Pancho
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Written tutorials · 6 lessons

Welcome to Refero

Lesson 01 · 3 min read

Getting started with Refero

Set your fees, add services, areas and your first vendor, and take your first booking.

Getting started with Refero

Refero runs a service marketplace: vendors do the work, agents bring customers, and the fees charge themselves. Follow these steps to go from install to your first paid job.

1. Set your business details

  1. Open Settings.
  2. In Business, enter your business name and a support phone.
  3. In Your cut & agent commission, check the defaults:
  • Your cut — 1000 basis points = 10% of each paid job.
  • Agent commission — 1500 basis points = 15% of the job.
  1. Tap Save settings.

2. Connect Paystack (recommended)

  1. In Settings → Payments (Paystack), set Paystack enabled to Yes and paste your Public key and Secret key.
  2. Copy the Webhook URL shown on the card and add it in your Paystack dashboard.

This is your own Paystack account — it charges vendor cards for the fees and pays agents their commission. Without it Refero still works; fees just settle manually.

3. Add your services

  1. Open Services and tap Group to make a category (e.g. AC repair).
  2. Tap Service, name it, pick the group, and set a suggested price (₦).

This is only a starting price list — the actual amount is whatever the customer really pays.

4. Add your areas

  1. Open Areas and tap Add area (e.g. Lekki Phase 1).

Areas are how jobs find the right vendor.

5. Add your first vendor

  1. Open Vendors and tap Add vendor.
  2. Enter the business / contact name, phone, and email (for card charges). Leave the PIN blank to auto-generate one — send it to the vendor.
  3. On the vendor's page, tick the Areas covered (and preferred where they should win the jobs) and the Services offered, then tap Save on each card.

6. Set the preferred vendor per area

  1. Open Areas and tap Preferred next to an area.
  2. Pick the vendor.

Bookings from your main link and agent links route to the preferred vendor for the customer's area.

7. Take your first booking

  1. Open Settings → Share links and tap Copy next to Book a service.
  2. Open the link yourself to test: enter a name, phone, service, area and address, then tap Book now.

The job appears in Jobs as In progress, routed to the preferred vendor — who gets a flashing "new job" alert.

8. Get paid

When the work is done, the vendor (or you, from the job page) enters what the customer paid. Refero shows the fee split, charges the vendor's card, pays the agent, and keeps your cut. See the "Running it day-to-day" tutorial.

What Refero costs

Free to install — no monthly fee, no setup fee. The platform keeps 25% of each paid job. That 25% is part of the fees charged to the vendor's card on every job, so it's collected from the vendor first — then billed to your Pancho card. No paid jobs, no cost.

Lesson 02 · 2 min read

Running it day-to-day

Work the jobs list, assign vendors, take payment, and settle flagged amounts.

Running it day-to-day

The daily loop: watch the dashboard, route jobs, take payment, settle anything flagged.

1. Read your dashboard

Home shows the numbers that need you: New jobs, Need a vendor (unrouted bookings), Collected today, Flagged amounts, Vendors and Agents to approve.

2. Work the Jobs list

  1. Open Jobs. Filter with All / New / In progress / Paid / Cancelled.
  2. Tap a job to open it. Every job has an RF-number (e.g. RF-20260703-0001) and shows the customer, service, area and agent.

3. Assign a vendor to an unrouted job

A booking with no vendor (no one covers that area yet) arrives as New, marked unrouted.

  1. Open the job and tap Assign vendor.
  2. Pick the vendor. They get a "new job" alert.

You can also tap Reassign on any unpaid job.

4. Take payment

Normally the vendor does this from their own dashboard. You can also do it from the job page:

  1. Enter the amount the customer paid (₦).
  2. The fee box shows the split live: agent commission + your cut + platform fee, charged to the vendor's card — and what the vendor keeps.
  3. Tap Charge & pay out and confirm.

Refero charges the vendor's card on file for the fees, transfers the agent's commission, records your cut, and marks the job Paid. If the vendor has no card (or Paystack is off), the job is still marked paid and settlement is recorded as manual — the agent's bank details are shown so the commission can be transferred by hand.

5. Handle a flagged amount

When a customer flags "this figure doesn't look right" from their portal, you and the agent are alerted, and the job page shows a red A customer flagged this amount card.

  1. Check with the vendor and the customer.
  2. Tap Looks correct to dismiss, or It was wrong to uphold.

6. Check the Money page

Open Money to see Owed to agents, Your income, and every payout. Agents are paid automatically when a job is paid; anything that couldn't transfer accrues here — tap Pay now (bank transfer) or Manual (record a cash payout), or tap Run weekly sweep to pay everyone whose balance clears the minimum.

7. Reports and activity

  • Reports — jobs and money over time.
  • Activity — the audit trail: every booking, assignment, payment, dispute and payout, with who did it.
Lesson 03 · 2 min read

Vendors & areas

Add vendors, set the areas they cover and the preferred vendor, and get their card on file.

Vendors & areas

Vendors are the businesses that do the work. Areas decide which vendor gets each job.

1. Add a vendor

  1. Open Vendors and tap Add vendor.
  2. Enter the business / contact name, phone, and email (for card charges).
  3. Leave the PIN blank to auto-generate one. Send the vendor their PIN — they sign in with phone + PIN.

2. Set what they cover

On the vendor's page:

  1. Areas covered — tick each area they work in. Tick preferred where they should win the platform-link jobs. Tap Save.
  2. Services offered — tick their services. Tap Save.
  3. Primary service (preselected on their link) — optional; pre-fills the booking form on their direct link.

3. How routing works

When a booking comes through your main link or an agent's link, the customer picks an area, and Refero routes the job in this order:

  1. The preferred vendor for that area who offers the chosen service.
  2. Otherwise the preferred vendor for the area.
  3. Otherwise any active vendor covering the area.
  4. No one covers it? The job lands as unrouted and you assign it by hand.

A vendor's own link skips all of that — it books straight to them, no area needed.

4. Give the vendor their link

On the vendor's page, copy the Vendor link and give it to them to share. Bookings through it go straight to them, with their primary service preselected.

5. Get their card on file

Fees are charged to the vendor's card automatically on each paid job — so each vendor should add a card once:

  1. The vendor signs in at your Vendor sign-in link (Settings → Share links).
  2. On their dashboard they tap Add your card (or Account → Add my card), confirm their email, and complete the Paystack card setup.

Until they do, their jobs settle manually. You can see who has a card in the Vendors list — the Card column shows •••• 1234 or none.

6. What the vendor sees

  • My jobs — their job list, each marked New / To do / Collect payment / Paid.
  • A flashing new job banner (with a siren, if you leave it on) the moment a job lands, plus Turn on phone alerts for background push even with the app closed.
  • On a job: Call customer, then "How much did the customer pay?" — they enter the amount, see exactly what their card will be charged and what they keep, and tap Charge & finish.

7. Manage a vendor

From the vendor's page: Edit (name, email), Reset PIN, Suspend / Activate. Suspended vendors stop receiving jobs.

By default vendors can't sign themselves up — you add them. To change that, flip Let vendors sign themselves up in Settings → Portal & sign-ups.

Lesson 04 · 2 min read

Agents & commissions

Recruit agents, set commissions, verify their bank, and pay them automatically.

Agents & commissions

Agents bring you customers with a personal share link and earn a commission on every job — paid to their bank automatically.

1. Two kinds of agent

  • Platform agent — their bookings route by the customer's area to the preferred vendor.
  • Vendor agent — tied to one vendor; their bookings go straight to that vendor.

2. Add an agent

  1. Open Agents and tap Add agent.
  2. Enter their full name and phone. Leave the PIN blank to auto-generate one.
  3. Commission (bp) — leave blank to use the default (Settings → Your cut & agent commission, 1500 = 15%), or set a per-agent rate.
  4. Belongs to vendor — leave as Platform agent or pick a vendor.

Or let people sign themselves up: share the Become an agent link (Settings → Share links). They enter name, phone and a PIN and get their dashboard immediately. Turn this off with Let agents sign themselves up in Settings → Portal & sign-ups.

3. Set their bank (so they can be paid)

  1. In Agents, tap the agent, then Set bank.
  2. Pick the bank and enter the account number — Refero verifies the account name via Paystack.

Agents can also add their own bank from their dashboard (Account tab). Without a bank, their commission just accrues in their wallet.

4. Their link, their customers

Each agent has a personal referral link (shown in their dashboard and in their drawer in Agents). A customer who books through it is attributed to that agent — and the first agent who brings a customer keeps them: future bookings by the same phone number stay credited to that agent.

5. How agents get paid

When a job they brought is marked paid:

  • Pay agents instantly is Yes by default — the commission is transferred to their bank by Paystack the moment the job is paid.
  • If the transfer can't happen (no bank, Paystack off, low Paystack balance), the commission lands in their wallet instead — nothing is lost.

For accrued wallets, open Money:

  • Pay now — transfer an agent's balance to their bank.
  • Manual — record a cash payout.
  • Run weekly sweep — pay every agent whose balance clears the minimum payout (default ₦5,000), at most once per week.
  • Payout holding days (Settings) — optionally hold fresh commissions for N days before they become payable.

6. What the agent sees

Their dashboard at your Agent sign-in link (phone + PIN): a wallet hero with balance, earned and paid out, their bookings pipeline (Bookings / In progress / Paid), their referral link with a copy button, and a Wallet tab listing every credit and payout.

Lesson 05 · 2 min read

Customizing Refero

Every Settings section: your cut, Paystack, alerts, sign-ups and staff.

Customizing Refero

Everything lives in Settings. Change what you need, then tap Save settings at the bottom.

Share links

The public URLs you give out: Book a service, Become an agent, Agent sign-in, Vendor sign-in, Customer portal, Staff sign-in — each with a Copy button. See the "Sharing your links" tutorial.

Platform fee

Read-only. Shows the platform's fee per paid order (on the full total, billed to your card). It's included in the fees charged to the vendor's card on every job.

Business

Business name, support phone, support WhatsApp, support hours. The business name appears on the booking form and customer portal.

Your cut & agent commission

Rates are in basis points: 100 bp = 1%.

  • Your cut — default 1000 = 10% of each paid job. Yours to change.
  • Agent commission — default 1500 = 15% of the job. A per-agent rate (set in Agents) overrides this.
  • Minimum payout (₦) — default ₦5,000. Wallet balances below this are skipped by the weekly sweep.
  • Payout holding days — default 0 (pay immediately). Set a number to hold fresh commissions before they become payable.
  • Pay agents instantly — Yes by default: the agent's commission is transferred to their bank the moment a job is paid. No: it accrues for the sweep or a manual payout.

Payments (Paystack)

Paystack enabled + your public key and secret key. This is your own Paystack account — it charges vendor cards for the fees and pays agents. The card also shows your Webhook URL — add it in your Paystack dashboard so transfers reconcile.

Notifications & alerts

  • Play a siren on new jobs — the vendor's flashing new-job banner makes noise. On by default.
  • Push (ntfy) — free push alerts. Set a shared topic vendors can subscribe to; toggle admin/customer alerts and which events fire: On new job, On job paid, On amount flagged.
  • Text messages (Twilio) — off by default. Add your Twilio SID, token and from-number to text customers.

Portal & sign-ups

  • Require a PIN to look up — customers must sign in with phone + PIN. On by default.
  • Let agents sign themselves up — the Become an agent page. On by default.
  • Let vendors sign themselves up — off by default; you add vendors yourself.

Staff

Your back-office team. Tap Add staff — name, phone, PIN, and a role: Staff (jobs, customers, day-to-day) or Admin (full access). They sign in at your Staff sign-in link with phone + PIN.