Overview

Refer a Friend is a fully automated referral program that helps financial institutions grow deposits by turning existing account holders into advocates. The platform handles everything from invitation through reward distribution — no manual tracking or staff follow-up required.

​

How It Works

Account holders share a personal referral link or code via email, text, or social media. When a referred person signs up and completes the qualifying activity, the system automatically tracks their progress and dispenses the reward. The qualifying activity is fully configurable — common triggers include:

• Opening a specific account type
• Completing a minimum number of debit card transactions per month
• Meeting a deposit threshold
• Any other custom-defined criteria

​

Types of Campaigns

The type of campaign determines when the referral code popup prompt is displayed. NewRelationshipCampaign The goal is to acquire new customers from existing customer referrals. The referral code popup prompt is displayed on login for new users. NewProductCampaign The goal is to open new accounts from the FI’s marketing efforts (from new or existing customers). The acceptor clicks a button to enter the referral code.

​

Key Features

Automated reward dispensation A daily job checks qualifying activity and issues rewards automatically, with no manual intervention needed. Self-service progress tracking Referred users can monitor their own progress toward the reward from within online banking. Gamification Dynamic banners and referral count displays keep existing customers engaged and motivated to refer more. Back-office management Full control through Q2 Central/Console, including reporting, manual payout overrides, and campaign configuration. Compliance built in Terms acceptance checkboxes are included in the referral flow out of the box.

​

Who It’s For

Refer a Friend is built for banks and credit unions that want to grow deposits and new relationships through word-of-mouth — without adding operational overhead or running manual campaigns.

​

Business Impact

​

How It’s Delivered

Refer a Friend is available on the Q2 Marketplace and integrates directly with Q2 Central/Console for back-office management. Configuration covers campaign type, qualifying activity rules, reward amounts, messaging, and disclosures.

​

Definitions

Inviter Existing user who referred a friend to the FI. Acceptor New customer who accepts a referral. ReferralCode Each campaign has a unique referral code for each inviter. DepositAccount Checking, savings, etc. CampaignStartDate Start date of a campaign. CriteriaCompletionWindowLength Number of days in which the new user must fulfill the criteria. The default window length is 60 days. CampaignType Type of campaign. Values are NewRelationshipCampaign and NewProductCampaign. For a NewRelationshipCampaign:

• OLBEnrollmentDate — date the user enrolled in digital banking (Q2 user creation date).
• DepositAccountOpenDate — for each deposit account, the date the account was opened. This uses the Q2 SDK if the account open date is available from it; otherwise, a file is obtained from the FI listing all current account holders and each deposit account the user has open. The day before a campaign starts, a script runs that records each open account and the current date as the DepositAccountOpenDate in the Q2 user table.
• OldestDepositAccountOpenDate — for each user, the oldest DepositAccountOpenDate.
• RelationshipStartDate — the older of the OldestDepositAccountOpenDate and the OLBEnrollmentDate.
• CriteriaCompletionWindow (CCW) — the period that starts with the RelationshipStartDate and ends after CriteriaCompletionWindowLength.

For a NewProductCampaign:

• IncentivizedProductCode — the incentivized product code that the FI rewards customers for opening.
• IncentivizedProductOpenDate — the open date of the first account with the IncentivizedProductCode.
• CriteriaCompletionWindow (CCW) — the period that starts with the IncentivizedProductOpenDate and ends after CriteriaCompletionWindowLength.

RewardDepositAccount (RDA) A valid checking account that will receive the inviter’s or acceptor’s reward. It cannot be an HSA checking account, and it cannot be used by more than one acceptor. DoNotPayInviterReferralCodes Used when the FI is the inviter. A configurable list of referral codes that instruct the app not to pay a reward to the inviter when their referral code is used by an acceptor.

​

Earning a Reward

​

Acceptor

The acceptor must enter a valid referral code within the CriteriaCompletionWindow. The referral code popup displays if all of these requirements are met:

• For a NewRelationshipCampaign, the RelationshipStartDate is after the CampaignStartDate.
• For a NewProductCampaign, the IncentivizedProductOpenDate is after the CampaignStartDate.
• The user has not answered no and submitted the popup.
• A referral code has not already been submitted within the CriteriaCompletionWindow.
• The current date is within the CriteriaCompletionWindow.

A referral code is accepted if both of these requirements are met:

• The acceptor’s SSN does not have access to any other deposit account opened before the CampaignStartDate.
• The code is valid.

The acceptor must complete the acceptor requirements within the CriteriaCompletionWindow. These are checked:

• On each subsequent login after a valid code is submitted. (This is not checked at the time the code is submitted, because the check can take a while, and it would be a rare edge case for a user to have already met all the criteria by the time they enter the code.)
• When the user clicks to view their eligibility status.

Acceptor requirements:

• Have a RewardDepositAccount.
• Complete one of the following:
  • Payroll — accumulate payroll deposits totaling at least $500. Restricted payment sources (PayPal, Zillow, Venmo, Klarna, Zelle, Cash Award, Cash ID, Cash App) do not count.
  • Debit card — complete at least 5 debit card transactions.
• Log into digital banking after meeting the above criteria.

The acceptor must not have a negative balance at this time to qualify for the reward. If there is a negative balance, “Has a negative balance” is marked “Yes” and “Ready to pay?” is marked “No” — the checkbox to pay the reward is also disabled. The acceptor can receive only one reward during the campaign period. This eliminates multiple rewards for the same checking account in the case of joint account holders. Code prompt popup messages:

​

Inviter

The inviter’s referral code must not be in DoNotPayInviterReferralCodes. The inviter must have a RewardDepositAccount by the expiration of the CriteriaCompletionWindow.

​

Report Legend

(*) When the acceptor submits the code, the Host ID shows * until the acceptor logs into their account again or clicks the eligibility link. If a RewardDepositAccount is not found, it remains * until one is found or the CriteriaCompletionWindow expires. N/F — Not Found The Host ID is marked N/F if a RewardDepositAccount is not found when the CriteriaCompletionWindow expires. N/A — Not Applicable The Host ID is marked N/A if the inviter’s referral code is found in DoNotPayInviterReferralCodes.