External Lead Sources

What it is

External Lead Sources is for the partner companies that hand you paying work — a broker, a referral network, a bigger contractor who subs jobs out to you. You keep a list of those partners, you tag each job with the partner who sent it, and Joby works out who owes whom at the end of the month.

Every partner on the list has five things:

• Company Name — required. This is what your team picks on the job.
• Email — optional, but you need it to email the partner their statement.
• Phone — optional, just for your records.
• Commission % — the share of each job total that belongs to the partner (0 to 100).
• Status — on means the partner shows up in job dropdowns; off hides it without losing history.

When to use it

• A partner sends you jobs and takes a cut. You want the cut calculated for you instead of in a spreadsheet.
• You buy leads at a flat price. Record the price on the job and it comes off your profit automatically.
• The partner takes the customer's money and pays you later. You need a running total of what they owe you.
• Month-end reconciliation. You want one statement per partner, with the job list behind it, sent to their inbox.

Two things this is not for:

• Where a lead came from for advertising. That is Settings›Pipeline›Ad Sources. Ad sources answer "which channel", partner companies answer "who do I owe".
• The people who do the work. Field workers and their own commission rates live under Settings›People›Team Members, not here.

Before you start

• You need an admin account to turn the add-on on. The Settings›Admin›Developer Reference screen only opens for admins.
• You need the Commission Report permission to read the report. Without it, Reports›Commission Reports does not open at all. Field workers whose role limits them to their own jobs never see the External Companies tab, even when the add-on is on.
• Agree the commission percent with the partner first. Changing it later also changes what past jobs look like in the report — see Common mistakes.
• Collect each partner's billing email. No email saved means the "Email Report" button cannot send them anything.
• Add at least one partner before you expect fields on jobs. The dropdown and the cost box stay hidden until your list has one company with Status switched on.

Step-by-step

1. Turn the add-on on

1. Go to Settings›Admin›Developer Reference.
2. Open the Labs tab.
3. Find the Lead Sources card and switch External Lead Source on.
4. Go back to Settings. A new tile called External Lead Sourcesnow appears in the Pipeline group.

2. Add a partner company

1. Go to Settings›Pipeline›External Lead Sources.
2. Click Add Company.
3. Fill in Company Name (required), Email, Phone, and Commission %. The percent must be between 0 and 100 — the helper line under the box reminds you it is the share of the job total that goes to this company.
4. Click Save. The partner appears in the table with Status already switched on.

Later, the pencil icon on a row reopens the same form as Edit External Company, the Status switch hides or shows the partner in job dropdowns, and the trash icon deletes it after a confirmation. If you work with more than 50 partners, page controls appear under the table.

3. Tag a job with its partner

1. Open a job, or start one with + New Lead.
2. On the Lead Details tab, use the External Company dropdown — it sits between Service Type and Ad Source. Each option shows the partner's name with their percent in brackets, for example "Partner Corp (15%)".
3. Switch to the Payments tab and find the External Lead Source Costscard.
4. Type any flat amount you owe the partner for this job in External Lead Source Cost ($). Leave it blank if the percent is the whole deal.
5. Tick Charged by External Company only if the partner collected the customer's money. The grey line under the checkbox spells out which way the money flows and changes as you tick and untick — read it before you save.
6. Save the job.

If you open the same job from a client's job list or from search, the side panel has the same three fields under a heading called External Lead Source (the cost box is labelled External Source Cost ($) there). That panel saves on its own about a second after you stop typing — there is no Save button to press.

4. Read the partner report

1. Go to Reports›Commission Reports.
2. Open the External Companies tab.
3. Set the filters across the top: External Companies (leave it on "All companies" to see everyone), Date Filter Type (Created Date, Scheduled Date, or Closed Date — it opens on Closed Date), Date Range (it opens on this week, starting Monday), and View.
4. Summary by Company gives one row per partner: Company, Email, Comm %, Leads, Total Revenue, Ext. Commission, Ext. Cost, Balance, and a Direction column that reads "Owes you" in green or "You owe" in red. A TOTALS row closes the table.
5. Detailed Leads gives one row per job, with the job number as a link straight to the job. Use the Columns button to hide any of the twenty columns; your choice is remembered on your account.
6. Click Export CSV if you want the figures in a spreadsheet.

Four tiles sit above the table: Total Leads, Total Revenue, Ext. Commission, and Net Balance. Net Balance is green with "Companies owe you" underneath when partners are behind, and red with "You owe companies" when you are.

5. Email a partner their statement

1. Set the Date Filter Type and Date Range you want to bill for.
2. Pick one or more partners in the External Companies filter. A button appears underneath it reading Email Report, or Email 3 Reports if you picked three.
3. Click it. Each partner gets their own statement for that date range — nobody sees anyone else's numbers.
4. A confirmation appears telling you how many went out. Each one is also filed in Conversations as an email to that partner, so you have a record of what you sent.

How to check it worked

1. The partner is on the list. Settings → Pipeline → External Lead Sources shows the company with the right Commission % and Status switched on.
2. The job carries the tag. Reopen the job. The Lead Details tab shows the partner name with its percent in the External Company box, and the Payments tab shows your amount in the External Lead Source Costs card.
3. The sentence matches reality. Under the Charged by External Company checkbox, read the grey line. It should describe what actually happened — either the partner collected and owes you, or you collected and owe them.
4. The money shows up on the job. Open the job's Expenses tab. The flat amount appears as a cost line called "Lead source cost", the percentage appears as a Partner commission tile, and Net profit and Margin already have both taken off.
5. The report finds it. Go to Reports → Commission Reports → External Companies. Set Date Filter Type and Date Range so they cover the job, keep View on Summary by Company, and your partner should appear as a row with a lead count of at least one.

Common mistakes

• Looking for the External Company dropdown before adding a partner. The dropdown and the cost card only appear once your list holds at least one company with Status switched on. An empty list means no fields on jobs, and it looks like the add-on failed to turn on.
• Assuming a percent change only affects new jobs. It does not. The report multiplies each job's total by the percent saved on the partner today, so editing Commission % from 10 to 15 also rewrites what last quarter looked like. Agree the number up front, and if a partner really does change rates, export or email the old statements before you edit.
• Trying to delete a partner that is already on jobs. Joby refuses and shows an error, because those jobs still point at the company. Switch Status off instead — the partner disappears from dropdowns and every past figure survives.
• Getting Charged by External Company backwards. This single checkbox flips the sign of the balance. Tick it wrongly on a batch of jobs and a partner who owes you money appears in red as someone you owe. Read the grey helper line before saving.
• Entering the same money twice. Commission % and External Lead Source Cost are added together. If your deal is a flat 50 dollars per lead, set Commission % to 0 and use the cost box — do not fill in both for the same money.
• An empty report. Three usual causes: the jobs are not status Doneyet; the Date Filter Type is Closed Date and the jobs have no closed date; or the Date Range still shows this week when the work happened last month.
• Expecting a field worker to see the tab. Someone restricted to their own jobs never sees the External Companies tab. That is deliberate — partner rates are your business, not theirs.
• Using a partner company where an ad source belongs. If nobody takes a cut, it is a marketing channel, and it belongs in Settings›Pipeline›Ad Sources.