How to Use the Referral Tree

Why This Matters

Referrals are often your best source of new business, and the people who send them deserve to be noticed. The Referral Tree shows who referred whom. You can see your top referrers at a glance and follow a chain of referrals as far as it goes. It also shows who sent the people who sent you business.

The tree builds itself. Each time you set who referred a contact, that link is added. You don't have to update anything by hand.

Before You Begin

The tree is built from the Referred By field on your contacts, so the person who referred someone needs to be a contact in your database too. If they aren't, add them first.

If you're on a team, the tree shows the contacts in the database you're working in. Referrals in a team member's database aren't included.

Watch & Learn

🎥 Video: Referral Trees

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Set Who Referred a Contact

Open the contact who was referred to you and click Edit Contact. Next to Referred By, click the field to open Choose a Contact. Type the referrer's name, click Search, and then click their name. Click Save.

This is the link the tree is built from, so the more contacts you fill in, the more complete your tree is.

Time: Less than a minute per contact

2. Open the Referral Tree

Go to Reports and choose Referral Tree.

The page opens on the Branch Map, a visual map of your referrals. You can switch to the List at any time with the Branch Map and List buttons at the top. The page remembers which one you used last.

Both views show the same referrals. The map is best for seeing how people are connected, and the List is best for ranking who referred the most.

Time: Less than a minute

3. Read the Map

The first column shows your top referrers, the people who start each referral family. The biggest families come first. The first 10 show as cards. If you have more, a card at the bottom of the column says something like "+2 more"; click it to see the rest.

Each card shows the contact's name and two numbers, for example "5 direct · 25 total." Direct is the number of people this contact referred themselves. Total counts everyone below them: their referrals, their referrals' referrals, and so on. A contact who hasn't referred anyone shows "No referrals yet."

Your three biggest families start open, so you can see how they branch out right away.

The two numbers tell you who sends you business themselves and whose referrals keep bringing in more.

Time: 1 minute

4. Open and Close Branches

Click anywhere on a card to open that person's branch. Their referrals appear in the next column to the right, with lines connecting them. Click the card again to close it. The round button on the right edge of the card shows how many people are inside a closed branch, such as "+2."

Click a contact's name to open their contact record. When you're done, use your browser's Back button. The tree comes back exactly as you left it, with the same branches open.

To close everything and go back to where you started, click the round Collapse all button (−) at the top right of the map.

Opening only the branches you need keeps even a big tree easy to follow.

Time: As long as you like

Big Branches

When someone has referred a lot of people, their branch shows 12 cards to keep the map easy to read. The people who went on to refer others come first, then people with no referrals yet, A to Z.

Everyone else is grouped behind a dashed card, such as "+12 with no referrals." Click it to open a list of those contacts. Type in Filter this list to find someone quickly, and click any name to open that contact. If someone in the list has referred others, click Add to map to put their card in the branch so you can open their family too. Close the list with the X or the Esc key.

Long Referral Chains

The map shows five columns at a time. If a chain goes deeper, the card in the last column has a button with an arrow, such as "+1 ›." Click it to continue from that person. They move to the first column and their branch opens.

A trail appears above the map showing the path you took, for example "All referrers › Olivia Bennett › Hannah Cole › Ryan Mitchell." Click any name in the trail to step back to that point, or All referrers to go back to the start.

Find a Contact

Type part of a name in Find contact. Matching contacts appear with who referred them. Click one or press Enter.

The map opens the path from the top down to that person and highlights their card in yellow. If they were grouped behind a "+ with no referrals" card, that list opens with their name highlighted.

💡 Find clears any filters you've set, so you always see the person you looked for.

Filter by Category

Use the Category filters at the top to narrow the tree. Your account may show different names for these filters if you've renamed your categories.

A filter looks at the people at the top of each family. Anyone who matches becomes a top-level card, even if someone else referred them, with their whole branch below. The direct and total numbers on each card don't change when you filter. They always count everyone. If the tree is empty after you choose a filter, nobody at the top level matches, so clear the filter.

Use the List

Click List to see your referrers as an indented list. Every referrer gets their own row, sorted by who referred the most people directly. This makes the List the quickest way to answer "Who are my top referrers?" Because every referrer has a row, someone can show up at the top level and inside another person's row too.

Click the arrow beside a name to open that row. Rows show up to four levels of referrals. Use the round Expand all (+) and Collapse all (−) buttons to open or close every row at once. The List shows 25 referrers at a time. If you have more, click Show next to load the rest.

Print the Tree

Click Print at the top right. Print always uses the List, even if you're on the Branch Map, and it prints what the List is showing. To print more, load more rows and click Expand all first.

Tips for Using the Referral Tree

Thank your top referrers. Use the List to see who referred the most people, then add a tag like "Thank-You Sent" so you can track who you've recognized.

See everyone one person referred. Open the contact and click the Referrals tab. It lists everyone they referred, and Send Referral Contacts to Group Actions lets you email or follow up with all of them at once.

Fill in older referrals. If you have contacts who were referred before you started tracking it, set their Referred By any time. The tree updates right away.

Questions and Answers

Q: Why don't I see everyone on the map?

A: Big branches show 12 cards and group the rest behind a dashed card. Click that card to see everyone, or use Find contact to jump to a specific person.

Q: Someone is missing from the tree. Why?

A: Open their contact and click Edit Contact to check Referred By. A contact only shows when the person who referred them is a contact in the database you're working in. If you're on a team, referrals in a team member's database aren't included in yours.

Q: Why does the map only open three families?

A: It keeps the page fast and easy to read. Click any card to open its branch, or switch to the List.

Q: Where is Expand all on the map?

A: Expand all is only in the List. On the map, a large tree could open thousands of cards at once.

Q: Can I print the map?

A: No. Print always uses the List. Open the rows you want with Expand all, then click Print.

Q: Can a contact have more than one referrer?

A: No. Each contact has one Referred By. If more than one person helped, pick the main one and add a note on the contact.

Q: Do I need to do anything to keep the tree up to date?

A: No. The tree updates on its own whenever you set or change a contact's Referred By.

Guide Type: How-To Guide

Estimated Time: 5 minutes