Business Loan Referral Program for Bookkeepers and Tax Preparers

What You See Before Anyone Else

A lender sees three or four months of bank statements. You see the whole year, every month, as it happens. These are the patterns worth acting on:

• The operating account dips below one payroll cycle. It has happened twice in the last quarter, right before pay dates.
• Vendor bills are being paid late. Accounts payable is aging because cash is being held back for payroll.
• Sales tax or payroll tax deposits are getting tight. The client asks whether a deposit can wait. It cannot, and that is the moment to talk about funding.
• The owner is covering gaps personally. You are booking owner contributions or personal card charges to keep the business running.
• Daily or weekly debits from several funders. Stacked short-term payments are crowding out everything else.
• A tax balance due with no reserve. During prep you can see the bill is larger than the cash on hand.

These are not rare. In the Federal Reserve Banks’ latest Small Business Credit Survey report on employer firms, more than half of firms named paying operating expenses as a financial challenge, and about half named uneven cash flows. Among firms that sought financing, meeting operating expenses was the most common reason.

How the Arrangement Works, Step by Step

A referral program is a written arrangement. You introduce a client, the funding company does the work, and you are paid if the deal funds. With RAN Funding it runs like this:

RAN Funding is a broker, not a lender: one application for our lender network and one dedicated specialist. The specialist explains the total amount repaid and the term before the client signs anything, and the client is free to say no.

After the introduction the client hears from us only about the funding they asked for. We do not cross-sell or add your client to a marketing list. If you want to be on the first call, say so.

Which Clients to Refer, and Which Not To

• Refer: established businesses with 1+ year in business, $20,000+ in average monthly revenue and a business bank account with active deposits.
• Refer: needs from $10,000 to $500,000+ for payroll, inventory, taxes, equipment, expansion or paying off higher-cost debt. Some products go up to $2 million, and SBA loans up to $5 million.
• Do not refer: startups, businesses without a business bank account, or owners looking for a personal loan.

This is business financing only, and any industry can apply. The full list of what a file needs is in our guide to business loan requirements.

The program fits a bookkeeper or tax preparer who wants a dependable place to send a funding question. It does not fit someone who wants to negotiate terms or manage the deal. If you already package full files, read affiliate program vs referral program to see which model suits you.

If you are unsure about a client, send it anyway and say so. Every referral gets a real answer.

What a Good Referral Looks Like

A good referral has a real need, a business that meets the basics, and an owner who expects the call.

• The need has a number and a date. “About $40,000 before the 15th” is a file a specialist can work on today.
• Deposits are steady. You reconcile the account, so you know whether revenue lands every week or in two lumps a quarter.
• The business account is the real account. Sales run through it. Personal statements do not count.
• Existing balances are known. If the client already has funding in place, say so in the introduction. It shows on the statements anyway.
• The owner asked, or agreed. A warm introduction gets answered. A surprise call does not.

One more test: would the money solve the problem or only delay it? A seasonal dip or a slow-paying customer is a timing gap. A business that loses money every month has a different problem, and more debt can make it worse. When the gap is about timing, see how payroll funding works.

How to Bring It Up with a Client

You do not need a sales pitch. One plain sentence at the monthly review is enough: “Cash has dipped under payroll twice this quarter. I work with a funding broker who can show you options. Want me to introduce you?”

Keep to what you know. Describe the gap you see in the books and offer the introduction. Leave product choice, amounts and terms to the funding specialist. That keeps you in your role and keeps the conversation short.

Two more openers that work:

• When the owner asks first: “I do not arrange financing, but I know who does. I can have them call you tomorrow.”
• When a bank said no: “A decline at one bank is not the end. Let me introduce you to a broker with a wider network.” Our guide to funding after a bank decline explains why.

If the client says no, drop it.

How and When You Are Paid

We do not publish commission figures. What you can know in advance is the structure.

• Where the money comes from. RAN Funding earns a commission from the lender when a deal funds. Your commission is a share of that. The client does not pay you.
• How it is set. The split is written into the partner agreement before you send your first referral.
• When it is paid. After the lender funds the deal and RAN receives its commission, on the schedule in the agreement, typically by ACH.
• Renewals. If a client you referred takes more funding later, that pays you too.
• No funding, no commission. Not every application is approved, and some owners turn down the offer.

Programs in general pay a share of the funding company’s commission, a flat fee per funded deal, or tiers that change with volume. Our guide to business loan referral fees walks through each one.

Tax Season Is Referral Season

For tax preparers, the busiest referral weeks are the ones around filing deadlines and quarterly estimates. A client who owes more than they have set aside has a short window and few good choices. Working capital can cover a tax payment so the client stays current.

Year-end brings a second wave. Clients buying equipment before December 31 may want financing in place first. See Section 179 and year-end equipment financing.

Timing matters for a legal reason too. IRS guidance says a preparer may not ask for a client’s consent to use tax return information for solicitation after handing over the completed return for signature. So ask early in the engagement, not at pickup. The next section explains.

Staying Inside Your Role

A referral is an introduction, not advice. You are not recommending a product or telling the client to borrow. No license is required for a basic referral introduction in our program. That does not settle what your own profession expects of you.

Tax return information. If you prepare returns, or assist someone who does, section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code applies to you. The IRS describes tax return information as everything a preparer obtains to prepare a return or in connection with preparing it. Using it for a purpose the regulations do not specifically allow needs the taxpayer’s signed consent in advance. The consent has to name the product or service and the data involved. The IRS page that summarizes this is marked as historical, so read the current regulations, or ask counsel, before you draft a form.

Conflicts of interest. If you represent clients before the IRS, for example as an enrolled agent, Treasury Circular 230 applies. Section 10.29 says a conflict exists when there is a significant risk that your representation will be materially limited by a personal interest. A commission can be one. The same section lets you continue if you reasonably believe you can still represent the client competently, the law allows it, and the client gives informed consent confirmed in writing.

Disclosure and confidentiality. Whatever your credential, tell the client in writing that you may receive a referral commission. Get their permission before you pass on even a name and phone number. If you hold a CPA license, check your state board’s rules on commissions first. See our guide for accountants and CPAs.

Three Illustrative Scenarios

These are examples to show how a referral can unfold, not descriptions of specific clients or results.

• The landscaping company. Picture a bookkeeper in Charlotte who sees a landscaping client’s balance fall under one payroll cycle for the second time. The owner has been in business six years and deposits well over $20,000 a month. She raises it at the review, the owner agrees, and she sends his name and number that afternoon. A specialist calls the next morning. An offer may or may not follow, but the question was asked a month before a missed payroll.
• The restaurant with a tax bill. A tax preparer in Houston signs a consent form with every client at the start of the engagement. In March he sees that a restaurant owner will owe more than the account holds. With the consent in place, he can raise funding, disclose his commission and make the introduction that day.
• The file that was not a fit. A bookkeeper in Phoenix refers a coffee cart that opened four months ago. The specialist explains that the program is for businesses with 1+ year of history. No commission, but a clear answer within a day.

Common Mistakes

• Waiting for the crisis. A referral made the week before payroll leaves the owner fewer choices than one made a month earlier.
• Quoting terms. You do not know what a lender will offer. Guessing puts your name on a number that may be wrong.
• Promising an outcome. Not every application is approved. Say “they can show you options,” never “you will get funded.”
• Sending records yourself. The specialist collects documents from the owner. Do not email a client’s statements to anyone without permission.
• Hiding the commission. Clients accept a disclosed commission. They do not forgive a hidden one.
• Ignoring stacked balances. A client with several daily debits may need business debt consolidation, not another advance. Flag it in the introduction.

Referring Compared with the Alternatives

When a client asks where to find money, you have four realistic responses.

A strong client with time to spare may be best served by their own bank. The referral route earns its place when the bank has said no or the need is close.

Other advisers face the same choice. See how it plays out for consultants and fractional CFOs.

How to Start

1. Check your own rules. Your credential, your state and your engagement letter. Add a referral disclosure and, if you prepare returns, a consent form.
2. Look us up. RAN Funding is BBB A+ rated and reviewed at 4.9 out of 5 by more than 200 clients.
3. Sign up. The form on the referral partner page takes about two minutes. We call within one business day to walk through the agreement.
4. Read the agreement. Confirm the split, the payment schedule and how renewals are handled.
5. Make one introduction. Start with a client whose books showed one of the six signals above. There are no quotas, no minimums and no exclusivity.

Have a client who needs funding now? Say so on the partner form and we start the same day.

Common Questions