What it is
As a referral partner, you integrate Debitura's debt collection API into your own SaaS platform. When your customers use the collection service and successfully recover funds, you earn a percentage of Debitura's earnings on those cases.
You integrate in one of two ways. With the Starter Integration, your platform sends one collection request per invoice, and Debitura handles sign-up, onboarding, agreements and the other steps your customer must complete. With the Full Integration, your platform creates client accounts and submits cases through the API from its own screens. Both ways use the same clients, cases and earnings rules, and your customers complete onboarding on Debitura pages that show your logo and colour.
Why it matters
The referral program creates aligned incentives: you only earn when collections succeed, which means you benefit from the same outcomes your customers want. This model provides:
A passive, scalable revenue stream on your existing customer base
No operational burden (Debitura handles compliance, case management, and the collection partner network)
No upfront costs or minimum fees
What you earn
You earn a percentage of Debitura's platform revenue on eligible cases. The percentage depends on the rate plan on your account:
Rate plan | Rate on a new case |
Contract | The percentage agreed in your partnership agreement, copied when a customer is linked to you. Any per-assignment terms in your agreement also apply. |
Link | 30% on a new case. A new case gets 50% once at least 100 earlier cases count in the rolling 365-day window, so in a simple sequence case 101 is the first case at 50%. Only cases created since you accepted the plan terms count, and the count is of qualifying cases, not customers or successful recoveries. A new case created on or after the third anniversary of the customer's link to you gets 0%. |
Integration | 50% base rate. The standard first USD 5,000 of your cumulative referral earnings is paid at 100%, subject to the allowance and assignment terms agreed for your account. A payout that crosses the allowance can be split, with part paid at 100% and the rest at 50%. This plan requires a live coded integration (Starter or Full), a link to Debitura and a support article for your users. |
A case keeps the plan and rate it received when it was created. Reaching a new tier, dropping back below it or changing plan affects new cases only. Existing partnership agreements do not automatically move to the Link or Integration plan.
If your firm is also a collection partner, you earn no referral share on payments received while your own firm is the collection partner on the case.
Debitura earns its revenue by taking a share of the collection partner's success fee. That share is then split with you.
Example calculation:
Debtor pays | £1,000 |
Collection partner success fee (15%) | £150 |
Collection partner pays client | £850 |
Debitura platform fee (40% of £150) | £60 |
Your referral fee (50% of £60) | £30 |
Net to Debitura | £30 |
Note: this example uses 50% for illustration. Your actual rate is the one your rate plan gives the case, and it can vary per collection partner assignment if your partnership includes per-assignment deal terms.
You earn a share of Debitura's revenue, not the total collected amount. This keeps incentives aligned across all parties.
What counts as a referral
Attribution depends on how your customer was introduced to Debitura:
Attributed customers are customers you brought to Debitura who did not have a Debitura account before. For attributed customers, you earn fees on all their eligible cases, regardless of how those cases are created (even if the customer later submits cases directly through Debitura's web app).
Non-attributed customers are customers who already had a Debitura account before linking to your platform. For non-attributed customers, you earn fees only on eligible cases submitted through your integration (Starter or Full). Cases they create directly in Debitura do not generate referral fees.
Customer type | Fee trigger |
Attributed | All eligible cases from this customer |
Non-attributed | Only cases submitted via your integration (Starter or Full) |
For both customer types, each case earns at the rate stored on it under your plan, and you earn no referral share on payments received while your own firm is the collection partner on the case.
If a case should have generated fees but did not, see Missing lead attribution for troubleshooting steps.
When payouts happen
Referral fees move through four stages before reaching your bank account:
Unrecognized - The debtor has paid, but the collection partner's commission on that payment is not yet settled. Fee amounts are estimates and can fluctuate due to exchange rates at this stage.
Recognized (uninvoiced) - The collection partner's commission is settled. Your referral fee amount is now locked and confirmed. This does not by itself mean that Debitura has received its platform fee from the collection partner; that is a separate step.
Invoiced - Debitura has recorded your invoice for this fee (included in your monthly invoice).
Paid - Debitura has recorded sending your referral payment. Revenue cycle complete. This status is Debitura's payment record, not confirmation that the money has reached your bank account.
Payment timing:
You invoice Debitura monthly for fees that are ready to invoice. By default, a recognized fee becomes ready to invoice once Debitura has received its platform fee from the collection partner. If your partnership agreement includes an early-invoicing exception, it can become ready to invoice as soon as the collection partner's commission is settled.
Debitura pays your invoice within the payment terms set in your partnership agreement.
You can choose to receive payment in GBP, EUR, or USD (as specified in your partnership agreement).
For detailed information on the revenue recognition stages and reconciliation process, see Revenue sharing and financial reconciliation.
Where to track your earnings
You can view all your earnings and their current stage through the Reporting API endpoint GET /reporting/transactions. This endpoint returns a breakdown by revenue stage so you know exactly which fees are ready to invoice.
Developer Docs: Developers implementing the integration can find API specifications in the Referral Partner API reference.
What to expect
Your customers must sign the Standard Debt Collection Agreement (SDCA) before their cases are processed. You can white-label this onboarding flow with your own branding.
Your partnership agreement sets your commercial terms. On the Contract plan, your referral percentage is copied when a customer is linked to you, and later changes to your partner rate do not change that existing link. On the Link and Integration plans, each new case gets its rate when it is created. For cases routed through a referral carve-out or partner transfer, the applicable versioned collection-partner rate in the zone can apply instead (for example, different rates for different collection partners in the same country). The rate applied to a payout is retained with that payout.
If your partnership ends, a tail period (typically 24 months) ensures you continue earning on existing attributed customers.