The Referral module gives your Partners the ability to send you prospective Leads/Referrals. You can then choose to work the Referrals yourself or send them to the Partners as Leads. The Partners can then covert them to Deals or close them if there's no business. It also allows you to track commissions and gives the referring Partners full visibility into the progress/status of their Referrals throughout the sales cycle.
Submitting a Referral:
Partners submit Referrals by completing your Referral form and the Internal recipients listed in your Referral Email Notifications are notified.
Referral Form
Accepting/Rejecting Referrals:
The Internal User can accept or reject the Referral by updating the Referral's Status. The Status field is also used to track commission payments. Any updates made to the Referral will trigger a notification to the referring Partner.
Referral Status Field
Referral Status Field - Commission Payment
The referring Partner can also log in at any time to track the progress of their Referrals. 
Referral Details Page - Status
Sending Referrals to Partners:
Another way to accept Referrals is to send them to Partners as Leads. 
Referral Details Page
The Partner can then convert the Lead to a Deal or close it if there's no business opportunity.
Lead Details Page
If converted to a Deal, you'll see the Referral details on the Deal details page, and you'll be able to run custom reports that include the Referral commission status/amount fields.
Deal Details Page
Deals Report - Commission Status and Amount