Understanding Referrals

Advanced Billing Referrals let you build a flexible, two‑way referral program to incentivize your customers to refer more business. You can give referring Customers a one‑time or recurring credit and new Customers a coupon discount. You don’t have to offer both.

The program benefits both parties. Set referral credit to an amount greater than $0.00 to issue a credit. If you want to benefit only one party, configure credit or discount to apply only to that party.

To set up referrals, define the following:

• The discount for the referring Customer
• The discount for the new Customer
• When to apply the credit (delay or immediate)
• Whether to limit the discount
• Whether the credit should recur

The screenshot below shows how to edit both the referring Customer’s credit and the new Customer’s coupon.

View referral settings for your site

Referral Criteria

The referring Subscription must be in the Active status to apply credits or discounts.

Configure Referral Settings

Configure referral settings

One Time Credit for Referring Customer

Referring Customers receive a one‑time credit applied to their Subscription when a new Customer signs up using their referral code. This credit is applied immediately, even if the new Subscription includes a trial or is free.

Delay Credit

You can choose to:

1. Apply the credit immediately at signup.
2. Delay credit until the referred Subscription is active and payment is made.

Delaying credit ensures the referred Subscription generates revenue before rewarding the referrer. Advanced Billing supports either option.

Choose when to apply the credit for referring Subscription

Coupon Discount for the New Customer

When a new Customer signs up with a valid referral code, you can apply a coupon discount. Available options include:

• Percentage discount
• Flat dollar amount discount

Choose percentage or dollar amount discount for new Customer

This works the same way as the standard coupon.

Limit Discount

You can limit how the discount is applied:

• Limit discount (cannot exceed total charges)

  Example: Referral discount is $100, purchase is $10. Customer gets $10 off; the rest is discarded.

• Do not limit discount (carry forward remaining credit)

  Example: Referral discount is $100, purchase is $10. Customer gets $10 off; $90 becomes a negative balance for future use.

Recurring Discount

Decide how the coupon applies to the new Customer:

• Apply discount only at signup
• Apply at signup and every renewal
• Apply at signup and next X renewals

Excluding Discount On Mid‑period Allocations

Choose whether the coupon applies to component allocations generated mid‑period.

Multi‑Currency

If your site supports multiple currencies, you can define how referral credits and amount‑based coupons convert into non‑primary currencies. Choose between:

• Use definitive pricing — define a discount amount per currency
• Use site‑level exchange rate — either your custom rate or our hourly cached rate

Select View Converted Prices to preview current conversions.

Set specific referral/coupon amounts per currency

Discounts based on site‑level exchange rate

Enabling Referrals

After saving your settings, click the Enable Referrals button on Setup > Referrals.

Enable referrals on your site

How To Obtain Referral Codes

Once Referrals are enabled, each Subscription gets a unique Referral code. Find it on the Subscription summary page or via the API.

Referral code on the Subscription summary

Using Referral Codes in Email Templates

You can insert the Referral code in email templates using the subscription.referral_code field.

Example signup link:

https://fxlabgroup.billing.maxiopay.com/subscribe/fztxn5kxqckb/basic?ref=

Or append the code to your site URL and pass it to Advanced Billing after customers choose a product.

Referral Signup Flow via URL Parameter (Public Pages)

A visitor lands on a Public Signup Page with ?ref=35jxzh in the URL.

For example:

https://fxlabgroup.billing.maxiopay.com/subscribe/fztxn5kxqckb/basic?ref=35jxzh

The Customer sees a preview of the referral discount before completing signup.

Referral code validated on a Public Signup Page

“Thank You” page with referral discount; if credit is delayed, it appears later in the Subscription’s payment history

Referral Signup Flow via Signup Form (Public Pages)

Enable “Display Referrals” on your Public Signup Page

• A visitor navigates to the Public Signup Page—for example: http://fxlabgroup.billing.maxiopay.com/subscribe/fztxn5kxqckb/basic. They can enter and validate a Referral code and see the discount preview.
• After signup, the Referral discount is applied as in the URL parameter flow.