Funding the pool and earmarking stipend reserve

Sponsorship is how your network puts Intelligence Units (IUs) behind franchisee AI work. This article covers the two admin actions on the Sponsorship section of HQ Settings: Fund network pool and Earmark stipend reserve, what every number on that screen means, and why only network admins can touch them.

Where to find it

Go to Settings in the HQ sidebar (hq.verinode.ai/settings) and open the Sponsorship tile. Its hub card is labeled "IU Pool" with the subtitle "Fund the network pool." If you're an admin, you'll also see a compact "IU Pool" balance block next to your network's membership card on the Settings hub itself; tapping it jumps straight into the same Sponsorship section.

Everyone with HQ access can see whether the section exists, but the fund and earmark controls only render for admins. Viewers who open Sponsorship see a single line: "Only network admins can fund the pool or earmark stipends."

What "Network IU Economy" means

At the top of the Sponsorship section, a short explainer sets the model: the network pool covers AI work for franchisees when their own IU balance can't reach a call. Franchisees always burn their own IUs first; the pool only fills the gap. Sponsorship is expansionary, meaning it adds capacity on top of what a franchisee already has. It is never used to gate or restrict a franchisee's access to their own membership.

If the pool is currently paused, a line appears here too: "Pool is paused as of [date/time]. New sponsored calls will not draw." See Pause state, below, for what pauses it and how to clear it.

Reading the balances

Below the explainer, Current Balances shows four figures:

| Balance | What it means | |---|---| | Network pool | Sponsors franchisee AI calls. This is the bucket franchisees draw from automatically when their own IU balance runs short. | | Prepaid | One-time funds purchased through your network's billing setup, once that's configured. Spendable the same way as the pool. | | Stipend reserve | Earmarked for onboarding grants, separate from the pool. This is the only bucket that funds one-time stipends to new franchisees, not day-to-day sponsored AI calls. | | Spendable total | Pool plus prepaid. This is what's actually available to cover a franchisee's sponsored AI work right now; the stipend reserve is deliberately excluded because it's earmarked for a different purpose. |

Underneath, one more line tells you how refills work:

• If your network has an active recurring subscription, you'll see "Recurring refill: [amount] IU per cycle" plus the next refill date.
• If there's no active subscription, you'll see: "No active recurring subscription. Fund the pool manually below or wire a Stripe subscription." In that state, the Fund network pool action below is the only way new IUs land in the pool.

Unlike a franchisee's own personal IU balance, the network pool never expires unused IUs at the end of a cycle. Whatever is left over carries forward and adds to the next refill, consistent with sponsorship being additive rather than a use-it-or-lose-it allowance.

The two funding actions

Admins see a Fund Pool or Earmark Stipends panel with two side-by-side cards.

Fund network pool

Hint text: "IUs that franchisees draw from when their own balance falls short." Use this when you want to add general-purpose sponsorship capacity that any active franchisee can draw against automatically during their own AI work.

Earmark stipend reserve

Hint text: "Reserved for one-time onboarding stipends to new contributing-tier franchisees." Use this when you want to build up a dedicated reserve that pays out only as one-time welcome grants to franchisees who haven't yet purchased a paid membership. Funds here don't cover ordinary sponsored AI calls; they're set aside for the onboarding stipend specifically, so a new franchisee can actively use the platform for a meaningful stretch before spending any IUs of their own.

How to fund an amount

1. 1Open the Sponsorship section from Settings, or tap the "IU Pool" balance block on the Settings hub.
2. 2Under Fund Pool or Earmark Stipends, choose the card for the bucket you want: Fund network pool or Earmark stipend reserve.
3. 3Enter a whole number of IUs in the amount field (for example, 50000). Decimals and non-positive numbers aren't accepted; you'll see "Enter a positive whole number of IUs." if the value doesn't qualify.
4. 4Optionally add a note (for example, "Q3 FY2026 sponsorship top-up"). Notes are free text and land on the ledger entry for that grant, so future admins reviewing activity can see why a top-up happened.
5. 5Press Fund. While the request is in flight the button reads "Funding…" and the field is locked.
6. 6On success, a confirmation line appears above the cards: "Funded [amount] IU into the network pool." or "Earmarked [amount] IU for onboarding stipends." depending on which card you used. Balances and Recent Activity update immediately, no page reload needed.

The note field is shared between the two cards; whichever bucket you submit picks up whatever's currently typed into it, then clears the field along with the amount once the grant succeeds.

Pause state

A network's pool can end up paused for a few different reasons: an admin paused it manually, the pool ran out of balance, or a linked billing subscription fell past due. While paused, franchisees' sponsored AI calls simply stop drawing from the pool; franchisees fall back to spending their own IUs as usual, they aren't blocked from using the platform.

Funding either bucket, the pool or the stipend reserve, automatically clears the pause. There's no separate "resume" button: submitting any successful Fund network pool or Earmark stipend reserve action with a positive amount lifts the pause and sponsored calls can draw again right away.

Recent Activity

Below the funding panel, Recent Activity lists the network's five most recent ledger entries, each showing what happened, when, which bucket it touched, and the IU amount (positive entries in green, negative in red). A See full history → link opens the complete ledger.

Entries are labeled in plain language regardless of what triggered them:

• Admin funded pool, a manual Fund network pool action
• Stipend reserve earmark, a manual Earmark stipend reserve action
• Monthly subscription refill, an automatic recurring refill from an active billing subscription
• Stripe purchase, a one-time prepaid purchase
• Onboarding stipend grant, a stipend paid out of the reserve to a specific new franchisee
• Franchisee drawdown, a franchisee's own sponsored AI call drawing from the pool
• Refund, IUs returned to the network
• Expired IUs, IUs that lapsed
• Admin adjustment, a manual correction

If nothing has happened yet, the panel reads: "No pool activity yet. Once you fund the pool, every grant, draw and refund shows up here."

Why only network admins can fund

Fund network pool and Earmark stipend reserve are gated to the admin role for your network. Viewers with HQ access can still see the balances, the explainer, and the activity list, so they understand the network's sponsorship posture, but they can't move IUs. Committing network-level funds is a financial and governance decision, so it stays with the people accountable for the network's budget, the same principle behind why Team & Access in Settings restricts who can be an admin in the first place.

This also holds the network intelligence boundary in place from the other direction: sponsorship funds a franchisee's AI capacity, but it never gives HQ visibility into what that franchisee actually does with it. Funding the pool changes how much capacity is available; it never opens a window into a franchisee's own business data.

Related help

• /help/hq-settings-overview
• /help/hq-billing-plan-renewal
• /help/hq-onboarding-stipends
• /help/hq-team-and-access