Running an audit

What running an audit means

A self-audit is a checklist you work through yourself against one closed job, the same questions a carrier or TPA auditor would ask: is the scope signed, do the daily drying logs cover every drying day, does the final invoice match the approved scope. You answer every item, sign at the bottom, and Verinode closes the run into a scored, exportable record. This article covers the run itself, the screen you land on the moment you start an audit template: how its questions are grouped into sections, how each answer type works, what has to be filled in before you can submit, and how the draft saves itself while you work.

Verinode does not grade your claim file or decide whether you would pass a real audit. It holds the checklist, tallies the boxes you check against the pass target the template sets, and saves your answers as you go so nothing is lost if you get pulled away mid-run. You run the audit, you sign it, you decide what to do with what it finds.

Where to find it

Open Forms from the sidebar, under My Data (/forms), and click the Audits pill at the top of the page (Forms also has Surveys and Reviews pills; Audits is the self-run kind). Click + Add Audit, pick a template from the picker (Internal Mock Audit Run Sheet or Job Quality Audit are the two built in today), and click Start audit.

The completion shell you are reading about opens immediately as a slide-over on top of Forms, no page navigation. The same shell also renders as a standalone page at /forms/audits/<id>/run, used for direct deep links (for example a link IQ hands you in chat after recommending you run a specific audit) and older bookmarks. The standalone page carries a "← Back to Forms" link at the top and reserves space at the bottom of the page for a footer bar fixed to the browser window; the overlay version keeps that same footer bar fixed to the slider's own scroll area instead. Every other detail below, the sections, the inputs, the autosave, the validation, is identical between the two.

If the id behind a link is not a self-run audit or does not exist, the overlay shows "Audit not found." and the standalone page returns a 404.

Grouped sections

A template can group its questions into sections; the shell renders that grouping automatically. Each section appears as an uppercase heading with a hairline rule underneath, and only the questions assigned to it list below. The Internal Mock Audit Run Sheet, for example, groups its 23 questions into seven sections: Pre-audit setup, Documentation compliance, Procedural compliance, Customer communication, Billing integrity, Action items, and Sign-off. The Job Quality Audit uses a similar shape built around workmanship, documentation, safety, and customer experience instead of a carrier-prep sequence.

A template can assign a question to a section either by listing the question's position under the section or by tagging the question itself with the section's id; both work the same way from your side. Any question a section does not claim (a template that skips sections entirely, or one with a stray unassigned question) falls into a final, unheaded group at the end, so nothing you are supposed to answer goes missing from view.

Numbering stays tied to the question's position in the full list, #1, #2, and so on, not restarted at the top of each section. That means the numbers stay stable even as you scroll past a section boundary, useful if you are cross-checking against a paper version of the same checklist.

Question and score inputs

Every question shows its label, a red asterisk after the label when it is required, and, when the template supplies one, a line of help text underneath in muted type explaining what the item is actually asking. The control beneath depends on the question's type. Six types appear across audit templates:

• Checkbox. The backbone of a pass/fail checklist. Unchecked reads "Mark when complete"; click it and it fills copper and reads "Confirmed." Most of the Mock Audit's line items are this type: "Initial scope (estimate) is signed by the customer," "Daily drying logs are present for every drying day," and so on.
• Text. A free-text box, three rows tall, placeholder "Type your answer…", that grows as you type. Used for open answers like the claim number, the carrier or TPA name, and the action-item prompts at the end of a run ("Top three items to remediate before the real audit").
• Rating. Five numbered circles, 1 through 5, with a fixed scale legend, "1 = Poor · 5 = Excellent," printed beside them. Click a number to select it; the selected circle fills copper. Some rating questions carry their own help text that reframes the same 1-to-5 scale for that specific item: the Mock Audit's exposure question ("How exposed do you feel on this claim?") reads "1 = bulletproof, 5 = expecting a fight" underneath, so read a rating question's help text before assuming the generic legend is the whole story.
• Score. A plain number field, placeholder "Enter value." When the template sets a pass threshold, a note beside the field reads "Pass at [threshold]," and the moment you type a value, it colors and labels itself live: Deere Green Pass once your number clears the threshold, Ember Red Below threshold if it does not. The Mock Audit uses this for "Average daily moisture readings collected (count)," with a threshold of 3, so a value of 2 or fewer reads Below threshold the instant you type it, not just after you submit.
• Binary. A row of pill option buttons rather than a single toggle. The default set is Yes / No, but a template can define its own options; neither built-in audit template uses this type today, it appears on the Reviews side of Forms instead.
• Signature. A text field for a typed full name. Type a name and Verinode timestamps it automatically to the current date and time, printing it underneath once entered: "[role], if the template names one]: [name] · [date and time]," for example "Run by: Jordan Reyes · Jul 12, 2026, 2:15 PM." The Mock Audit's sign-off question is labeled "Run by"; the Job Quality Audit's is labeled "Walked by."

Required-field validation

A sticky footer bar runs the width of the shell (fixed to the slider's scroll area in the overlay, fixed to the browser window on the standalone page), showing "[answered] of [total] answered" with a thin progress bar underneath that fills copper as you go. An answer counts the moment it has any value at all, a rating pick, a checked box, non-empty text, a typed score, or a typed signature name; leaving a question blank keeps the count exactly where it was.

Click Submit audit and two checks run, in this order, before Verinode lets the run close:

1. Every required question needs an answer. If any are missing, the footer shows "Answer required for N question(s) before submitting." and the audit stays open.
2. A signature, if the template requires one. The shell finds the signature question and checks that a name has actually been typed into it. If not, it shows "Sign the form before submitting."

Neither check fires while you are still working through the form, only when you click Submit, so a half-finished run does not nag you along the way. Both checks run again on the server once you submit, against the audit's own stored question list and signature requirement rather than whatever the browser last had loaded, so a client-side workaround cannot slip a run through unsigned or with required items skipped.

The draft that auto-saves every 10 seconds

While a run is open and not yet submitted, the shell checks every 10 seconds whether your answers have changed since the last save. If nothing has changed, it does nothing, there is no save indicator flashing on a form you opened and left untouched. If something has changed, it writes the draft in the background and stamps the footer with "Saved [time]" in small type next to the progress count, for example "Saved 2:15 PM."

That draft lives on the audit record itself, so closing the overlay, getting pulled away mid-walkthrough, or losing your connection does not lose your work. Reopen the same audit from the Audits tab (it stays listed as an active, in-progress run until you submit it) and every answer you had entered, at least up to the last 10-second save, is exactly where you left it. Nothing about the timer blocks you from typing or clicking while it fires in the background.

Submitting and the summary

Once the required-field and signature checks pass, clicking Submit audit locks in the run: the button reads "Submitting…" while it writes, then the form closes and the same screen re-renders in place as a read-only summary. In the overlay, the parent Forms page also refreshes so the Audits tab reflects the run's new closed status right away.

The summary shows:

• "Audit complete" in Deere Green uppercase at the top.
• Your pass rate as a large percentage, next to "Target [target]% ·" followed by Passed (green) if you met or beat the target, or Below target (ember-red) if you did not. Verinode computes this server-side from the audit's own scoring rule and your checked answers, never something the browser could inflate, so a checklist-style audit is scored purely on the share of pass/fail items you confirmed.
• The date and time the run closed.
• An Export PDF button, with the caption "Branded with your company name and signature," that opens a branded PDF of the completed run: your company name, the audit title, every section and question with the answer you gave, your pass rate against the target, and the signature line with the signer's name, role, and timestamp.
• Every question again, in its original section order, each now showing your answer instead of an input: a rating prints "4 / 5," a score prints "3 (pass at 3, Pass)" or "2 (pass at 3, Below)," a checkbox prints "Confirmed" or "Not confirmed," a signature prints the signer's name and the date they signed, and anything left blank on a question that was not required prints "Not answered."

If you run the same template again later, on a different claim or a later month's mock audit, it writes a fresh record rather than overwriting the last one, so your runs accumulate as a real track record over time instead of showing only your most recent result. If your submit fails outright (a network hiccup, a server-side error), the footer shows the error in red next to the progress bar and the form stays open, editable, with none of your answers lost.

1. 1Open Forms from the sidebar and click the Audits pill.
2. 2Click + Add Audit, choose a template, and click Start audit.
3. 3Work section by section: check off what is true, leave what is not unchecked, and fill in any text, rating, or score items along the way.
4. 4Watch the footer's "Saved [time]" stamp confirm your progress is being captured; nothing here needs a manual save.
5. 5When the progress bar reads every question answered, add your signature if the template asks for one.
6. 6Click Submit audit. If anything required is missing, fix what the footer names and try again.
7. 7On the summary, check your pass rate against the target, then click Export PDF if you need a copy on file.

Related reading

• The decision workspace
• Acting on decisions
• Clients and carriers
• Forwarding documents