# Outbound Referral
Share opportunities from your CRM with partners
---
## Overview
With your co-sell configurations, sharing with partners can be as easy as a few mouse clicks.
## Outbox
Outbox is the place to show your CRM opportunities that are ready to be sent to partners.
Without any configuration, this tab lists all your CRM opportunities. The **HubSpot** section is
the exception once a [Referral State](/integrations/hubspot/#referral-state) property is set up: it
then lists only the deals not yet shared with AWS, Azure, or GCP.
You can click the filter button to specify various filters to narrow down the scope:
> 
You can also use the search box on the top right:
## Share an Opportunity
Sharing happens on its own **full page**, not in a pop-up dialog. The page has its own
URL, so you can bookmark a share in progress, reload it, or send the link to a colleague.
Its header reads **Share to {cloud} co-sell referral** — for example, *Share to AWS
co-sell referral*.
Below is an example where we share a Salesforce opportunity with AWS.
1. Find an opportunity from the Outbox.
2. Click on the opportunity name (in **teal** color) which navigates to the detail page.
3. Click the **Share** button on the top right. Fours opens the share page.
4. Work through the **stepper** at the top of the page. Each step groups a related set of
fields; fill in the required fields, and any optional fields you want to send.
5. If all validation passed, the **Submit** button will be clickable. Click on it.
6. Fours sends this to AWS. This process usually takes ~5 seconds but sometimes it takes longer.
7. After submission, open the opportunity again, or find its referral on the **Co-Sell** page under **Cloud Partners**, to check its current status.
8. You can click on it to check the details. You should see the "APN CRM Unique Identifier" in the "Destination" section on the bottom.
> 
:::note
Because the share page is a page and not a dialog, navigating away — clicking a link,
using the browser Back button, or closing the tab — triggers an **unsaved-changes guard**.
Confirm to leave and discard what you have filled in, or cancel to stay on the page.
:::
### Duplicate title advisory
When you submit, Fours checks whether the same partner already has a **still-open**
referral with a matching title. Matching ignores letter case and surrounding whitespace,
so "Acme Corp — Migration" and "acme corp — migration " count as the same title.
If it finds one, Fours shows you the matching referrals so you can decide whether you are
about to create a duplicate.
:::info
This is **advisory only — it never blocks the share.** Two referrals can legitimately
carry the same title, for example two phases of the same programme with the same customer.
Read the list, then submit anyway if the new referral is genuinely distinct.
:::
## Invite other AWS partners
On an AWS referral you can invite other AWS partners — a reseller or a services partner, for
example — to work the opportunity with you. Fours sends each one an AWS engagement invitation
through AWS Partner Central. You can invite only partners your AWS Partner Central account is
connected to; Fours refreshes that list of partner connections from AWS every 6 hours.
You can invite partners in two places:
- **While you share** — the AWS share page ends with a **Partner Collaboration** step.
- **After the referral exists** — open the AWS referral and click **Share With Partners**.
### Invite partners while you share
The **Partner Collaboration** step is optional. Fill it in to invite partners in the same
submission:
| Field | What to enter |
| --- | --- |
| **Partner Connection Name** | Type to search your connected partners by company name or AWS account ID, and pick one or more. Each option shows the company name with **AWS Account:** and its account ID underneath. |
| **Partner Engagement Type** | One or more of: Distributor, Reseller, Hardware Partner, Managed Service Provider, Software Partner, Services Partner, Training Partner |
| **Comments to share with the partner** | Up to 255 characters |
Once you pick a partner, an engagement type and the comments become required, and **Submit**
stays disabled until both are filled in. Fours sends one invitation per selected partner, each
with the same engagement types and comments.
### Invite partners to an existing referral
On the AWS referral's page, click **Share With Partners**. The **Share with Partner** dialog
sends one invitation at a time:
- **Sender** — your **Email** (required), plus an optional **First Name**, **Last Name**,
**Business Title**, and **Phone Number**.
- **Partner** — the **Partner Connection Name**, at least one **Partner Engagement Type**, and the
**Comments to share with the partner** (up to 255 characters), all required.
**Share With Partners** is disabled when any of these is true:
- The referral already has 10 outbound invitations.
- AWS has not yet given the referral an opportunity ID.
- The referral's status is **Draft**, **Create Failed**, or **Deleted**.
- Its stage is **Launched** or **Closed Lost**, or it has no stage yet.
- It is an inbound referral still waiting for you to accept it (**Pending Acceptance**).
### Track the invitations
The AWS referral's **Invitations** tab lists every invitation sent on it:
| Column | Shows |
| --- | --- |
| **Partner** | The partner connection's name, with its AWS account ID underneath — or the account ID alone when it matches none of your connections |
| **Invite Time** | When the invitation was sent |
| **Status** | The invitation's status at AWS |
| **Invitation Id** | AWS's ID for the invitation |
| **Sender(s)** | The company that sent it |
| **Link to invitation** | Opens the invitation's page: **Overview**, **Customer Details**, **Project Details**, and **Partners** |
Right after it sends an invitation, Fours reads every invitation on the referral back from AWS and
stores the dates, sender, message, and customer and project details AWS returns. It does not poll
for answers: when an invited partner accepts or rejects the invitation, AWS publishes a
status-change event, and Fours reads that event through the Amazon EventBridge rule your
[AWS Partner Central integration](/integrations/aws-partner-network-api/) set up, then updates
**Status**. An invitation recorded before early October 2026 can show blank dates or no sender
until another invitation is sent on that referral.
```d2
shape: sequence_diagram
you: "You (Fours Console)"
fours: Fours
aws: "AWS Partner Central"
partner: "Invited AWS partner"
you -> fours: "Pick partners, engagement types, and comments"
fours -> aws: "One engagement invitation per partner"
aws -> partner: "Engagement invitation"
fours -> aws: "Read every invitation on the referral back"
aws -> fours: "Dates, sender, message, customer and project" { style.stroke-dash: 4 }
fours -> you: "Listed on the Invitations tab"
partner -> aws: "Accepts or rejects the invitation"
aws -> fours: "Status-change event, read through EventBridge" { style.stroke-dash: 4 }
fours -> you: "Invitation status updated"
```
### Partner names
Partner names come from AWS. Each time Fours syncs your partner connections, it asks AWS Partner
Central for each partner's published company name. Where AWS returns none — for example, for a
partner whose profile isn't published — the partner appears as **AWS Account** followed by its
account ID until a later sync resolves it. A name that was resolved once is never replaced by the
placeholder after a failed lookup.
## Re-submit a failed referral
A referral that failed on the way to the partner does not have to be recreated from
scratch. Open the referral's detail page and use the **Re-submit** action.
**When Re-submit is available**
| Situation | Re-submit? |
| --- | --- |
| Status is `CREATE_FAILED` | Yes |
| AWS referral whose review status is still pending submission | Yes |
| Any other status — the referral is healthy or already at the partner | No |
If you reach the re-submit flow for a referral that does not qualify, Fours refuses it
with: *"This referral cannot be re-submitted."*
**What happens when you re-submit**
1. Open the failed referral's detail page.
2. Click **Re-submit**. Fours seeds the form from the payload it stored on the original
attempt, so every value you entered the first time is still there.
3. Correct whatever the partner rejected — the error message on the referral tells you
what to fix.
4. Click **Submit**.
:::info
Re-submitting **updates the failed referral in place**. It never creates a second record,
so your list will not fill up with duplicates of the same opportunity no matter how many
times you retry.
:::
## Board view
For **Fours partner-to-partner** co-sell, the referrals table offers a **List / Board** toggle. It appears only when the partner filter is set to Fours alone — the board's columns are Fours' own deal stages, which do not describe an AWS, Azure or GCP referral. Your choice is remembered in the browser.
The board has nine columns: the eight deal stages — **Pending**, **Active**, **In Discovery**, **Proposal Sent**, **Negotiating**, **On Hold**, **Won**, **Lost** — plus a board-only **Rejected** bucket.
Each column header shows how many deals the column holds and, when those deals carry a value, their total — added up per currency, because values in different currencies are never combined. Hover the info icon beside either figure for its definition. When the board has loaded only the first of the deals that match your search and filters, both figures cover the loaded deals only and are marked `≥`.
Drag a card to change its stage. Two columns accept no drops, and say so rather than appearing to:
| Column | Why you cannot drop into it |
| ------ | --------------------------- |
| **Pending** | The pre-accept state. Dropping here would revert an accepted deal to pending acceptance and re-arm the accept decision. |
| **Rejected** | Rejection is a **status, not a stage**. A rejected deal's stage freezes where it was; the bucket exists so a dead deal is not presented as live pipeline. |
Two stages open a confirmation before the change is saved:
- **Lost** — requires a closed-lost reason.
- **Won** — opens the Close Won gate: deal value, visibility, and commission.
The board offers exactly the transitions the deal page's **Change Stage** dropdown offers, from one shared list, so the two cannot drift apart.
## Bulk Share
You can share multiple opportunities at the same time.
This can be very efficient if your CRM data is in good quality (e.g., all postal codes are filled)
and the field mappings & templates are well-configured.
1. On the **Salesforce**, **HubSpot**, or **Dynamics 365** section of the **Co-Sell** page, tick the
opportunities you want to share, then click **Bulk Share** at the right of the section's title.
On Salesforce and Dynamics 365 it opens a menu of the cloud partners you have connected (AWS,
AZURE, GCP): pick one. On HubSpot it shares with AWS, and it appears once your AWS ACE
integration is connected.
> 
2. A **Preview** dialog shows the referral Fours is about to submit for each opportunity you ticked.
> 
You can click on any of them to check the details.
3. If all validation passed, you can click the `Submit` button. Otherwise you'll need to manually fill them.
:::info
**A bulk share takes at most 30 referrals per batch, and the Salesforce and HubSpot sections let you
tick 20 at a time.** To share more opportunities, split them across several batches.
:::
### Running two bulk shares at once
You can start a second bulk share while a first one is still processing. Previously the
second batch could be dropped, or leave rows sitting in **Pending Create** indefinitely —
that no longer happens.
If a batch cannot be started, its referrals are marked `CREATE_FAILED` rather than left
stranded, with the message:
> Could not start the {partner} submission for this bulk share — please resubmit the referral
Those rows behave like any other failed referral: open one and use
[**Re-submit**](#re-submit-a-failed-referral) to push it through.
## Share automatically
Fours can share and enrich referrals for you:
- **[Auto-Share](/cosell/setup/automations/#auto-share-referrals)** shares every opportunity that meets your criteria, every 3 hours. It retries a rejected referral up to 16 times. See [Retries](/cosell/setup/automations/#retries).
- **[Auto-Enrich](/cosell/setup/automations/#auto-enrich-referrals)** fills blank company and contact fields when you preview a referral.