Adding a tool to your stack

What this is

Verinode reads your business, it does not run it. To do that, it needs to know which tools your office actually uses: your estimating software, your job management system, your accounting package, whatever runs your field. The Add a tool tab on Connect is where you tell it. Pick a tool from the catalog and Verinode adds it to your stack, seeds it as a vendor relationship (since you pay for it), and shows you the fastest way to get its data flowing, a one-tap connection where one exists, or a guided Flow where it does not.

This is not a data upload. Adding a tool does not move a single invoice or job record on its own. It is the first step, telling Verinode what to look for, so the connection or Flow that follows can go find it.

Where to find it

Open Connect from the sidebar at iq.verinode.ai/connect. The page opens with a hero showing how many documents have come in so far and a way to forward email straight in, an IU banner if you still have bonus Intelligence Units to bank, a search box, and three tabs:

• Your tools, everything you have already added or connected, live sources first. Shows a count badge once you have at least one.
• Add a tool, the catalog. This is the tab this article covers.
• Other sources, the non-tool channels: your inbox, a shared folder, manual upload.

The page opens on Your tools if you already have a stack, or Add a tool if you do not, so a brand-new operator lands straight on the catalog instead of an empty list.

Inside Add a tool

The tab stacks four sections top to bottom. The first two only appear when there is something to show; the last two are always there.

1. Recommended

What it is. A short featured shelf of the highest-value tools to add next, the same idea as a connector directory featuring its best integrations before the full library. A tool only shows up here if you have no tool at all yet in that tool's category, so the shelf points at real gaps in your stack instead of re-pitching something you already run. Once you have at least one tool in a category (Estimating, Job management, Accounting, Project / field), Recommended stops surfacing others in that same category.

What you see. Each row shows the tool's logo, its name, a Direct tag when it connects via a one-tap API instead of a guided workflow, and a plain line on why it is worth adding, phrased around what it unlocks rather than what the tool does generically. For example, QuickBooks Online's line reads "One tap to connect. Unlocks your margin and vendor-spend benchmarks." A filled Add button sits on the right; it reads "Adding…" and disables itself for a moment while the save goes through.

How to use it. If Recommended has anything in it, start there. It is the shortest path from an empty stack to your first real benchmark.

2. Direct connections

What it is. A small shelf of tools that connect straight to Verinode over an API or OAuth login instead of a document Flow: your email inbox, your calendar, and a meeting notetaker. QuickBooks is the one direct connection that's already live today, and it surfaces through the Recommended shelf above with its own Direct tag rather than sitting in this list.

What you see. Five rows: Gmail, Microsoft 365, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and Verinode Notetaker, each with its logo and a pill on the right. All five currently read Coming soon. Tapping any row, live or not, opens the Integrations view where the connection will live once it ships.

How to use it. Nothing to do here yet beyond checking back. Once a row's pill changes from "Coming soon" to "Connect," a tap opens the one-time login and the data starts flowing on its own.

3. All tools

What it is. The full tool catalog, grouped by the way your office actually thinks about its systems, not by data section: Estimating, Job management, Accounting, Project / field, and Other. A group only appears if it has at least one tool left to add, and a tool drops out of every group the moment it is already in your stack or already featured in Recommended above, so nothing is offered to you twice.

What you see, by group:

• Estimating: Xactimate, XactAnalysis
• Job management: WorkCenter (SERVPRO), DASH, PSA, Restoration Manager, Jobber
• Project / field: Albi, Encircle
• Accounting: QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero
• Other: KnowHow, and any catalog tool that does not fit the four named types

Each row is a logo, the tool's name, and an outlined Add button (fills solid and turns "Adding…" while the save is in flight). Above the groups, a line explains the payoff of adding anything from this list: "Tools you add show under Vendors too, since you pay for them. That feeds your vendor-spend benchmark." Adding a tool here does the same two things Recommended does, just without a featured reason line.

How to use it. Scan for what your office actually runs. If SERVPRO franchise-fee tools like WorkCenter feel odd to "add", add them anyway, telling Verinode what you use is what lets it read the data those tools already produce.

4. Not listed?

What it is. A free-text field for anything your office runs that is not in the catalog above. It replaces the old onboarding "Anything else?" question with a place you can update any time.

What you see. A text input with the placeholder "Other tools, separated with commas," and a Save button beside it. Save stays disabled until you change the text from what is already on file, and reads "Saving…" while the write goes through.

How to use it. List anything the catalog is missing, comma-separated. This does not create a connection or a Flow (there is nothing in the catalog to wire up), it tells Verinode's team what to add next and helps IQ tailor advice around the tools you actually use.

What happens when you add a tool

Tapping Add on any row (Recommended or the full catalog) does three things:

1. The tool is added to your stack immediately, no confirmation step. The button shows "Adding…" for a moment.
2. It disappears from Add a tool and appears under Your tools, ready to set up, usually with a Set up Flow action so you can tell Verinode how its data should reach you (an auto-forward rule, a scheduled export, or a guided pull with reminders).
3. Because a tool in your stack is, in effect, a vendor relationship, it is also seeded on Vendors so it can be priced against peers on your vendor-spend benchmark once real spend appears. Read more on how that benchmark works in Benchmarks overview.

None of this is reversible from the catalog screen; adding is add-only. If you have already connected a tool live, for example a QuickBooks OAuth login you completed from Integrations, it is treated as present even if you never explicitly tapped Add for it, so it will not show up again in Recommended or the catalog.

1. 1Open Connect from the sidebar and switch to the Add a tool tab.
2. 2Check Recommended first: it only shows real gaps in your stack, so anything there is worth a look.
3. 3If Recommended is empty or does not cover a tool you use, scroll to the group under All tools that matches it (Estimating, Job management, Accounting, Project / field, or Other).
4. 4Tap Add. The tool moves to Your tools.
5. 5Switch to Your tools and open the tool you just added to finish the connection, either a one-tap sign-in or a guided Flow.
6. 6If something your office runs is not in the catalog, list it in Not listed? and tap Save.

Empty states

• Your tools, no tools added yet: "No tools yet. Open Add a tool to bring in the ones your office runs." With a search term active and no match: "No tools match that search."
• All tools, every catalog tool already added: "You've added every tool in the catalog." With a search term active and no match: "No catalog tools match that search."
• Other sources tab, nothing set up: "Your inbox and shared folders show up here." With a search term active and no match: "No sources match that search."

An empty Add a tool tab (once the catalog is fully added) is not a dead end, it means your stack is complete as far as Verinode's catalog goes. Anything genuinely missing belongs in Not listed?.

Best-practice example

A new operator signs up with no tools added. Connect opens on Add a tool since the stack is empty. Recommended shows three rows: QuickBooks Online (Direct, "unlocks your margin and vendor-spend benchmarks"), DASH ("so IQ can benchmark cycle time and claims"), and Xactimate ("sharpens your job-cost benchmarks"), because the operator has nothing yet in accounting, job management, or estimating. They tap Add on all three. QuickBooks Online now sits under Your tools with a one-tap Connect button (it uses a real API); DASH and Xactimate sit there too, each with Set up Flow. They connect QuickBooks first since it is instant, then work through the two Flow setups. A week later they remember their office also runs a scheduling tool nobody catalogued. Rather than dig back through Add a tool, they type it into Not listed? and save.

Related reading

• Connecting your data
• Forwarding documents
• Benchmarks overview
• Understanding your margin

Data sources