The operating system for introducer-led growth

Why can't I just use a CRM or spreadsheet for referral tracking?

Category: General

You can use a CRM or spreadsheet — many firms do. But they create gaps that become problems, particularly for regulated firms. A CRM is designed to manage client relationships, not to manage the specific process of referring clients between firms. CRMs do not typically capture client consent for a referral, record fee disclosure, track the commercial terms of a referral arrangement, or maintain the kind of audit trail that an ICAEW monitoring inspector or FCA supervisor would expect to see. You can build these into a CRM with custom fields and workflows, but in practice most firms do not, and the result is incomplete records. Spreadsheets are even more limited. They are static, difficult to keep up to date across a team, and offer no workflow automation. When a referral is made, someone has to remember to update the spreadsheet. Consent is captured separately (if at all). Fee tracking is manual. There is no connection between the referral record and the client file. During a compliance review, pulling together the evidence from a spreadsheet-based system is time-consuming and often incomplete. The fundamental issue is that referral management involves a workflow — a sequence of steps (introduction, consent, disclosure, tracking, outcome) that needs to happen consistently for every referral. CRMs and spreadsheets do not enforce this workflow. A dedicated referral management tool like RQ does, building compliance into the process so that the right steps happen every time without relying on individual memory or discipline.