Marketing co-op overview

What Marketing co-op is

A marketing co-op is a shared pool of money a franchise network's HQ runs on behalf of its memberships: a share of revenue is contributed into the pool, and memberships draw reimbursements back out of it for marketing spend, things like a paid ad campaign, a print run, or a local sponsorship. Verinode's Marketing co-op section is where you, as an operator, see your side of that arrangement: what you have contributed, what has been reimbursed, what is still waiting on HQ's decision, and a way to submit a new reimbursement request.

Verinode does not run the co-op program itself. HQ defines it, activates it for the network, and approves or declines every reimbursement request. Verinode reads the ledger HQ maintains and lays out your numbers clearly. You decide what to submit and when; HQ decides what gets paid.

Who this is for

This section is for operators who belong to a franchise network or association whose HQ has activated a marketing co-op program. If your network does not run one, or you have not been enrolled yet, the page will say so plainly rather than show you empty tables pretending there is nothing there.

Where to find it

Marketing co-op lives at /coop. There is no setup step on your side: enrollment happens automatically when HQ activates a co-op program for your network and adds you to it. The page title in your browser tab reads "Marketing co-op," and the section header at the top of the page repeats that same label.

The page is built on Verinode's standard section shell, so it reads the same way every other section does: a sticky header, then rows of content stacked top to bottom. For Marketing co-op there are three rows.

Row 1: the net summary

The top row is a single hero panel. It answers one question first: are you net ahead or net behind on this program, all-time?

• The headline number is your net position: total reimbursed minus total contributed, across every co-op program you are enrolled in. A positive net (shown with a +) means HQ has paid you back more than you have put into the pool so far. A negative net (shown with a −) means you have contributed more than you have been reimbursed, which is normal early in a program before your reimbursement requests catch up.
• The pill next to the headline reads one of three things: "Not enrolled" if you have no co-op enrollments at all, a count like "2 pending" if you have reimbursement requests still waiting on HQ's approval, or "All clear" if nothing is outstanding.
• The sub-line spells the math out in plain dollars: contributed all-time, reimbursed, and pending HQ approval, in that order.

Below the headline, three secondary figures break the same numbers into individual tiles:

• Contributed all-time, labeled "Posted to the pool." This is every dollar that has gone from your revenue into the shared co-op pool, across all your enrolled programs.
• Reimbursed, labeled "Paid out to you." This is every dollar HQ has actually paid back to you against a request you submitted.
• Pending HQ, labeled with the number of requests awaiting approval (for example, "1 request awaiting approval" or "3 requests awaiting approval"). This is money you have asked for that HQ has not yet approved or declined.

If you are not enrolled in any co-op program, the hero panel skips the math entirely and reads: "You aren't enrolled in any marketing co-op programs. Enrollment happens automatically when HQ activates a co-op program for your network."

Row 2: your co-op programs

The second row, "Your co-op programs," lists one tile per program you are enrolled in. If your network runs more than one co-op program (a national fund and a regional one, for example), you will see a tile for each.

Each program tile shows:

• The network name as a small label above the program name, so you know which group's pool this is (your franchise network, association, or "Your network" as a fallback if no group name is on file).
• The program name as the tile's headline.
• A summary line: when you have a pending request, it reads pending amount, then contributed, then reimbursed (for example, "$1,200 pending · $8,400 contributed · $6,000 reimbursed"). When nothing is pending, it drops straight to contributed and reimbursed.
• A meta line at the bottom: how long ago you were enrolled ("Enrolled 3 months ago") followed by "click to submit reimbursement."

Clicking a program tile opens the Submit reimbursement request form. This is the one active control on the page. The form asks for:

• Amount (USD), a required positive dollar figure.
• What's this for?, a required free-text description of the spend (the placeholder example is "Q3 Google Ads campaign targeting Phoenix metro").
• Period start and Period end (optional), if the spend covers a specific date range.
• Invoice / receipt reference (optional), a free-text field for your own record-keeping (the placeholder example is "GADS-2026-Q3-INV-4421").

The form explains what happens next in plain language: "Reimbursements land in HQ's approval queue. You'll see the status flip from accrued, approved, paid as HQ processes it." Submitting writes an accrued entry to the ledger and closes the form; the page refreshes so your new request shows up immediately in the pending total and in the activity row below. Cancel closes the form without submitting anything.

If you have no enrollments, this row reads: "No co-op enrollments yet. When HQ activates a marketing co-op program for your network, it shows up here with a Submit reimbursement button."

Row 3: your activity

The third row, "Your activity," is a read-only ledger of your most recent contributions and reimbursement requests across all your enrolled programs, newest first, up to 20 entries.

Each activity tile shows:

• A label identifying the entry as a Contribution or a Reimbursement, followed by its current status (one of accrued, approved, paid, disputed, or reversed).
• A signed dollar amount as the headline: a + for money credited to you (a paid reimbursement), a − for money debited from you (a contribution posted to the pool).
• The program name the entry belongs to.
• A timestamp line that reflects the furthest stage the entry has reached: "Paid [x] ago" if it has been paid, otherwise "Approved [x] ago" if it has been approved but not yet paid, otherwise "Submitted [x] ago" for anything still waiting.

Clicking an activity tile does nothing right now. This row is a read-only history: it is here so you can see what happened and when, not to open or edit anything.

If you have no ledger activity yet, the row reads: "No ledger activity yet. Contributions post via cron when revenue lands; reimbursement requests appear here after you submit them."

How to use this page

1. 1Check the hero row first. It tells you at a glance whether you are net ahead, net behind, and whether anything is sitting in HQ's queue.
2. 2If you have marketing spend to claim back, click the relevant program tile in "Your co-op programs" and submit a reimbursement request with the amount, a clear description, and, where you have it, the period and an invoice reference.
3. 3Watch "Your activity" for the status change from accrued to approved to paid. There is nothing further for you to do once a request is submitted; HQ makes the approval call.
4. 4If a program shows a growing pending balance with no movement, that is a conversation to have directly with HQ, Verinode surfaces the numbers but does not manage the approval queue.

What this page is not

Marketing co-op is not where your marketing spend itself is planned or tracked, that lives in your Sales & Marketing work. It is not a benchmark of how other memberships in your network use their co-op dollars; contribution and reimbursement decisions are between you and HQ, and Verinode never sells or benchmarks operator co-op data to outside parties. And it is not an approval workspace: the "click to submit" flow is the only write action available to you here, everything downstream of that happens on HQ's side.

Related reading

• Understanding your margin: how net income and cost structure roll up outside the co-op ledger.
• Benchmarks overview: where peer comparisons live, separate from your own co-op activity.
• The decision workspace: how Verinode's plan-and-decide surfaces work elsewhere on the platform.
• Acting on decisions: the general pattern for turning a Verinode finding into a submitted action.

Data sources