How the Affiliate Program Works

How the Affiliate Program Works

The HandyBook Affiliate Program pays you a recurring monthly commission for every business you refer that subscribes to HandyBook. You share your referral code or link, they sign up, and you earn a percentage of what they pay — every month, for as long as they stay subscribed.

It's free to join, you get a free Business plan the moment you sign your agreement, and the HandyBook team even hands you a curated list of local businesses to reach out to. Your whole affiliate workspace lives at Dashboard → Affiliate.

What you earn

• Standard commission: 30%. That's the default rate when the HandyBook team sets you up. Your exact rate is shown on your agreement and on your affiliate dashboard (Your monthly commission … at X%).
• Recurring, not one-time. Commission is a monthly percentage of the subscription revenue your referred customers actually pay. If they upgrade, your commission goes up; if they downgrade, it goes down — it tracks their plan automatically.
• Lifetime of the subscription. You keep earning on a referred customer for as long as they remain subscribed.

How the math works

Each referred customer has a monthly subscription cost (their plan tier plus any extra user seats). Annual subscriptions are normalized to a per-month figure (the annual price divided by 12). Your commission is your rate applied to the total monthly subscription revenue across all of your active referred customers.

Example: a referred customer on a $90/month plan, at a 30% commission, earns you $27/month — every month they stay subscribed.

What's excluded

Commission is calculated on subscription revenue only. It expressly excludes payment-processing fees, including the Stripe fees your referred customers incur when they collect their own invoice payments through HandyBook. You earn on what they pay HandyBook for the software, not on the money flowing through their business.

When you get paid

Commissions are calculated each month and paid the following month, after the related subscription revenue has actually been collected. Refunds, chargebacks, and uncollected amounts reduce commission accordingly. Payouts are sent by check to the mailing address on your file (see Getting Paid in this section).

Inviting other affiliates

You can invite other businesses to become affiliates too, and earn an override on top of their commission:

• The affiliate you invite earns 20% on the customers they convert.
• You earn a 10% override on those same customers — paid on top of their 20%, not taken out of it.

This override is single-tier: it applies only to affiliates you directly invite, not to anyone they go on to invite. See Inviting a Sub-Affiliate for the full breakdown.

The big picture

1. The HandyBook team creates your affiliate account and emails you a setup link.
2. You set a password and sign your partnership agreement.
3. You instantly get a free Business plan plus optional sample data to explore.
4. You share your referral code / link and work your prospect list.
5. Customers subscribe, and you earn recurring monthly commission.
6. We mail you a check the following month.

FAQ

How much does it cost to be an affiliate? Nothing. Joining is free, and signing your agreement gets you a free Business plan on top.

Is the 30% guaranteed? 30% is the standard starting rate. Your actual rate is whatever is set on your account and stated in your signed agreement. It's shown right on your dashboard.

Do I keep earning if I stop actively promoting? Yes. Once a customer is referred and subscribed, you earn on them every month they stay — even after termination of your agreement, commissions on customers you already converted continue for as long as they remain subscribed.