Build a referral tracking integration that attributes sourced candidates from a referral program to the referring employee in an ATS

Verified steps

1. Generate a unique referral tracking token or URL per referring employee when they share a job link from your referral portal; embed this token as a URL parameter that persists through the application flow.
2. Capture the referral token from the application URL on submission and store it alongside the candidate record and application in the ATS — use a custom field or tag if the ATS does not natively support referral source tracking.
3. Implement deduplication: if the referred candidate already exists in the ATS from a prior application, associate the referral attribution to the existing record rather than creating a duplicate.
4. Trigger a referral bonus eligibility event when the referred candidate reaches a qualifying milestone (such as hire, or completion of a probationary period) by listening to the ATS webhook for stage or status changes.
5. POST the referral event to your referral program system with the referring employee ID, candidate ATS ID, job ID, and milestone timestamp so the bonus or reward can be processed.
6. Build an audit log of all referral attributions and payout-triggering events for HR and finance reconciliation.