The eight program types and what each one governs

What Programs is

A program is how HQ codifies a requirement or a partnership and rolls it out across every membership in the network at once, instead of chasing it office by office. Verinode does not invent these programs. It reads what HQ has already set up (an approved-vendor list, a carrier's preferred-contractor terms, a certification you require, a safety rule, a marketing co-op) and gives you one place to see who is qualified, who is enrolled, who is falling behind, and what the audit and violation history looks like network-wide.

Every program on the platform is one of eight types. This article walks through what each one is for, its accent color on the Programs page, and how franchisees relate to it (either as an approved outside party the network qualifies, or as a member that enrolls). For the mechanics of the compliance surface programs feed into (cert matrix, safety incidents, process standards, audit log), see Compliance.

Where to find it

Open Programs from the HQ sidebar, in the Compliance band, at hq.verinode.ai/programs. Programs sits alongside Compliance as HQ's requirements-and-standing cluster: Compliance is the comprehensive view across cert coverage, safety, reputation, and the audit log; Programs is the catalog of the individual agreements and mandates that feed those numbers.

The two enrollment models

Every program is built on one of two shapes, set by its enrollment model:

• Approved list. The program qualifies outside parties, vendors, carriers, TPAs, certification bodies, testing labs, or brokers, onto a network-approved list. The unit being tracked is the external party, not the franchisee. This is the shape vendor approval, carrier, and TPA programs are normally built on.
• Mandatory or opt-in. The program tracks which franchisees are enrolled and in what standing. Mandatory enrollment auto-attaches every operator in the network the moment the program goes active. Opt-in enrollment waits for operators to self-attach from their own IQ programs section. This is the shape cert mandate, training, brand standard, and safety programs are normally built on, and it is also available to carrier and TPA programs when a network wants to track franchisee participation directly.

Enrollment model is a setting on the individual program, not something hardwired to its type, so the description above is the normal pattern, not an absolute rule. What actually renders on a program's detail page depends on its own enrollment model: an approved-list program shows an Approved parties row; a mandatory or opt-in program shows a Franchisee enrollments row instead.

The eight program types

Each type has a fixed accent color on its tile in the Active row of the Programs page. Two types share each of four colors.

1. Vendor approval

What it governs. The network's approved-vendor list for a spend category (restoration equipment, materials, a specialty trade). It answers "which outside vendors has HQ cleared for franchisees to use in this category, and are they still in good standing."

Accent color. Green.

Enrollment model. Approved list. The program qualifies vendors, not franchisees. When you create one from the New program modal, its default partner kind is vendor and its default audit cadence is annual.

What's unique to it. Vendor approval is the only type with an Audit rubric: a set of weighted criteria with max points and a pass threshold that HQ builds once and reuses on every audit of every party on the list. It also carries a negotiated rate, a monthly dollar figure and a tolerance percent captured per vendor, which is what feeds the Vendors page's rate-drift signal (a vendor whose network-median per-franchisee spend runs past that negotiated rate, by more than the tolerance, surfaces as a renegotiation candidate).

2. Carrier program

What it governs. An insurance carrier's preferred-contractor relationship with the network: which franchisees participate, and how they perform against the carrier's own service KPIs.

Accent color. Yellow.

Enrollment model. By default, opt-in. Its default partner kind is carrier and its default audit cadence is quarterly. Because it defaults to opt-in rather than approved list, a fresh carrier program's detail page shows the Franchisee enrollments row (which locations have opted in and their standing), not an approved-parties list.

What's unique to it. Carrier is the only type with a KPI threshold matrix: red, amber, and green bands on up to four metrics, cycle time (days), first contact (hours), billing accuracy (percent), and customer satisfaction (percent), each with a direction (higher-is-better or lower-is-better) and an optional auto-decertify-on-red flag for franchisees who land in the red band.

3. TPA program

What it governs. A third-party administrator's enrollment terms with the network: which franchisees work files under that TPA and their standing.

Accent color. Copper.

Enrollment model. By default, opt-in, same as carrier. Default partner kind is tpa, default audit cadence quarterly.

What's unique to it. TPA programs don't get a dedicated KPI-matrix editor the way carrier programs do. Instead, whatever KPI figures exist for a TPA program (file-level metrics captured elsewhere) surface as read-only tiles in the Latest KPI snapshots row on its detail page.

4. Cert mandate

What it governs. A certification HQ requires of the network (IICRC-style trade certifications, a state license, an insurance-specific credential). It is the program-primitive expression of a requirement that also shows up in the network's certification coverage numbers.

Accent color. Red.

Enrollment model. Mandatory or opt-in, tracking franchisees directly rather than an outside party. Cert mandate programs are authored from HQ's home surface for certifications rather than through the Programs page's own New program modal; once created, they appear here in the catalog like any other program, with the same status, enrollment, audit, and violation rows.

5. Training

What it governs. A course catalog with completion tracking, the network's structured training requirements and who has finished them.

Accent color. Green (the same green as vendor approval).

Enrollment model. By default, opt-in. No external partner kind by default, since there's no outside party to approve, just franchisees and their completion status.

6. Brand standard

What it governs. A brand or operational standard HQ wants every location to hold to, the program-primitive counterpart to the Compliance surface's brand-standard conformance tracking.

Accent color. Copper (the same copper as TPA).

Enrollment model. Mandatory or opt-in, tracking franchisees. Like cert mandate, brand standard programs are typically authored from their home surface (Compliance) rather than the Programs page's New program modal, and appear here as a read-only catalog entry once created.

7. Safety

What it governs. A safety requirement or framework the network holds franchisees to (an OSHA-aligned requirement, a PPE standard, an incident-response protocol).

Accent color. Red (the same red as cert mandate).

Enrollment model. Mandatory or opt-in, tracking franchisees. Safety is the one franchisee-enrollment type whose default approved-party kind, if HQ ever adds an outside party to it, is lab rather than vendor or cert body, reflecting that a safety program is more likely to reference an approved testing lab than a vendor.

8. Marketing co-op

What it governs. A network-funded marketing program: a contribution rate the network matches, which categories of spend are reimbursable, and the cycle on which reimbursements run.

Accent color. Yellow (the same yellow as carrier).

Enrollment model. Mandatory by default; when created via the New program modal, marketing co-op has no default partner kind, since it isn't approving an outside party at all.

What's unique to it. Marketing co-op is the one type with its own dedicated page. Opening a marketing co-op tile does not land on the generic program detail surface described below, it routes straight to /programs/coop/[id], a purpose-built ledger view. On the generic detail surface (reachable only if you land there before the redirect fires), its terms show as Co-op terms: a network match percent, a reimbursement cycle (monthly, quarterly, annual, or on-demand), an auto-approve-below-dollars threshold under which claims skip admin review, and a whitelist of reimbursable categories.

Program status: draft, active, and sunset

Every program carries one of four statuses: draft, active, sunset, or archived. The Programs page only ever shows the first three; once a program is archived it drops out of the catalog entirely.

• Draft. Created but not yet live. Nothing enrolls or qualifies against a draft program.
• Active. Live and being tracked. This is the only status that carries the program's true accent color on its tile; draft and sunset tiles both render in a neutral gray regardless of type.
• Sunset. Wound down but kept for history. Sunset tiles carry the type label suffixed "· Sunset" and show the same approved-party / enrollment summary a live program would.

The Programs catalog page

The hero at the top reads Network programs with a large count: the number of currently active programs. Beside it, a pill reads "N live" when at least one program is active, "N in draft" when none are active but drafts exist, or "Nothing live" when the network has no active or draft programs at all.

Below the headline, the subtext reads:

"N approved parties across the network · N franchisee enrollments."

Three secondary tiles sit beside the hero:

• Vendor approval, a count of how many vendor-approval programs exist (any status except archived).
• Carrier + TPA, the combined count of carrier and TPA programs.
• Drafts, the count of programs still pending activation.

These three tiles always reflect the whole network, even when you have a type filter applied below. The subtext's approved-party and enrollment totals, by contrast, scope to whatever filter is active.

Empty state. With no active programs and no drafts, the hero reads:

"Programs let HQ codify what the network adopts, preferred vendors, carrier partnerships, TPA programs, training catalogs, and marketing co-op. Use the New program button to draft your first."

Type filter tabs

A capsule tab strip sits above the row stack: All, Vendors, Carriers, TPAs, Co-op, Training. Clicking one filters the Active, Drafts, and Sunset rows below to that type via a ?type= URL parameter. Cert mandate, brand standard, and safety programs don't have their own tab in this strip, since they're primarily authored and reviewed from their home surfaces (Compliance) rather than curated from this page; they still show up in the All view and in the Active/Drafts/Sunset rows.

The three rows

• Active lists every program with status active, filtered by the tab if one is set. Its tile shows the type label, the program name, a summary line built from whichever of "N approved [party/parties]," "N enrolled," and "N on probation" apply (falling back to the program's description, or "Not yet wired up" if there's nothing to show), and either "Activated N [days/months] ago" or "Created N [days/months] ago." Empty: "No active programs for this view. Activate a draft below or create a new program with the header affordance."
• Drafts lists status-draft programs the same way, but the summary line is always the description (or "No description yet") and the meta line is always "Created N ago." Empty: "No programs in draft. Activate one from here when ready."
• Sunset lists status-sunset programs with the same summary logic as Active, labeled "[Type] · Sunset," with no meta line. Empty: "No sunset programs."

Creating a program

Two admin-only entry points create programs, and they are not the same flow.

"+ New program", the header button, opens a short modal titled New program. It offers a Type dropdown covering five of the eight types: Vendor approval program, Carrier program, TPA program, Marketing co-op, and Training (cert mandate, brand standard, and safety are not on this list, since they're authored elsewhere as described above). Picking a type sets a hint and shows the defaults it will save with, for example:

"Defaults: enrollment opt_in · audit cadence quarterly · partner kind carrier. These flip later from the program detail surface."

Below the type picker sit a required Name field and an optional Description. Saving always creates the program as a draft; there is no way to create a program pre-activated.

"Draft a program", the button next to the type tabs, is a separate three-step guided wizard (Choose an Area, then What the Program Requires, then Review and Draft) that only builds vendor-approval programs, scoped to a specific vendor category you don't yet have one for. If your network has no vendor categories to build around, it shows: "No vendor areas in your network yet to build a program around."

1. 1Pick a vendor category from the list (or filter it by name); Verinode suggests a program name from the category.
2. 2Describe what matters (free text priorities), list any carriers this vendor category should coordinate with, and note any integration requirements.
3. 3Review the summary and create the draft. It lands as a normal draft program you activate the same way as any other.

Inside a single program

Opening a program tile routes to its detail page (marketing co-op instead redirects to its own ledger page). The hero repeats the program's type as an eyebrow, its qualified-party or active-enrollment count as the headline, and its status as a pill (green for active, gray for draft, yellow for sunset). Three secondary tiles show the same headline count broken out with a probation sub-count, open violations (with a critical sub-count, or "All clear" when there are none), and audits conducted in the last 90 days.

Below the hero, the rows that appear depend on the program:

• Approved parties (approved-list programs only). One tile per party: its qualification status (Pending, Qualified, or Probation, plus Suspended and Removed if applicable), display name, party kind (vendor, carrier, TPA, certification body, lab, or broker), and either its negotiated rate (vendor parties), next audit due date, last audit date, or qualified-since date, whichever applies. Admins see an "+ Add party" tile (or "+ Add the first party" when the list is empty) to open the Add approved party modal.
• Franchisee enrollments (mandatory/opt-in programs only). One tile per enrolled location: its status (Mandatory, Enrolled, Probation, Decertified, or Withdrawn), the franchisee name, open-violation count with last audit score, and when and how it enrolled.
• Audit rubric (vendor approval only): the weighted criteria admins built, or a prompt to build one.
• KPI threshold matrix (carrier only): the red/amber/green bands per metric, or a prompt to build one.
• Co-op terms (marketing co-op only): the match rate, cycle, auto-approve threshold, and category whitelist.
• Network target: an optional compliance threshold HQ can declare against a specific network metric (facility count, average vehicle age, Google rating, and others), with a direction (meets at-or-above or at-or-below) and a grace period. Once set, every franchisee's matching metric tile elsewhere in HQ picks up a meets/below tag against it. Admins always see this row, even before a target is set, so they can declare one; non-admins only see it once a target exists.
• Open violations (when any exist): severity, reason, who or what detected it (audit, signal, manual, or a KPI threshold breach), and how long ago it was flagged.
• Recent audits (shown to admins even with none yet, so the "+ Schedule" tile stays reachable; shown to everyone once history exists): audit type, subject, score out of 100 where scored, and findings.
• Latest KPI snapshots (when any exist): the raw metric readings feeding the program, by subject and reporting period.

Best-practice example

Say the Carriers tab shows a carrier program with a tile reading "1 on probation." Open it. The hero shows one open violation, not critical, and two audits in the last 90 days. The Franchisee enrollments row shows the probation location's last audit score and its open-violation reason. Cross-check that against the program's KPI threshold matrix: if the metric that tripped probation (say, first-contact hours) is sitting in the amber band rather than red, it's a coaching conversation, not a decertification one. If a network target is declared on a related metric elsewhere in HQ, the same franchisee's tile there will already be carrying a "below" tag, so the two surfaces agree before you have the conversation.

Related reading

• Compliance, the comprehensive cross-program requirements view (cert matrix, safety, reputation, audit log) that Programs feeds.
• Network health, where program standing rolls up alongside other network-wide signals.
• Benchmarks, for how peer performance is compared once you're looking past compliance and into results.