The operating system for introducer-led growth
RQ helps professional firms send, manage, and prove referrals — with built-in compliance, clear tracking, and real visibility across the firm.
What is referral management software?
Category: General
Referral management software is a category of business tool designed to help firms manage the process of referring clients to other professionals. In the context of professional services — accountancy, financial advice, and legal — referral management software replaces the informal methods (email threads, spreadsheets, verbal agreements) that most firms currently use to track introductions between firms. A referral management system typically handles several things: recording who referred whom and when, capturing client consent for the referral, tracking the outcome (did the client engage with the receiving firm?), managing the commercial terms (any fees paid or received), and maintaining an audit trail for compliance purposes. For regulated firms, this last point is particularly important. Regulators like ICAEW, the FCA, and the SRA expect firms to evidence their referral processes. A referral management system makes this straightforward by building compliance into the workflow. It is worth distinguishing referral management software from two things it is often confused with. First, it is not a CRM. CRMs manage broad client relationships; referral management software handles the specific process of introductions between firms. Second, it is not a customer referral programme tool (the kind used by consumer businesses to offer 'refer a friend' discounts). Professional referral management deals with structured, often regulated, introductions between businesses — a fundamentally different process. RQ is an example of referral management software built specifically for UK professional services firms.