Frequently Asked Questions

Note on terminology: Throughout this platform, the term "Agent" may be displayed differently depending on your industry. For example, you may see "Loan Officer," "Financial Advisor," "Insurance Agent," or another title specific to your organization's business type. This is intentional — the platform customizes role labels to match the language of your industry. Wherever you see "Agent" in this documentation, it refers to that same role regardless of what it is called in your portal.

General

What is Pivotal Referral?

Pivotal Referral is a platform that helps agents manage referral partnerships. Agents invite referral partners (realtors, attorneys, financial advisors, etc.), who submit leads through a branded portal. Agents track every referral through to closing with real-time status updates and two-way messaging.

Who are the different user types?

• Org Manager — owns the organization, invites agents, manages billing and settings
• Agent — works referrals day-to-day, invites partners, manages their pipeline
• Referral Partner — submits leads to an agent through the portal

Can I have more than one role?

Yes. A single account can hold multiple roles across different organizations. Common examples:

• A solo operator who is both an Org Manager and an Agent for their own organization
• A Referral Partner who later signs up to start their own organization (they become an Org Manager while keeping their Partner role)
• An Agent who is also a Referral Partner for a different organization

Use the Role Switcher in the top navigation to switch between roles. Each role shows the organization name so you can tell them apart.

I already have a Referral Partner account. Can I sign up to start my own organization?

Yes. Use the standard signup flow at /signup with the same email address you use as a partner. The system will detect your existing account and add the new Org Manager role to it — you will not be asked to create a new account. After signup, both roles appear in your Role Switcher.

For Referral Partners

I received an invite email but the link isn't working.

Invite links expire after 7 days. Ask your agent to resend the invitation from their My Partners page.

Can I submit a referral without an account?

Yes, if your agent has shared a public link or QR code. Just fill out the form at the link they provided — no login required.

If you use your registered email address when submitting via a public link, the referral will automatically be linked to your partner account and appear in your My Referrals list.

Why does my referral show as Denied?

Your agent reviewed the referral and was unable to work it. The denial reason is shown on the referral detail page. Common reasons include: duplicate referral, customer already a client, out of service area, or incomplete information. Contact your agent directly if you have questions.

Can I edit a referral after submitting it?

No — submitted referrals cannot be edited by partners. Post a message in the Conversation section of the referral to provide additional information to your agent.

For Agents

A partner's invite link is expired. How do I resend it?

Go to My Partners in the sidebar. Find the partner in the Pending Invites list — expired invites show a red Expired badge. Click Resend next to their name. A new invite email is sent to the same address and the old link is automatically invalidated.

I accidentally advanced a referral status. Can I undo it?

Yes. Open the referral detail and scroll below the action buttons. Click the ← Undo link to step the referral back one status.

How does the public link work for known partners?

When a referral partner with an existing account submits a referral via your public link using their registered email address, Pivotal Referral automatically links the referral to their partner profile. The referral appears in both your All Referrals list and in their My Referrals list.

What's the difference between an internal note and a partner note?

Internal notes (checked as Internal) are visible only to you and your org manager. Use them for private coordination notes.

Notes (unchecked) are visible to the referring partner and trigger a notification to them. Use them for customer updates or to request additional information from the partner.

How do Time Limit alerts work?

Your org manager configures Time Limit thresholds (e.g., "alert after 24 hours in Submitted"). When a referral sits past that threshold, you receive an email (and SMS if configured). The referral is also highlighted in your Queue.

You can set your own agent-level SLA thresholds in Time Limit Settins to override the org defaults if allowed by your Org Manager.

Network Membership

What is a network membership?

Some business networks (such as BNI) have a relationship with Pivotal Referral that allows their members to self-identify on the platform. Once your membership is verified, you are automatically connected as a referral partner with other verified members in your chapter (or a wider scope, depending on the network's settings).

How do I claim my network membership?

Go to Org Settings → Network Membership and click Claim Network Membership.

1. Select your network from the dropdown
2. Select your chapter using the cascading location selector (the dropdowns appear level by level — select your region, then state, then chapter, etc.)
3. If the network uses member number verification, enter your member number
4. Click Submit Membership Claim

For networks that verify automatically, your membership is activated immediately on submit. For networks that require manual review, your status will show Pending until an administrator approves it.

How automatic verification works by method:

• Member number — you enter your member number in step 3 and it is matched against the network's member directory for your chapter.
• Email — no extra input required. The system uses the email address on your Pivotal Referral account and matches it against the directory automatically. If your Pivotal Referral account uses a different email than the one the network has on file, verification will not succeed automatically and your claim will go to Pending for manual review.
• Email domain — no extra input required. The system checks the domain of your account email (e.g., company.com) against the directory. All members whose account email shares that domain are verified automatically.

What does "Pending" status mean?

Your claim has been received but could not be automatically verified. This happens when the network uses manual verification, or when automatic verification was attempted but no matching directory entry was found (for example, if your account email differs from the email the network has on file). A network or node administrator must review and approve it. You will be notified once a decision is made. Your referral partner connections are not created until your membership is verified.

What happens after my membership is verified?

Once verified, Pivotal Referral automatically creates referral partner connections between you and other verified members within the scope configured by the network (e.g., chapter only, region, or the entire network). These connections work like any other referral partner relationship — verified members can send and receive referrals through the platform.

How do I leave a network?

Go to Org Settings → Network Membership and click Leave this network below your membership. Your membership is immediately lapsed. The network badge is removed from your partner connections on both sides — agents will no longer see the network label next to your name, and you will no longer see it next to theirs — but the partner relationships themselves remain intact. You and your former chapter members can still send and receive referrals with each other. Referrals already in progress are not affected.

Can my membership be lapsed automatically?

Yes, for memberships that were verified automatically against the member directory. Pivotal Referral runs a daily check to confirm that each auto-verified member's directory entry is still active. If the network administrator deactivates or removes your directory entry, your membership will be automatically lapsed and the network badge will be removed from your partner connections. Your partner relationships and any referrals in progress are not affected.

Memberships that were manually approved by a network or node administrator are not subject to this automated check.

I was rejected — what do I do?

The rejection reason (if provided) is shown on your membership card. If you believe the rejection was in error, contact the network administrator or platform support.

I am a network or node admin — where do I manage things?

An Admin Dashboard → link appears on your membership card in Org Settings → Network Membership (or Network Membership in the agent sidebar). Clicking it opens the network admin dashboard. You can also navigate directly to /network/<network-id> — ask your platform administrator for the URL if you don't have it.

What can I do in the Network Admin Dashboard?

The dashboard has six tabs:

• Overview — hierarchical node tree with rollup referral and value totals
• Members — per-member activity (referral counts, business generated); filterable by node
• Memberships — all membership claims; verify or reject pending claims; filterable by status and node
• Directory — member directory used for verification; add entries individually or via CSV import
• Admins — (network admins only) assign or revoke node admin roles
• Report — six detailed reports (see below)

Node admins only see data for their assigned node and all child nodes beneath it.

What reports are available on the Network Admin Dashboard?

The Report tab contains six sub-reports, each with period filtering and CSV export:

Leaderboard counts only cross-member referrals — referrals submitted to your own organization are excluded from both the submitted and received totals.

For Org Managers

How do I add a new agent?

Go to Agents in the sidebar and click Invite Agent. Enter their name and email. They'll receive an invite link by email.

Can I see all my agents' referrals?

Yes. All Referrals shows every referral across your entire organization. Use the Agent filter to see referrals for a specific agent.

I updated the intake form fields for my business type but the changes aren't showing up.

Intake form field schemas are loaded at login and cached locally in your browser. Users who were already logged in when the change was made will continue to see the old form until they sign out and sign back in. Ask affected users to log out and back in to pick up the updated fields.

Billing and Pricing

What payment methods do you accept?

All major credit and debit cards via Stripe. Bank account (ACH) may be available depending on your plan.

Is there a free trial?

Yes — 30 days free. Your org manager's signup email includes the trial start date.

What happens at the end of the trial?

You'll receive an email reminder before the trial ends. If you don't turn off Auto-renew, your payment method will be billed accordingly. If you turn off Auto-renew your account will transition to a disabled state.

What happens if I cancel my annual subscription early?

If you cancel an annual subscription, you keep full access to Pivotal Referral through the end of your current annual billing period — no exceptions, no early termination. Your account will not be charged again after that date. Cancelling early does not remove your access; it simply stops the next renewal from happening.

Do you offer refunds on annual plans?

Annual subscriptions are non-refundable. When you choose annual billing you receive two months free compared to monthly pricing — that savings is your benefit for committing to the full year. Because the discount is applied upfront, we are not able to issue partial refunds for unused months.

I cancelled my annual plan — when does my access end?

Your access ends on your annual renewal date, not on the date you cancelled. When you cancel, you will see the exact date your access ends displayed in your billing settings. You will also receive a confirmation email showing that date. Until then everything works exactly as it did before — all your agents, referral partners, and referral history remain fully accessible.

Can I switch from annual to monthly billing mid-year?

You can schedule a switch from annual to monthly, but the change does not take effect until your current annual period ends. You will not receive a refund for the remaining months on your annual plan. On your renewal date your billing will automatically switch to monthly at $99/month. You can schedule this change at any time from Settings → Billing by clicking "Switch to Monthly at Renewal."

What if I signed up for annual billing by mistake?

If you believe you were charged in error or selected the wrong plan, contact us as soon as possible at the support email listed in your account. We review billing errors on a case-by-case basis. Note that selecting annual billing and later preferring monthly does not constitute a billing error — plan changes are not eligible for refunds.

I am cancelling because PivotalReferral is not working correctly. Can I get a refund?

If you are experiencing a technical issue, please contact support before cancelling. Most issues can be resolved quickly and we want the opportunity to make it right. If a verified platform defect prevented you from using the service for an extended period, contact us and we will review what options are available. We stand behind the platform and want every customer to get the value they paid for.

What happens to my data after my annual subscription ends?

Your data — organizations, agents, referral partners, referral history, and statistics — is retained for 90 days after your access ends. During that window you can re-subscribe and regain full access to everything. After 90 days your data is permanently deleted. If you need a copy of your data before your access ends, export your reports to CSV from the Reports section while your account is still active.

Can I pause my annual subscription instead of cancelling?

PivotalReferral does not offer a pause feature. Your options are to continue your subscription through the annual period or to cancel, which keeps your access active through the end of the period you paid for.

Will I be reminded before my annual plan renews?

Yes. You will receive an email reminder 7 days before your annual renewal date showing the renewal amount and the card on file. If you do not want to renew, you can turn off auto-renew in Settings → Billing before the renewal date. Your access will continue through the end of the current period and you will not be charged again.

How do I turn off auto-renew so I am not charged next year?

Go to Billing and uncheck "Auto-renew" You will see a confirmation showing the date your access ends. Your account remains fully active until that date. You can re-enable auto-renew at any time before the period ends if you change your mind.

Pivotal Activities Integration

What is the Pivotal Activities integration?

Pivotal Activities is Pivotal's appointment scheduling platform. The integration between Pivotal Referral and Pivotal Activities lets you manage appointments with your referral customers without switching between apps:

• Referral customers automatically appear as contacts in your Pivotal Activities account.
• When you create, update, or delete an appointment in Pivotal Activities for a referral contact, a note is automatically added to that referral in Pivotal Referral.

How do I connect my Pivotal Activities account?

The integration links accounts by email address. You must use the same email address on both Pivotal Referral and Pivotal Activities.

1. Subscribe to Pivotal Activities at pivotalactivities.com using the same email address you use here.
2. Once your subscription activates, Pivotal Activities will automatically push your existing referrals to your PS contacts.
3. In Pivotal Referral, go to Integrations in the sidebar. The Pivotal Activities card will show Connected.

If you subscribed before you had referrals assigned, or if some referrals are missing, click Sync contacts to Pivotal Activities on the Integrations page to manually push all your currently assigned referrals.

What customer information syncs to Pivotal Activities?

Each referral contact synced to Pivotal Activities includes the customer's name, email, phone, title, company, preferred contact method, and address (street, city, state, ZIP). These are kept up to date — if you edit any of these fields on a referral in Pivotal Referral, the change is pushed to Pivotal Activities within seconds.

Why is my Pivotal Activities badge showing "Not connected"?

The two most common causes:

1. Different email addresses — Your Pivotal Referral and Pivotal Activities accounts use different email addresses. The integration matches accounts by email. Subscribe to Pivotal Activities using the exact same email address you use here.
2. No active subscription — Your Pivotal Activities subscription is not active. Check your billing status in Pivotal Activities.

If both accounts use the same email and your PS subscription is active, click the Sync contacts to Pivotal Activities button — this also re-checks your connection and will update the badge.

Why aren't appointment notes appearing in my referral?

Check the following:

1. Is the contact linked to a referral? The appointment must be for a contact that was synced from Pivotal Referral (it will have a source tag in PS). Appointments for manually created contacts will not generate notes in PR.
2. Is the integration connected? Go to Integrations in the sidebar and confirm the Pivotal Activities card shows Connected.
3. Has the contact been synced? If the referral was assigned before you connected PS, the contact may not be linked yet. Click Sync contacts to Pivotal Activities to push it, then try the appointment again.

What does "Share with Referral Partners" mean on a Pivotal Activities appointment?

When you create or edit an appointment in Pivotal Activities for a referral contact, a Share with Referral Partners checkbox appears on the appointment form. This controls who can see the resulting note in Pivotal Referral:

• Checked — The note is shared with the referring partner (visible in their portal).
• Unchecked (default) — The note is internal only, visible to you and your org manager but hidden from the referring partner.

Technical

What browsers are supported?

Pivotal Referral works on current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

Is there a mobile app?

Not yet. The web app is mobile-responsive and works well in mobile browsers. To see the menu on a phone, you may have to turn your phone sideways.

How do I embed the referral form on my website?

Org Managers can get an embed code from Org Public Link - Website Embed to represent the Org Level Queue and Agents can get an embed code from My Public Link → Website Embed to represent their personal queue. Copy and paste the iframe snippet into any webpage. The form auto-resizes to fit its content.