assumptions, not observed results or RefRef configuration defaults.

03CustomizeYour policy

Choose the unit before the reward

For a team product, an employee's signup may join an existing paying company. Decide whether the company or the individual qualifies. Keep the person who clicked separate from the account that earns the benefit; do not award twice because two coworkers signed up.

Give qualification a single owner

Use a trusted billing or application record to establish payment. A success page can reload, and an email can arrive late. Name the system that decides a payment happened, and retain its reference so support can explain the decision.

Budget for delivery as well as earning

A calculated reward is not an applied credit. Specify who creates the credit, how a failed attempt is retried, and where delivery is reconciled. Treat unredeemed credits as exposure until you have evidence for a different planning assumption.

04Before you use itReview

Acceptance checklist

Two coworkers cannot earn duplicate acquisition rewards for the same new company.
Replaying the same payment leaves one reward.
A refund has a documented result before and after reward delivery.
Support can trace a referral from source payment to delivery receipt.

Source notes

Stripe webhook delivery behavior — Duplicate delivery and event ordering inform the qualification checks. This template is not a Stripe integration.

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