Standing up Referral Management is a multi-week project that combines platform configuration, regulatory consultation, and partner coordination. The work splits into four phases: install the relevant industry cloud and enable Referral Management, design the referral data model and status workflow for your context, configure consent capture and audit logging, and build the reporting that runs the operation. Each phase touches different stakeholders (admin, compliance, business operations, IT), so plan the project with shared ownership and a clear escalation path for any phase that stalls.
- Install the industry cloud and enable Referral Management
From Setup, install Financial Services Cloud, Health Cloud, or Public Sector Solutions if not already in the org. Navigate to the industry cloud settings page and enable Referral Management. The platform provisions the Referral object, the status workflow, the related record-type metadata, and the default permission sets. Run the post-install validation to confirm Referral objects are visible to the right roles. If the org is migrating from a legacy referral system, plan the data migration before enabling Referral Management widely; new referrals and historical referrals need to coexist in the same object.
- Configure the referral data model and status workflow
Customize the Referral record type to match your operational context: add custom fields for industry-specific data (insurance plan, financial product type, agency program), configure picklist values for status transitions, set field-level security to match your role model. Customize the status workflow if the default does not match your process (some health plans add an additional Triaged status, some financial firms add a Compliance Review status). Document the status transitions and their automation triggers in the operational runbook so caseworkers know what each status means.
- Configure consent capture and audit logging
Work with legal and compliance to define what consent each referral type requires. Configure Consent records (or the industry cloud equivalent) to capture the consent type, the consenting party, the scope of data sharing authorized, and the expiration. Link consent capture to the Referral creation flow so referrals cannot be created without the required consent on file. Enable Field Audit Trail on sensitive Referral fields and on Consent records so the platform writes a complete history. Configure access reports that flag unusual access patterns for compliance team review.
- Build the operational reporting and dashboards
Create the reports the operations team needs. Standard set: referrals opened this week, referrals stalled past SLA, conversion rate from referral to scheduled visit or meeting, supervisor escalations, time-to-acknowledge per receiving party. Bundle the reports into dashboards per role: caseworker, supervisor, executive. Schedule the reports to email at the appropriate cadence (daily for caseworkers, weekly for supervisors, monthly for executives). Train the team on reading the dashboards and acting on the metrics. Reporting is the operational backbone of Referral Management; building it last is fine, skipping it entirely is not.
- Consent rules vary by jurisdiction, by industry, and by referral type. Hardcoding rules in a Flow or trigger creates maintenance debt; surface them as Consent records or custom metadata that compliance can adjust.
- Cross-organization referrals need partner-side capability. Not every external partner has API access or Experience Cloud login; design fallback paths (email, file exchange) for partners with lower technical maturity.
- Status workflows are sticky once in production. Changing a status value or adding a transition retroactively requires data migration for in-flight referrals; plan the workflow carefully upfront.
- Audit logging fills storage fast on high-volume referral programs. Plan for storage growth and archival policy from day one; Field Audit Trail on Referrals can generate substantial Big Object data.
- Reporting on Referrals across industries requires careful field naming because the Referral object schema differs between Health Cloud and Financial Services Cloud. Multi-industry orgs should align the schema explicitly.