Advocate Program Terms

Who Can Participate

The program is open to anyone — current clients, past clients, colleagues, friends, or professional contacts. No application, approval, or advance signup is required. A person becomes an Advocate simply by submitting a qualifying referral.

When A Referral Does Not Qualify

Referrals will not qualify for a reward when:

• The prospect is already an active lead in our pipeline at the time of submission.
• The referral is of the Advocate themself, or of another entity the Advocate personally owns or controls.
• The same prospect has already been submitted by someone else — the reward goes to whoever submitted first (see Attribution & First-Submit Rule below).

Reward Structure — Two Tracks

The program pays out differently depending on what the referral closes into. This split protects margin on standalone tax preparation work, where the base rate is too thin to absorb tiered cash rewards without going negative once software and labor costs are factored in.

Flagship Referral Track (Tiered — Cash or Credit)

Applies only when the referral closes into a Tax Season Peace of Mind Intensive or a Financial Clarity & Legacy Partnership engagement. Advocates choose cash or account credit at the time of each payout. Tier count is based on the number of Flagship-track referrals closed in a calendar year and resets to zero each January 1.

Tax Prep Referral Track (Flat Credit Only)

Applies when the referral closes into standalone individual tax preparation — not bundled into an Intensive. This track intentionally does not scale: no tiers, no cash option, and it does not count toward Flagship-track tier progression.

What "Closed" Means (Payout Trigger)

A referral is considered closed — and the reward is earned — only when both of the following have happened:

• The referred prospect has signed a By the Books Consulting engagement letter (Intensive, Partnership, or standalone tax preparation), and
• Their first invoice payment has been submitted and has cleared.

The reward is issued within 30 days of the payment-cleared date. This timing provides a short buffer for early-cancellation reversals before cash goes out the door.

Method Of Payment

On the Flagship track, you choose how you'd like to be paid at the time of each reward:

• Cash — issued via check, ACH, or another mutually agreed method
• Account Credit — applied toward future services with By the Books Consulting

You can choose differently for each Flagship reward. The Tax Prep track pays in account credit only. Account credit does not expire.

Tax Reporting

Cash rewards may be reportable income to the Advocate. Advocates receiving $2,000 or more in cash rewards within a calendar year will be asked to complete a Form W-9 and will receive a Form 1099-NEC for the total cash rewards paid that year.

Attribution & The First-Submit Rule

Only one reward is paid per closed engagement. If the same prospect is submitted by more than one Advocate, the reward is credited to whoever submitted first, based on the timestamp of the form submission.

We do not split rewards between multiple Advocates who refer the same person, and we do not offer retroactive attribution.

Referral Privacy & Consent

We only reach out to referred business owners who have been given advance notice that you may introduce them to us. Referring someone who has explicitly declined to be contacted, or referring someone under false pretenses, disqualifies the referral.

We never share your name with the referred party without your permission — outreach is conducted as if we were introducing ourselves independently, unless you've indicated otherwise.

No Guarantee Of Payout

Submitting a referral does not guarantee a reward. Whether and when a prospect engages By the Books Consulting is entirely their decision. If they do not engage, no reward is earned. If they engage and later cancel or refund before their first payment clears, no reward is issued.

Program Modifications

By the Books Consulting may modify or end this program at any time. Any changes apply only to referrals submitted after the change is posted here with an updated revision date. Referrals already submitted at the time of a program change will be honored under the terms in effect at the time of submission.

Questions

For anything not covered here, or for clarification on any of the above, reach out at [email protected].