How partner-sourced revenue is defined
The test is simple: did the opportunity exist before the partner brought it in? If not, the deal is partner-sourced. In practice, most programs add two rules:
- A lookback window. A submission counts as sourced only if the account had no open opportunity and no meaningful sales activity in a set period, often 90 days.
- One attribution per deal. If a deal qualifies as sourced, it is sourced, even if other partners also helped. This keeps sourced and partner-influenced revenue from overlapping, so the two can be added together.
Referrals and approved deal registrations are the usual ways a partner sources a deal. The timestamp on the submission is what proves the partner was first.
Why it matters
Partner-sourced revenue is the clearest measure of whether partners bring you new customers you would not otherwise have found. It usually drives referral fees, tier criteria and the budget case for the partner program, so it is worth defining before the first dispute.
How to track it
Record attribution in your CRM, because that is where revenue is reported. A sourcing partner field, an attribution type field with values such as sourced, influenced or none, and a submission date are enough for most programs. The partner-sourced vs partner-influenced guide sets out the fields and rules in full.
Example
On February 4, Brightline Agency refers Lumen Health. The vendor checks its CRM and finds no open opportunity and no sales activity with Lumen in the last 90 days, so the referral is approved as sourced and Brightline is set as the sourcing partner.
Lumen signs a $32,000 annual contract in April. The deal counts as $32,000 of partner-sourced revenue for the quarter, and Brightline earns a 15% referral fee of $4,800. When a second partner later helps Lumen with onboarding, it is recorded as an influencing partner, but the deal stays sourced to Brightline.