Partner Program Agreement

This Partner Program Agreement ("Agreement") governs your participation in the AutoCISO Partner Program. By registering as a partner, you agree to these terms in addition to the AutoCISO Terms of Service. In the event of a conflict, this Agreement prevails with respect to the Partner Program.

1. Eligibility

To register as a Partner, you must be the account owner (tenant:owner) of an active AutoCISO subscription on the Seed plan or above. Free-plan accounts are not eligible. AutoCISO reserves the right to approve, decline, or revoke partner status at its sole discretion.

2. Two Billing Tracks

The Partner Program operates through two mutually exclusive billing tracks. Each client organization you manage is on exactly one track at any given time. The tracks cannot be combined for the same organization simultaneously.

Track A — Referral Payout

When a client organization signs up via your referral link, the organization's subscription billing remains directly between the organization and AutoCISO. You earn a cash payout equal to 20% of each successful monthly subscription payment made by that organization, within the limits of your agreement tier (Section 4) and subject to Section 6 (Tax, VAT and Withholding).

• Payouts are generated only while the referred organization has an active paid subscription. Free-plan, trial, failed-payment, and cancelled organizations generate no payout.
• Payouts are cash payments disbursed according to AutoCISO's standard payout schedule. They are not account credits.
• Track A is available to all registered partners. The vCISO Portal is not required.
• If a referred organization successfully disputes or reverses a payment, the corresponding referral payout is reversed or withheld from your next disbursement.

Track B — Managed Discount

When you enroll a client organization via the vCISO Partner Portal and select the Managed billing track, you pay AutoCISO directly for that organization's subscription at a discounted rate. The discount tier is determined by the number of eligible managed-track organizations you have at the start of each billing cycle.

Discount tiers:

• Eligible org count: Only organizations on the Managed track with an active paid subscription count toward your discount tier. Referral-track orgs, free-plan orgs, trial orgs, and orgs with failed or cancelled subscriptions are excluded.
• Minimum: A minimum of 2 eligible managed-track organizations is required to enter any discount tier.
• Tier recalculation: The eligible count is evaluated at the start of each billing cycle. Tier changes (up or down) apply from that cycle onward. No retroactive adjustment is issued for mid-cycle changes.
• Refunds: If AutoCISO issues a refund for a managed-track organization's subscription, the refund is calculated on the discounted price you paid. The discount does not increase the refund amount owed.
• Track B requires the Seed plan or above and an active partner registration.

3. Track Switching

You may switch a client organization between tracks subject to the following conditions:

• Referral → Managed: The switch takes effect immediately upon confirmation. You assume billing responsibility for the organization from that point. Any referral payout accrued for the current billing period up to the switch date is forfeited.
• Managed → Referral: The organization's billing reverts to AutoCISO direct at the start of the following calendar month. You begin earning the 20% referral payout from the first successful payment received from the organization in that month onward.

4. Agreement Tiers

• Affiliate: The default tier. You accept it online when you register. Referral payouts are earned for 12 months from a referred organization's first successful payment. Referral payouts stop when your lifetime total reaches $2,000. We tell you once when you reach this cap, and you can apply for the Strategic tier.
• Strategic: A separate agreement signed by you and AutoCISO. It sets your payout period, which can be 24 months or the lifetime of the referred subscription, and has no lifetime cap unless the agreement sets one.
• The tier applies to Track A referral payouts. It does not change the Track B discount tiers.

5. Referral Attribution

A referred organization is credited to you only if it signs up within an attribution window of 90 days after its first click on your referral link. We record each click (referral code, time, a hashed IP address, the browser user agent, the country, and the referring page) and set a first-party cookie to connect the click to the sign-up. We keep click records for 18 months. Our records decide attribution.

6. Tax, VAT and Withholding

• Before we pay you, you must give us your legal name, legal address, country, tax identification numbers, VAT status, payout account details, and the tax documents that the law of your country requires. We pause payouts while a required document is missing or expired.
• We issue statements monthly by default, or quarterly if you choose. A statement shows each client, the commission, VAT, tax withheld, and the net amount. A statement does not change after we issue it.
• You send us an invoice that matches the statement. If you are registered for VAT in AutoCISO's country, your invoice adds VAT at the current rate. For partners in other countries, AutoCISO self-assesses VAT where the law requires it.
• We withhold tax from payouts where the law requires it, at the rate your tax documents allow, and pay it to the tax authority. You are responsible for all other taxes on your payouts.

7. Independent Contractor

You are an independent contractor. You are not an employee, agent, or legal representative of AutoCISO. You decide how, when, and where you work, and the Partner Program is not exclusive. You do not receive an AutoCISO email address or a role in AutoCISO's internal team, and you must not present yourself as AutoCISO staff.

8. Anti-Corruption

You must not offer, give, ask for, or accept bribes, kickbacks, or other improper payments in connection with the Partner Program. You must comply with all anti-bribery laws that apply to you, including the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act, and the anti-bribery law of AutoCISO's country. You must tell us about any conflict of interest with a client organization. We ask you to confirm these representations when you register and again every year.

9. Data Protection and Consents

You accept the program terms, the independent contractor terms, the anti-corruption representations, and the data processing agreement separately. We record each acceptance with its version and time. When a new version is published, or when a yearly confirmation is due, the Partner Portal stays locked until you accept it. We process your partner data as described in our Privacy Policy, and we keep tax and payout records for at least 7 years.

10. Partner Obligations

• You are responsible for obtaining appropriate authorization from each client organization before enrolling them in the Partner Program.
• You may not use the Partner Portal to access client data for purposes other than providing security advisory services.
• You are solely responsible for any separate commercial arrangements made with client organizations regarding pricing, invoicing, or service fees. These arrangements are outside the scope of this Agreement.
• You must not misrepresent your relationship with AutoCISO or make warranties on AutoCISO's behalf to client organizations.

11. Fraud and Abuse

AutoCISO reserves the right to terminate your partner account, forfeit all pending and undisbursed referral payouts, and reverse applied discounts if fraudulent org enrollment, artificial inflation of the managed-org count, or any other misuse of the Partner Program is detected. Determinations are made at AutoCISO's sole discretion.

12. Account Closure

Upon voluntary partner account closure, pending referral payouts not yet disbursed are forfeited. Payouts accrued during the final billing cycle are not disbursed if the account is closed before the scheduled payout date. Managed-track organizations will need to be transitioned to direct billing or another partner before closure.

13. Changes to This Agreement

AutoCISO may modify this Agreement at any time. Material changes will be communicated to active partners via email with at least 14 days' notice before taking effect. Continued participation in the Partner Program after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

14. Contact

Questions about the Partner Program or this Agreement should be directed to partners@autociso.io.