What a Partner Tier Actually Changes
Four tiers, four revenue shares and four client counts — recomputed nightly, applied automatically in both directions, with a sixty-day grace before a fall takes effect. Here is exactly what moves when a tier does.
A tier that only ever goes up is a marketing device. One that can also go down is a measurement.
Partner tiers here are computed from a single number — how many active, paying clients a partner has brought — and that number is recomputed from live records rather than maintained by hand. Four thresholds, four revenue shares, and movement in both directions.
The four
| Tier | Active clients | Revenue share | What else it unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered | From zero | 8% | Revenue share, deal registration and protection, sales and technical enablement. |
| Silver | Two or more | 12% | The above, plus a listing in the public partner directory. |
| Gold | Six or more | 16% | The above, plus a dedicated partner manager and co-marketing funds. |
| Platinum | Fifteen or more | 20% | The above, plus early roadmap access. |
The share applies to the subscription value of clients a partner brought, through those clients' first two years. What moves when a tier changes is the percentage on everything going forward, not a renegotiation of what has already been earned.
The count is derived, not declared
A partner's active client count is recomputed from live referred, paying clients rather than being a number somebody maintains. That is what makes the tiers a measurement rather than a status: nobody can be promoted by an oversight, and nobody stays promoted because their record was never updated. It also means a client who stops paying reduces the count on the next recomputation, which is the half of the design that makes the other half meaningful.
Both directions, automatically
Upgrades and downgrades are both switched on, and the nightly synchronisation applies them. A partner crossing a threshold moves up without asking; one falling below moves down.
With one important cushion: a sixty-day grace before a fall takes effect. A partner who loses a client in January is not demoted in January — the review clock starts, and if the count recovers within the grace period nothing happens.
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Why a grace period at all
Client counts move for reasons that are not about the partner: a customer consolidates, a project ends, a renewal lands three days into the following month. Demoting on a single night's count would make the tier a measure of timing rather than of a book of business.
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Why sixty days rather than a longer window
Long enough for a normal fluctuation to correct itself, short enough that a genuinely shrunken practice is reflected within a quarter. Anything much longer and the tier stops describing the present.
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What clears the clock
Any tier change clears the review marker. So a partner who recovers and is re-evaluated starts clean rather than carrying a countdown from the last time they dipped.
A tier that can fall is a tier worth having.
What a tier change actually does
Five things, in one place, whether the change came from the nightly synchronisation or from somebody applying it by hand in the administration screens.
- The tier is set and the revenue share is aligned to it, so the two can never disagree.
- The change is stamped with a date, which is what makes tier history legible later.
- The review clock is cleared, so a pending downgrade countdown does not survive a change.
- The public directory listing is re-evaluated, since it is gated on reaching a minimum tier and has to move with a promotion or a fall.
- The partner is emailed, naming their previous tier and whether this was an upgrade, a downgrade or an adjustment.
Having one implementation matters here more than usual, because there are two entry points — an automated nightly job and a manual administrative action — and they must not do different things. A hand-applied tier that forgot to re-evaluate the directory listing would leave a demoted partner publicly listed, which is exactly the sort of inconsistency nobody notices for months.
The email cannot roll back the change
A small decision worth naming because the reasoning generalises. The notification is sent after the change has been saved, and a failure to send it is logged rather than raised.
The alternative — treating the email as part of the transaction — would mean a mail server problem could undo a tier change that had already been correctly computed. That trade is almost always wrong: the durable fact is the tier, the notification is a courtesy that can be repeated, and letting the courtesy dictate the fact inverts their importance.
The consequence to be aware of is the honest one: a partner can be promoted and not hear about it if the message fails. The log entry is what makes that recoverable.
Two schedules, doing different jobs
| When | What runs | Why that cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Nightly, at half past two | Recompute every partner's active client count and apply any tier movement | A tier should reflect the present, and the inputs change daily. |
| Monthly, on the first at two | Calculate commissions | Commission is a period figure. Computing it nightly would produce a number that has no month attached to it. |
The ordering across a month boundary is worth noticing: tiers are synchronised every night including the first, and commissions are calculated at two in the morning on the first — before that night's tier synchronisation at half past. So a commission run uses the tier as it stood at the end of the period rather than one adjusted by the same morning's movement, which is the correct reading of a period figure.
Five questions to ask about a partner programme
What decides a tier?
A good answer sounds like
A measurable number.
What ours actually is
Active paying clients you brought — zero, two, six or fifteen — recomputed nightly from live records rather than maintained by hand.
Can a tier go down?
A good answer sounds like
Yes, or an explanation of why not.
What ours actually is
Yes, automatically, with a sixty-day grace period before a fall takes effect.
What changes with the tier?
A good answer sounds like
A named list.
What ours actually is
The revenue share, the stamp on the record, the review clock, the public directory listing, and an email naming the previous tier and the direction.
Does an administrator applying a tier do the same thing?
A good answer sounds like
One implementation.
What ours actually is
The same one. Both the nightly job and the manual action go through a single path, so the share and the directory listing cannot drift from the tier.
How long does the share last?
A good answer sounds like
A stated term.
What ours actually is
Through each client's first two years, on the first term and on renewals within it.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- Four tiers with published thresholds and revenue shares — eight, twelve, sixteen and twenty per cent at zero, two, six and fifteen active clients.
- An active client count recomputed from live referred, paying clients rather than maintained by hand.
- Automatic movement in both directions, with a sixty-day grace period before a downgrade takes effect.
- A single implementation applying a tier change, used by both the nightly job and the manual administrative action.
- Revenue share aligned to the tier on every change, so the two cannot disagree.
- The public directory listing re-evaluated on every tier change, since it is gated on a minimum tier.
- A review marker cleared by any tier change, so a pending downgrade countdown does not survive one.
- A partner notification naming the previous tier and whether the change was an upgrade, a downgrade or an adjustment.
- That notification sent outside the change, so a mail failure is logged rather than rolling back a tier that has already been computed.
- Deal registration with ninety days of protection, and commissions calculated monthly on the first.
More we can add to your workspace
- A partner-visible view of the count driving their tier, so progress towards the next threshold is legible before the movement happens.
- A warning when a downgrade grace period starts, giving a partner the sixty days as notice rather than as a silent countdown.
- A tier history on the partner record, showing every movement with its date and direction.
- A projected commission at the next tier, so the value of one more client is a figure rather than a percentage.
- A retry for a failed tier-change notification, rather than a log entry somebody has to find.
- Per-track tier thresholds, since a reseller and a referral partner reach the same client count through quite different work.
Where we point you to a specialist
- We will keep tiers derived from a measured count rather than negotiated. A tier that can be granted becomes a tier that is asked for, and the value of the published thresholds is that every partner is measured the same way.
- We will not let a notification failure undo a computed change. The durable fact is the tier; the message is a courtesy that can be repeated, and allowing the courtesy to dictate the fact inverts their importance.
- Whether a particular client counts as active and paying is determined by the subscription records rather than by a partner's account of the relationship. Where a real disagreement arises it is a conversation with a person, not a setting.
A partner-visible view of the count and the distance to the next threshold is the contained piece here, and it turns a tier from something that happens to a partner into something they can work towards.
Making the progression visible
The measurement, the movement and the grace period all work. What partners ask for is to see the number that governs them before it moves them.
The count, visible to the partner
Active clients and the distance to the next threshold, on the partner portal, updated with the nightly synchronisation.
Notice when a grace period starts
A message when the review clock begins, so sixty days is a warning rather than a silence followed by a demotion.
Tier history
Every movement with its date and direction, so a partner and a partner manager read the same record.
We publish scope, not dates.
Scope the partner programmeOur take
Most partner programmes publish tiers and then never move anybody down, which turns the thresholds into a story about how somebody was once doing well. Recomputing the count nightly from live records and applying movement in both directions is what makes the published numbers mean something — and the sixty-day grace is what stops that honesty becoming brittle, because client counts fluctuate for reasons that have nothing to do with the partner. What is missing is entirely on the partner's side of the glass. The count that governs their share is computed every night and they cannot see it, so a promotion arrives as a surprise and a demotion arrives as a shock. Showing the number would cost very little and would change how the whole programme feels.
Ask what your count is
It is recomputed every night and it is the only number that decides your share. Knowing where you sit against the next threshold changes which conversations are worth having this quarter.
Talk to us about partneringFrequently asked questions
How is my tier decided?
By the number of active, paying clients you have brought, measured against four published thresholds — zero, two, six and fifteen. The count is recomputed nightly from live subscription records rather than maintained by hand, which is what stops a tier being either granted by oversight or retained by neglect.
Can I be moved down a tier?
Yes. Downgrades are applied automatically like upgrades, with a sixty-day grace period first. A count that dips and recovers within that window produces no change at all; one that stays down is reflected. It is worth saying plainly, because a programme where tiers only rise is a programme where they mean nothing.
What changes the moment my tier does?
The revenue share aligns to the new tier, the change is stamped with a date, any pending review countdown is cleared, your public directory listing is re-evaluated against the minimum tier for it, and you are emailed with your previous tier and the direction of the change. All five happen through one implementation, whether the change was automatic or applied by hand.
What if I do not receive the email?
The tier change still happened. The notification is sent after the change is saved and a failure is logged rather than raised, because a mail problem should not be able to undo a correctly computed tier. The honest consequence is that a partner can be promoted and not hear about it, which is why a retry is on the list of what would be added.
When are commissions calculated?
Monthly, on the first, at two in the morning — before that night's tier synchronisation at half past. So a commission run uses the tier as it stood at the end of the period rather than one adjusted by the same morning's movement, which is the correct reading for a figure that describes a month.
Can I see the count that governs my tier?
Not today, and it is the most reasonable request against this design. The number is computed every night and it decides your share, and showing it alongside the distance to the next threshold is the first item on the list of what would be added. It turns a tier from something that happens to you into something you can work towards.
