How Connect and Flow work: the sources model

What Connect is

Connect is the page where every piece of data Verinode can read from your business lives in one place: what's already flowing in, what's one tap from flowing, what has no source yet, and how to add something new. Open it from the sidebar entry Connect, at iq.verinode.ai/connect.

Verinode does not create your data or manage your tools. It reads what you already have, whichever way is fastest for that source, so IQ can turn it into margin findings, benchmarks, and decisions without you doing manual data entry. This article is the mental model behind that page: two ways data actually reaches Verinode, plus the two other rows that round out the picture, and how a source moves from having nothing to flowing on its own.

The two control families

Every source on the Connect page belongs to one of two families, and the family determines what the single button on its row does.

Connect: API or OAuth. A small number of tools have a real integration: you authorize it once, and Verinode reads it directly from then on. Today that's QuickBooks (Online and Desktop), your inbox (Microsoft 365 or Google Mail), and your calendar (Microsoft 365 or Google Calendar). Tapping a Connect row's button is a direct sign-in popup for the ones with no extra consent step, or opens a short consent wizard for the ones that need to explain scopes first (your inbox). Either way, once it's authorized, there's nothing else to do. It shows up in the flowing group and stays there.

Flow: the tool's own export, routed in. Most restoration tools (Xactimate, DASH, PSA, Restoration Manager, Albi, Encircle, Jobber, Xero, and the rest of your stack) don't have an API Verinode can plug into. For these, Flow is the routing layer: it takes whatever the tool can already produce, an automatic export, an inbox forward, or a scheduled report, and gets it pointed at Verinode so it keeps arriving without you thinking about it again. Tapping a Flow row's button opens that tool's Flow setup card, where you pick the method (see below) and, if it's a recurring pull, who's responsible for it and how often.

Under the hood these two families come from the same one-time authorization idea (connect once, data flows for years), but Connect means Verinode reads the tool directly, and Flow means the tool sends its own output to Verinode. Neither one is "email a consultant" or a manual monthly ritual you have to remember. Read that framing at Connecting your data.

The three Flow methods

When you open a Flow setup card, the method behind it is whichever is best for that tool, in this order:

• Auto-forward. A one-time inbox rule that forwards a recurring report or notification straight to Verinode. Set it up once in your email client and it runs forever.
• Scheduled export. The tool itself has a "send this report on a schedule" setting, so you configure it once inside the tool and it keeps sending.
• Manual pull, with reminders. No auto-forward or scheduled export exists for this tool, so Verinode gives you the guided export steps and reminds you on a cadence (monthly, quarterly, or however you set it) to pull it. This is the fallback, not the default: Verinode always looks for the more automatic path first, and only drops to manual pull when the tool genuinely has nothing better to offer.

A Flow row's subtitle names which of these applies, for example "Job management · scheduled export" or "Accounting · manual pull, with reminders," so you know exactly what tapping the button commits you to before you open it.

The two other rows: Gaps and Add

Connect and Flow cover sources you already have some relationship with. Two more rows round out the page.

Gaps. These are data categories, Vendors & Spend, Margin & Job Costs, Jobs & Claims, Clients & Carriers, Carrier Performance, Equipment, Certifications, Safety, that nothing in your current stack covers. A gap isn't a warning, it's a plain statement of what's missing and the shortest honest way to close it. Some gaps route straight to a capture channel already built into Verinode: Equipment and Certifications point at snapping a photo of the label or wallet card, Safety points at forwarding the OSHA form or certificate of insurance from your inbox. Gaps with no capture channel (Vendors, Margin, Jobs, Clients, Carrier Performance) point at adding a tool instead, since no photo or forward covers accounting or job data. Gaps only show up for the sections you actually have turned on, so you won't see a nudge to connect Certifications if you haven't activated that section.

Add. Three ways to bring in something new that isn't a gap-driven suggestion:

• Add a tool to your stack, opens the full tool catalog (accounting, job management, HR, CRM, and more) so you can add anything you run that Verinode doesn't know about yet.
• Connect a shared folder, a Google Drive or SharePoint folder scoped to Verinode, so dropping a file in the folder is the same as sending it directly.
• Upload a file, the direct drop for a one-off document, a P&L, an export, a report, that doesn't need a recurring pipeline.

The three tabs on the Connect page

The page itself is organized into three tabs so it never reads as one long scroll:

• Your tools, everything in your current stack, whatever is live (already flowing, connected, or has Flow set up) sorted to the top.
• Add a tool, a Recommended shelf of the highest-value gap-fillers first, then Direct connections (the featured one-tap integrations, some marked "Coming soon" as they roll out), then All tools grouped by type (Estimating, Job management, Accounting, Project / field, Other), and a Not listed? field at the bottom for anything not in the catalog: type it in, comma-separated, and save.
• Other sources, the non-tool channels: your inbox, the shared folder, and calendar connections.

A search box above the tabs ("Search your tools") filters whichever tab is open by name.

What each row shows

Every source, regardless of which tab it's in, renders the same way: a logo or glyph on the left, the name and one plain subtitle in the middle, and a single action button on the right. The whole row is tappable, the button is just the visual cue for what tapping it does.

The action button reads one of these, and its color signals the family at a glance:

• Flowing or Connected, green, with a checkmark. Data is already coming in on its own. Tapping opens the manage view for that integration.
• Flow on, green, when a Flow tool has an assignment set up. The subtitle switches from the plain description to the Flow status line itself, for example "Flow on · Monthly · [name]" or "Flow on · Monthly · you," so you can see the cadence and who owns the pull without opening the row.
• Connect, steel blue, filled. A Connect-family source ready for its one-time OAuth.
• Set up Flow, copper, filled. A Flow-family tool ready to have its export routed in.
• Add a source, amber outline. A Gaps row, tap it to reach the capture channel or tool catalog that would close it.
• Browse, Upload, or Connect (outlined), for the three Add rows.

The hero: what's flowing, right now

At the top of the page, a large number states how many documents have come in total, "documents in", next to a colored pill reading, for example, "3 flowing · 5 ready." The pill turns green once three or more sources are flowing, amber-to-copper below that, so the color itself tells you at a glance whether your data pipeline is warmed up or still being set up.

Beside it sits the fastest way in: your personal forwarding address. If you've set one up, it's shown as a code you can tap to copy, with the line "Forward any invoice or email here." If you haven't set it up yet, the same spot shows a Set up email forwarding button instead. Either way, "Walk me through email setup" links to the guided flow. Full detail on that address and what it accepts lives at Forwarding documents.

Right under the hero, while there are still bonus Intelligence Units to bank from onboarding, a strip reads how many setup steps are done ("N of N setup steps done") and how many IU are still available to earn, framed as funding IQ's work for you, not as a reward for its own sake. It disappears once there's nothing left to bank.

How a source moves from nothing to flowing

Every source's life follows the same arc:

1. 1Gap. A data category with no source at all shows up under Gaps, with a plain hint at what would close it (for example, "Connect your accounting, and vendor invoices come in on their own").
2. 2Ready. Once you've picked a tool at onboarding, or a Connect-family integration is available to authorize, it moves to the ready state: a Connect or Set up Flow button waiting for one tap.
3. 3Connected or Flow on. You authorize it (Connect) or set the method and cadence (Flow). The row's action pill turns green and its subtitle updates to reflect what's now handled.
4. 4Flowing. Documents actually start arriving. The hero's flowing count ticks up, and the source stays in that state for as long as it keeps sending.

Empty states

• Your tools, with no stack and no search active: "No tools yet. Open Add a tool to bring in the ones your office runs."
• Your tools, no match for the current search: "No tools match that search."
• All tools, with nothing left to add and no search active: "You've added every tool in the catalog."
• All tools, no match for the current search: "No catalog tools match that search."
• Other sources, nothing to show and no search active: "Your inbox and shared folders show up here."
• Other sources, no match for the current search: "No sources match that search."

None of these are errors. An empty Your tools tab before onboarding, or an empty Other sources tab before you've connected a mailbox, is the expected starting point: rows appear as sources become available or as you add them.

Why this matters

The point of Connect and Flow is that setting up a source is a one-time decision, not a recurring chore. Once a tool is Connected or has Flow on, its data keeps arriving without you touching the page again, which is what makes the margin analysis in Understanding your margin and the peer comparisons in How benchmarks work stay current automatically. The independent-trust model depends on this too: your data flows in from your own tools into your own account, Verinode never sells it to carriers, and every anonymized contribution back to the network benchmarks is something you get a return on, not something extracted from you.

Data sources