Recurring monthly refills and subscriptions

What this is

If your network has an active recurring IU subscription, Verinode tops up the network pool automatically on a monthly cycle, so nobody on your team has to remember to fund it by hand. This article covers exactly how that recurring refill works: how the subscription credits the pool each cycle, when the next refill lands, what happens to IUs your franchisees didn't use, and what to do if your network hasn't wired up a subscription yet.

This is a companion to the broader Sponsorship documentation. For what every balance means, see Reading your balances; for the doctrine behind the whole system, see The network IU economy; for the manual funding actions, see Funding the pool and earmarking stipend reserve.

Where to find it

Open Settings in the HQ sidebar (hq.verinode.ai/settings) and select the Sponsorship tile, labeled "IU Pool" with the subtitle "Fund the network pool." The recurring-refill status sits directly under the four current balances, in the Network IU Economy panel.

For the complete history of every refill your network has ever received, open Sponsorship in the HQ sidebar, which lands on the full ledger page at hq.verinode.ai/sponsorship. That page is read-only; funding actions live only on the Settings tab.

How the subscription tops up the pool each cycle

A network can carry an active recurring IU subscription, a standing arrangement that credits a fixed number of IUs into the network pool on a set cadence, without an admin having to fund it manually. When a subscription is active, the Settings tab states it plainly:

"Recurring refill: [amount] IU per cycle · next on [date]."

Each time a refill runs, it does one thing only: it adds the subscription's monthly amount to the Network pool balance. It never touches Prepaid or Stipend reserve. The entry shows up in Recent Activity and on the full ledger labeled "Monthly subscription refill," with "System" listed under Initiated by, since no person triggers it.

If your network has no active subscription, the same panel instead reads:

"No active recurring subscription. Fund the pool manually below or wire a Stripe subscription."

Setting up a new recurring subscription for a network isn't a self-serve toggle inside HQ Settings today. If you want one wired up, reach out to your Verinode account contact. Once it's active, the panel switches automatically from the manual-funding message to showing your recurring amount and next refill date; there's nothing else to configure on your side.

When the next refill lands

The "next on [date]" clause only appears once a next refill date is known. A brand-new subscription may show its per-cycle amount without a next-refill date for a short stretch, until the first automatic refill has run and set the schedule going forward.

The cadence itself is monthly, but it isn't anchored to a fixed calendar day the way a bill due date might be. A recurring, automated check runs regularly and refills any network whose scheduled date has arrived. Once a refill lands, the next one is scheduled exactly one cycle out from that moment. In practice this means the schedule stays reliably about a month apart, refill to refill, even if a given check happens to run a little earlier or later than the one before it.

Carry-over: unused IUs are never lost

This is the part that differs most from how a franchisee's own membership works. A franchisee's personal monthly IU allotment resets on a fresh, use-it-or-lose-it basis each cycle: unused IUs don't carry into the next month.

The network pool's recurring refill works the opposite way. Every cycle adds the subscription's amount on top of whatever balance is already sitting in the pool. If your franchisees drew down less than the monthly amount, the leftover simply stays in the pool and carries forward, on top of the next refill. Nothing in the pool expires at the end of a cycle.

This is a deliberate consequence of sponsorship being expansionary, never gating: the pool exists to be a safety net that quietly accumulates slack, not an allowance you have to "use up" before it resets.

The manual-funding fallback, when no subscription is wired yet

Until a recurring subscription is set up (or if one lapses), the only way new IUs land in the network pool is a manual Fund network pool action from a network admin. This is not a lesser version of sponsorship: everything else about the pool, including the drawdown behavior that lets franchisees pull from it when their own balance runs short, works identically whether the pool was last topped up by a subscription or by a manual action.

1. 1Open Settings → Sponsorship (hq.verinode.ai/settings).
2. 2Under Fund Pool or Earmark Stipends, choose the Fund network pool card. Its hint text reads: "IUs that franchisees draw from when their own balance falls short."
3. 3Enter a positive whole number of IUs in the amount field (for example, 50000). A decimal or non-positive value is rejected with "Enter a positive whole number of IUs."
4. 4Optionally add a note (for example, "Q3 FY2026 sponsorship top-up"). It lands on the ledger row for that grant.
5. 5Press Fund. The button reads "Funding…" while the request is in flight.
6. 6On success, a confirmation appears: "Funded [amount] IU into the network pool." The balance and Recent Activity update immediately, no reload needed.

This manual action is admin-only. If you don't have the admin role for your network, the Sponsorship section instead shows: "Only network admins can fund the pool or earmark stipends." You can still see the balances, the recurring-refill status line, and the activity list either way.

Manual funding and a recurring subscription aren't mutually exclusive: a network on an active subscription can still use Fund network pool for a one-off top-up between cycles, for example ahead of a busy season, and the next scheduled refill still lands on top of that as normal.

Reading a refill in the ledger

Every refill, whether monthly or manual, leaves a row in the ledger. On the Settings tab, the five most recent rows show under Recent Activity; the full history lives on the Sponsorship page at hq.verinode.ai/sponsorship, in a table titled "Ledger ([count])."

For a recurring refill specifically, expect:

| Column | What you'll see | |---|---| | Reason | "Monthly subscription refill" | | Bucket | "Network pool" | | Operator | Blank, since a refill isn't tied to a specific franchisee | | Initiated by | "System" | | Delta | The subscription's per-cycle amount, in green with a plus sign |

Manual top-ups appear the same way except the Reason reads "Admin funded pool" and Initiated by shows the admin's name (or "Admin" if the name can't be resolved).

Empty states

If your network has never received a refill, funded the pool, or had a franchisee draw from it, both places read the same message, worded slightly differently:

• Settings tab, Recent Activity: "No pool activity yet. Once you fund the pool, every grant, draw and refund shows up here."
• Full history page, Ledger: "No pool activity yet. Once the pool is funded the first time, every grant, draw and refund shows up here."

Both are literal. There's nothing to configure to make a first entry appear; either a subscription's first automatic refill or a manual Fund network pool action starts the ledger.

Related help

• The network IU economy: expansionary, never gating
• Reading your balances: pool, prepaid, stipend reserve, spendable
• Funding the pool and earmarking stipend reserve
• Sponsorship: how HQ funds AI work across the network
• Onboarding stipends: bootstrapping new franchisees