Frequently Asked Questions

The sparQ Specialist Program is a channel partner program where independent professionals sell, deploy, and support sparQ for local trade businesses (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, cleaning, pest control, landscaping). Specialists earn $99/month per active client in recurring commissions. sparQ provides the platform, training, sales materials, and Tier-2 technical support — you bring the relationships and local market knowledge.

Nothing. There are no franchise fees, no licensing costs, no monthly platform charges, and no upfront investment required. All training materials, sales resources, certification exams, and tools are provided at no cost. You earn commissions on the clients you bring in — there's no cost to participate.

Neither. The Specialist Program is a channel partner arrangement. You operate as an independent contractor or through your own business entity. You set your own schedule, choose your own clients, and run your business your way. There's no exclusivity requirement — you can sell other products and services alongside sparQ.

Specialists are the full program — you sell, deploy, and provide ongoing Tier-1 support to your clients. You earn $99/month per client in recurring commission. Referral Partners simply introduce trade businesses to sparQ and earn a per-referral commission. Referral Partners don't need certification and don't provide support. The Specialist path offers significantly higher income potential but requires more time and commitment.

No. We don't enforce exclusive territories. You can work with trade businesses anywhere. However, local relationships are your strongest advantage, and most successful Specialists focus on their metro area. The first Specialist to register a deal and complete onboarding earns the commission for that client.

Yes. Many Specialists start part-time while maintaining other work. The certification training is self-paced, and you control how much outreach you do and how many clients you take on. The key is consistency — even a few hours per week of outreach can build a meaningful client base over time. There's no minimum client requirement to stay active.

You earn $99/month for each active client. There's no cap. At 10 clients, that's $990/month ($11,880/year). At 50 clients, it's $4,950/month ($59,400/year). At 85 clients, you're over $100,000/year. Many Specialists also earn additional income through setup fees, retainers, and training — sparQ takes no cut of your service revenue.

Commissions are calculated on the 1st of each month, reviewed and confirmed on the 5th, and paid via ACH bank transfer on the 10th. You can see your commission statement in the Specialist portal as soon as it's generated. The minimum payout threshold is $50 — if your monthly commission is below that, it rolls to the next month.

Your commission for that client stops in the month they cancel. There is no clawback on previously paid commissions — what you've earned is yours. The only exception is if a client cancels within the first 30 days of activation, in which case the activation-month commission is reversed. You'll receive an email alert when a client hasn't logged in for 14+ days so you can re-engage them proactively.

No. The commission rate is flat $99/client/month regardless of how many clients you have or how long you've had them. There are no declining percentages, no cap adjustments, and no changes based on tenure. The rate is the same whether you're at 1 client or 100.

Absolutely. Many Specialists charge setup fees ($500–$2,000), monthly retainers for ongoing support, or per-session training fees. These arrangements are entirely between you and your client. sparQ takes no cut of your service revenue. The $99/month commission is in addition to whatever you charge directly.

Most people complete certification in 2–4 weeks studying part-time. The program has three modules: Platform Mastery (learn every sparQ feature), Trades Fundamentals (understand the industries you'll serve), and Business Development (master the sales process). Each module ends with an exam or practical demonstration. You study at your own pace — there's no time limit.

You need to be comfortable learning and demonstrating software, but you don't need to be a developer or IT professional. Many successful Specialists come from IT support, bookkeeping, trades management, or general business backgrounds. The certification training covers everything you need to know about the platform from scratch.

You can retake any exam. After three consecutive failures on the same module, there's a 30-day waiting period before you can try again. This ensures you take time to review the material. Your score and correct answers are shown after passing — not before — so the learning comes from studying the content, not from memorizing test answers.

Yes. All training lessons, playbooks, and toolkit materials are publicly available. You can read every lesson and download every resource before deciding to apply. The only gated components are the certification exams and the demo submission — those require an approved application.

You provide Tier-1 support: answering how-to questions, helping with configuration, troubleshooting common issues, and guiding clients through feature usage. For anything beyond that — suspected bugs, infrastructure issues, billing questions, or complex technical problems — you escalate to sparQ's Tier-2 engineering team through the support desk in cloud.sparqone.com.

When you sign a new client, you provision their sparQ instance from cloud.sparqone.com and follow the 72-hour onboarding checklist. Day 1 covers setup (modules, employees, company info, billing, data import). Day 2 is training walks with the owner and office manager. Day 3 verifies independent usage and books a follow-up. The checklist is tracked in your dashboard so nothing gets missed.

Yes. The SC (Site Collaborator) role lets you add team members who can access specific clients in your portfolio, log support interactions, and use SSO to help with client instances. They can't provision new clients or view your commissions. This is useful as your portfolio grows beyond what you can manage alone.

cloud.sparqone.com is your operations dashboard. It includes: client portfolio management with health monitoring, one-click SSO into any client instance, CRM for tracking prospects, support desk for managing tickets, commission tracking, onboarding checklists, and team management. It's purpose-built for running a sparQ practice.

From cloud.sparqone.com, click "New Client" and fill in the business details (name, type, owner info, industry). The system automatically provisions a new sparQ instance with the right industry preset, sends the client a welcome email co-branded with your name, and creates the onboarding checklist. The entire process takes about 2 minutes.

Yes. cloud.sparqone.com provides SSO (Single Sign-On) into any client instance in your portfolio. Click "Log In" next to any client and you'll land inside their sparQ as a system administrator. This is how you handle configuration, troubleshoot issues, and provide support without needing separate credentials for each client.

The system automatically monitors your clients and creates alerts for: no login in 14+ days, payment failures, trials ending within 7 days, low module utilization, and backup failures. Alerts appear in your dashboard sorted by severity. This lets you proactively reach out to at-risk clients before they churn, which directly protects your commission income.

After approval, you'll review and sign four documents: the Specialist Agreement (master agreement covering the relationship), Commission Addendum (financial terms), Client Service Agreement (template for your use with clients), and Data Processing Addendum (data handling rules). All documents are available to read publicly before you apply — no surprises.

No. There is no non-compete or exclusivity requirement. You can sell other products and services alongside sparQ. You can work with competing platforms if you choose. The only requirement is that you don't misrepresent sparQ's capabilities or pricing to clients.

You can leave at any time. The termination protocol covers all exit scenarios: your active clients are transitioned to sparQ's direct support or another Specialist, with proper communication to minimize disruption. Outstanding commissions earned before departure are paid on the normal schedule. The full termination protocol is available to read publicly before you apply.

Client data stays in their sparQ instance. You have access through SSO for support purposes, but you don't store or export client data independently. The Data Processing Addendum covers the specifics: what data you can access, how long access persists, and what happens on termination. All data handling follows standard enterprise practices.