How commissions work

This page walks through the full commission lifecycle. If you just want the short version: agreements are signed before intros, commissions are a percentage of the vendor's actual customer invoicing, and advisors get paid monthly with tax summaries included.

The commission agreement

A commission agreement is a contract between a vendor and a referring advisor. It specifies:

Commission percentage. Commonly 10%.
Commission model. One-time, fixed-term (specified number of months), or lifetime. See the blog post on commission structures for a comparison.
Effective dates. When the agreement is in force.
Scope. Whether it applies to any deal, specific product lines, or deals from specific campaigns.

Agreements are signed by both parties on the platform. Once signed, they govern every referral from that advisor to that vendor until either party terminates the agreement. Terms don't change retroactively for existing referrals.

Commission calculation

Commissions are calculated on the vendor's actual customer invoicing, not headline deal value, not list price, not MRR × 12.

For example: advisor refers Customer X to Vendor A. The contract is $500,000 ARR for 3 years. Customer X actually pays $480,000 in year one (a 4% discount negotiated late). The commission is 10% of $480,000 = $48,000 — not $50,000.

This matters because:

Advisors can see deal value while it's in progress, but commission is always reconciled to actual paid amounts
Vendor disputes are rare because the math is transparent
If a customer churns early, the commission is based only on what was actually invoiced

The payout flow

Customer pays the vendor. Standard A/R.
Vendor reports the payment on the platform. This triggers commission accrual.
Refenture consolidates commissions. Every month, per advisor, across every vendor they work with.
Refenture deducts its service fee. 20% of the gross commission.
Refenture pays the advisor. One bank transfer per month per advisor.

Refenture handles the invoicing, VAT/tax handling, and multi-currency conversion. The advisor sees the full ledger on their Commissions page in real time.

Worked example

Advisor refers a $500K first-year deal to Vendor A. 10% commission = $50K.
Vendor A invoices $500K across Q1–Q4 of the year.
Gross commission accrued: $50K.
Refenture service fee (20%): $10K.
Advisor receives: $40K, paid across four monthly payouts of $10K each (as Vendor A's invoices get paid).

If the advisor also refers a $200K deal to Vendor B, their payouts consolidate automatically.

Taxes

At the end of the calendar year, Refenture issues a single tax summary to each advisor covering all vendors. For advisors in countries with self-employment or independent contractor rules, the summary is formatted to be directly usable by their accountant.

Refenture does not withhold taxes at source (with rare country-specific exceptions). Advisors are responsible for their own tax filings in their country of residence.

Multi-vendor and cross-currency

If you're an advisor working with vendors in different countries:

Each commission agreement is denominated in the vendor's currency.
At payout time, Refenture converts to your preferred payout currency at the prevailing market rate.
The tax summary reports both the original currency amounts and the converted payout amounts.

You never need to chase payment, issue invoices, or handle currency conversion yourself.