06 · Settings & account
Everything about you and your workspace's setup lives here. Since 22 October 2026 Settings has six groups:
- You: your profile, how you sign in, your notifications, what Vera knows about you, your own agents, your connected accounts and your data.
- People: members, teams, access reviews and team activity.
- Workspace: plan and billing, deal approvals, contract types, clause positions, negotiation memory, branding, currency and dates.
- Security: the sign in policy, the security posture, vendor security requirements and the audit log.
- Data and AI: data controls, AI for the workspace, the Trust center and where figures come from.
- Connections: integrations, webhooks, API keys, the desktop and Office apps, and deployment.
Every setting has exactly one home, and you can find any of them by name.
The settings window. Settings opens as a window of its own, in the same frame as every agent window. One frame holds every settings page, so moving from Billing to the audit log redraws only the page, never the window. Members and owners use the same window and see the same pages.
- The title bar: the File, View, Team, Learn and Help menus on the left, then Share, Minimize, Maximize and Close; light or dark, Zoom and Full screen are in View.
- View lists Settings home, the six groups and Find a setting.
- Help adds How Settings is laid out and Where each setting moved.
- Close returns you to Home.
- The menu on the left: one column, the only sidebar on screen (since 25 October 2026 no app menu stands beside it): the VendorBenchmark mark, Find a setting (or the forward slash key), Home, Vera AI and your pinned apps, then Settings home and the six groups with every page.
- A page that carries a figure shows it at the right: the number of people, your plan, your two factor, the connected systems.
- A dot that pulses marks a page with something that needs you.
- For a member, a lock marks a page only the owner changes.
- The head: over every page.
- The path: Settings alone on Settings home, and Settings / Members (Settings, then the page) on a page; press Settings to go back to its home.
- The page name, with a tag saying who may change it: Owner only, Just you or Everyone. A member reads Owner only, read only for you.
- The page's own buttons at the right, with one filled blue button for the main task.
- One row of the page's facts.
- Every setting is one row: its name, one line on what it does, and the control. A change saves the moment you make it, and a small Saved tick appears beside the control. If a change cannot be saved, the control goes back and says why.
- Owner only settings: shown to everyone. A member sees them locked, with "Only the owner, (name), can change these" on the section, rather than a page hidden away or an empty form.
- The details column: at the right.
- This page: who can change it, that it saves as you change it, its group and the name it used to have.
- Needs you here: each with a Fix that scrolls to the exact setting and makes it glow.
- Related pages.
- Changed today: what you changed today, from the audit log.
- Ask Vera: two questions for the page.
- The status bar: ? Keys lists the keys (forward slash to find a setting, H for Settings home, Ctrl K to jump anywhere, the question mark for how Settings is laid out), which are also under Keys in the Help menu, and the bar says whether you are viewing as the owner or a member. V talks to Vera from any settings page.
- Motion: pages arrive section by section, figures count up, switches slide, and a setting you jump to glows. Reduced motion on your device turns all of it off.
Old addresses still work. /settings/ai opens Vera and you, and /settings/date-format opens Currency and dates. Every other settings address opens the page that holds its settings now.
Settings home
The front page of Settings. Find any setting by name, see what needs your attention, and open any page from the six groups.
On the screen
- The head: Settings, with how many things need you (or All set), Where things moved and, for owners, Invite people. One row of facts: the workspace, the plan, the members and your role.
- Find a setting: type any word, and every setting that matches appears with its page and section.
- It searches each setting's name, its line, the words people search with (MFA, 2FA, SAML, SCIM, IP allowlist, retention) and the name a page used to have (Baseline, Figures ledger, Account security).
- Press a result, or Enter for the first one: its page opens and the setting glows.
- The forward slash key jumps to this box from any settings page.
- Needs your attention: what is open in this workspace, the most urgent first, each with Fix (outlined; for owners Invite people in the head is the one filled button). The list can hold:
- Your own two factor off.
- Members who sign in without two factor (owners).
- People who asked to join (owners).
- A trial in its last week.
- Renewal alerts off on every channel while agreements carry renewal dates.
- An access review overdue (owners).
- An API key expiring within 30 days (owners).
- Single sign on not set (owners).
- No vendor security requirements written.
- Negotiation memory still empty after four weeks.
- No systems connected (owners).
Nothing in the list changes a setting by itself.
- The six groups: a panel per group, each page with its line and its figure. A page with something open carries a dot; an owner page carries a lock for members.
- The details column: your workspace (name, owner, plan, members, your role), Where things moved (the first five, and All for the full list), Changed today and Ask Vera.
How to use it
- Work down Needs your attention. Each Fix opens the exact setting.
- Looking for one setting? Press the forward slash key and type its name, or the name it used to have.
Related: Sign in and devices · Plan and billing · Trust center
Profile
Your name, how to reach you and how the app shows things to you. Every field saves on its own; there is no Save button.
On the screen
- The head: your email, timezone, role and how many vendors you work with. Change password is the filled button.
- You: how colleagues and analysts see you.
- Photo: JPG or PNG up to 4 MB, uploaded or dragged on; used for your avatar across the app.
- Full name and Title (shown on reports you send): save when you leave the field.
- Timezone: dates, digests and reminders use it.
- Phone for calling Vera: with a country code. When your workspace has a number for Vera, calling it from this phone reaches your own Vera with your workspace behind her: short turns, one point at a time, and the memo of the call in your queue when you hang up. Ask her for a person and she puts you through to an analyst when one is on the line. A number nobody has claimed is not answered.
- Email and password
- Email: Change asks for the new address and your current password, then Send the link. Your sign in stays the old address until the link in the email is opened.
- Password: Change password asks for your current password and the new one twice (at least 8 characters). The new one is checked against known breaches, and every other session is signed out when it changes.
- Display
- Show How it works guides: the short guides at the top of Proposals, Vendors, Renewals and other pages.
- Vendors you work with: ten checkboxes (Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Salesforce, Adobe, IBM, ServiceNow, Workday, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud), with Select all and Clear all. Research and benchmark news for these reaches you first.
- Privacy (since 25 October 2026)
- Show colleagues you have a record open: on by default. Your initials show in the title bar when a colleague in your organization has the same contract, deal or report open, and theirs show to you. Turn it off and you are not shown and you do not see others. Platform staff are never shown.
How to use it
- Fill in your name, title and timezone; each saves as you leave it.
- Tick the vendors you care about so your news and alerts lead with them.
- Use Change password to rotate your password, and Change beside your email when you move addresses.
Related: Sign in and devices · Connected accounts · Your data
Sign in and devices
Your authenticator and recovery codes, where you are signed in, and every device your account has used. The rule that makes two factor required for everyone is on Sign in policy.
On the screen
- The head: two factor on or off (in red while it is off), how many sessions you are signed in on, your unused recovery codes and your known devices. The filled button is Turn on two factor while it is off, then Generate new codes or Create recovery codes.
- Two factor
- Authenticator app: a six digit code from Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, 1Password or Authy at each sign in. Turn on shows a QR code (or a key to type by hand) and asks for the first code; Verify and turn on finishes it. Once on, the code is your sign in: the sign in screen asks for it in place of your password.
- Turn off asks first, and deletes your recovery codes. Turning it off needs a recent two factor sign in; the page links Verify a code now when it does.
- An enrollment you started and never finished shows as Unverified with Remove: it does not protect the account.
- When your workspace requires two factor, the section says so, and turning it off means setting it up again before you can keep working.
- Recovery codes: one time codes for when you cannot reach your phone. The new set is shown once, with Copy all and I saved these codes; generating a new set stops the old one at once.
- Where you are signed in: every session with its device, address, when it signed in and how long it has sat idle.
- Sign out on any row, and Sign out every other device when there is more than one. This device never signs out from here.
- Sign out idle sessions: choose a line (idle over 1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days) and one button signs out every session past it. The choice is for this press only; it is not a saved rule.
- Sign in history: the last 20 devices, with address, first seen and last active. A device you have never used before always sends the new device email.
How to use it
- Press Turn on two factor, scan the code with your authenticator app and enter the six digit code.
- Create your recovery codes and keep them somewhere safe.
- Read Where you are signed in and sign out anything you do not recognize. An unknown device in the history means change your password on Profile, which signs out every other session.
Tips
- Two factor is the single highest value thing you can do for your account. If your workspace requires it, you are held at enrollment until you set it up.
Related: Sign in policy · Security posture · Two-factor authentication
Notifications
What reaches you, on which channel, and when. One preference model governs every channel: a switch here, or a mute from the inbox bell, applies to the inbox, push and email together. Renewal alerts are opt in: nothing about a renewal reaches you, on any channel, until you switch it on.
On the screen
- The head: the email sends that are on, the alert kinds in the app, your chat DM, quiet hours and the weekly emails at most. Turn on money critical alerts is the filled button while any of the six money critical kinds is off: it switches each on in the app and by email in one press.
- What reaches you: a table by channel (email, in the app, your chat DM) of what each one carries today, computed from your switches below, with its state: On, Off, needed where something you own waits on it, or Off. Invites and security notices always send.
- Alerts: every alert kind that can reach your bell, one row each, with switches for In the app, Email, Weekly digest and Chat DM, and Mute at the end.
- Email starts off, with four exceptions that start on because silence would be a failure: the report delivery email, benchmark status updates, the outcome follow up 30 days after a delivered benchmark, and mentions.
- Every renewal alert that fires on its own starts off on every channel, in the app included, until you turn it on. AI renewal agent briefs are the exception: switching the agent on for a contract is the opt in.
- Weekly gap check starts off on every channel and never emails. Switch In the app on and each Monday one note lists renewals inside 90 days with no benchmark, contracts with no owner and your own drafts in Mail older than 7 days, with a link to the first one to fix. A week with no gaps sends nothing.
- Weekly digest bundles that kind into one Monday email instead of single sends. Money critical kinds cannot be bundled.
- A muted kind reads Muted on every channel and is one press to unmute.
- Chat DM: your own renewals and money alerts in your personal Slack or Teams DM. Link it once by messaging the Vera bot in your company Slack or Teams (an owner connects the bot under Integrations); the row then reads Linked.
- Weekly emails: four sends, each at most once a week, each off until you turn it on, each with a one click unsubscribe.
- Price list updates, per vendor, with Pick vendors.
- Vendor licensing news: the Monday briefing across 50 vendors, yours first, with Pick vendors.
- Weekly knowledge briefing: new research, renewal outlooks and what shipped.
- Tips and product emails: onboarding guidance and trial check ins; never invites or security notices.
- Monday brief sections: Vendor market news, Renewals coming up, Watchtower changes, Savings and wins and The team's week, each a switch. With every section off, the Monday brief is not sent. Watchtower changes lists what your contracts owe you or ask of you in the next two weeks. The email's button opens the Monday brief window.
- Quiet hours: a switch (22:00 to 07:00 by default, in your own clock) with From and To. Inside the window phones stay silent and non critical emails wait until it ends; the line counts how many of your last 30 days' alerts would have waited. Money critical alerts (renewal deadlines, anomalies, uplift breaches) always come through.
- Executive briefing: a Monday digest under 200 words for people who never sign in. The owner adds up to 5 recipients (Who gets it), each with a one click unsubscribe, and Send me a preview sends the current cut to your own inbox. Everyone else reads it locked.
- Documents and vendors you follow: what a followed document tells you (a new version or a fresh read, a corrected answer, a comment, the notice date 90 days out), and the list of what you follow, each with Unfollow.
How to use it
- Read What reaches you to see exactly what will reach you today.
- Press Turn on money critical alerts, or switch on the renewal alerts you want one by one. Renewal notice alerts also switch on the Monday renewal radar and the daily leverage note: one email a morning covering what moved under your deals, ranked by money at stake and days left to act, and nothing on a day when nothing moved.
- Pick your weekly emails and Monday brief sections.
- Set quiet hours if you carry the mobile app.
- Want alerts in Slack or Teams? Message the Vera bot once, then switch Chat DM on for the kinds you care about.
Tips
- Webhooks for alerts moved to Webhooks, and the owner's AI copilot settings to AI for the workspace.
Related: Webhooks · Connected accounts · Bring the platform into email and chat
Vera and you
What Vera knows about you and how she uses it. It merges the former About you and AI personalization pages. Only you can see this page; nobody else in your workspace, owners included, can read it.
On the screen
- The head: personalization on or off, the facts about you, the questions still open and what she has learned. Download what Vera knows is the filled button.
- Personalization: Personalize answers, on by default. On, Vera uses what she knows about you and learns each week how you like answers written: style only, never the figures. Off, she stops learning and asking, and the lines below are kept but not used.
- About you: every line she keeps, grouped by topic: your role, vendors in focus, priorities and deadlines, your team and how you like advice, plus how you like a call and other things she remembers when they hold lines.
- Each line says where it came from (you told her, learned on a call, or from your conversations) and when.
- Correct edits a line; Forget removes it at once.
- Tell Vera something: a box for anything you want her to know, used from your next conversation.
- What Vera would still like to know: one row for each topic she has no answer for, with the question she would ask. Answer it here and she will not need to; otherwise she asks once, at a natural pause on your own calls, never during a meeting she is listening to.
- What Vera has learned: how you like answers written, from what you exported, regenerated or dismissed, each with Remove. The learning pass runs weekly and writes a preference only after it sees the same signal a few times, so a new account starts empty.
- Screens: how Vera works on your screens. The owner's drive ceiling on Sign in policy still wins.
- Who drives your screens: Ask each time, Drive when asked (a handover is remembered for that kind of screen) or Never (specialists talk you through instead). Each remembered kind of screen has Forget, so the next handover asks again. Touching a driven screen always hands it straight back.
- Overnight drive: each night your specialist reads every renewal in the window against the benchmark library and leaves the morning on Home. Up to 20 renewals a night, worst first, in every workspace you belong to.
- Renewals within: 60, 90 or 120 days.
- Your memory file
- Download what Vera knows: one document with what she knows about you, what you worked out together, the promises still open, your uploads and your calls, then the workspace's shared record. It is compiled when you press it, holds only this workspace, and is yours alone.
- How documents reach you: Gallery only or Email me the file too.
How to use it
- Answer the open questions; each answer is used from your next conversation.
- Read the lines under About you, and correct or forget anything out of date.
- Set who drives your screens, and turn on the overnight drive if you want the mornings.
Tips
- A written feedback comment on an answer is the fastest way to teach her something.
- In a workspace whose owner has earned and raised the ceiling to Queued commits, the night may also queue up to three proposals that wait for your one press confirm; everywhere else nothing is committed overnight.
Related: Negotiation memory · Your own agents · My gallery
Your own agents
Agents you design yourself, with their role, voice, vendors and the documents they read. They show in Specialists and in Ask Vera for everyone in the workspace.
On the screen
- The head: your agents, the agents in the workspace (20 at most) and the documents they read. New agent is the filled button.
- Your agents: a table of the agents you made, with their voice, the vendors they know and their documents. Open edits one on the full form; Delete asks first, and its saved calls stay.
- New agent: the quick fields.
- Name (2 to 40 characters) and Role (for example SaaS renewal negotiator).
- Voice: the voice it speaks with on calls, one of 22.
- Vendor expertise: up to 8 vendors, separated by commas.
- Documents it reads: up to 6 of your contracts, chosen in a picker; house research on its vendors rides along.
- Create the agent: Create adds it to Specialists and Ask Vera.
- All fields opens the full form at /specialists/new, with the opener, personality, method and research.
How to use it
- Name the agent, give it a role and a voice.
- Add the vendors it should know and pick the contracts it reads.
- Press Create, then find it in Specialists.
Related: Vera and you · Vera AI
Connected accounts
Your own Microsoft 365 and calendars. They moved here from Profile. Each is yours alone, and connecting one never widens the other.
On the screen
- The head: Microsoft 365 and your calendars, connected or not. Connect a calendar is the filled button while one can still be connected.
- Accounts
- Microsoft 365: open reports in Word and Excel Online, save to OneDrive and draft Outlook emails from any export menu. Connect or Disconnect.
- Calendar: Connect Microsoft 365 or Connect Google Calendar. Your meetings then find the live call by themselves: the Coming up list knows what is next, and the desktop companion can offer Vera as each meeting starts. Titles, times, attendees and join links only; event bodies are never stored.
- Where the deployment has no keys for a provider, the row says it is not set up.
- Calendars: every connected calendar with its provider, account and since when, each with Disconnect. Choose calendars picks which calendars count; none selected means the primary calendar only.
How to use it
- Press Connect a calendar and approve it with Microsoft or Google.
- Press Choose calendars if you keep more than one.
- Connect Microsoft 365 if you want exports to open in Office Online.
Related: Profile · Notifications
Your data
Export what is yours, leave the workspace or close your account. These moved here from Profile, and they apply to you only: the workspace's contracts and reports stay with it.
On the screen
- The head: the workspace, your account and whether a deletion is requested. Export my data is the filled button.
- Export my data: your profile, memberships, preferences, assistant memory, sign in devices and your own activity, as one JSON file.
- Leave this workspace: removes your seat. It asks first; you lose access at once, your account and other workspaces stay, the owners are not told automatically, and an owner can invite you back. If you are the only owner, make someone else an owner first.
- Close my account: Request files a deletion request our team processes within 30 days and confirms by email; nothing is removed before then. Cancel the request withdraws it until it is processed.
How to use it
- Press Export my data for a copy of everything about you.
- Leaving a job? Leave removes your seat without touching anyone else's work.
Related: Profile · Data controls
Members
Who is in the workspace, their role and what they can open.
When to reach for this
- Bringing people in (the onboarding recipe) and, just as importantly, out (when someone leaves).
- The monthly glance: stale invitations, people without two factor, unaccounted seats.
On the screen
- The head: members against your seats, invites waiting, people who asked to join and members without two factor. Export CSV and Invite people (filled) for owners.
- Invite: one address or many, separated by spaces, commas or new lines, up to 50 at once with one role (Owner, Analyst, Approver or Viewer). Invite an owner one address at a time. Invitations expire after 7 days; resending restarts the clock.
- People: everyone with their role (a select that saves on change), teams, two factor (owners), last sign in and what they can open. Manage on a row opens:
- Can open: the modules this person reaches, when the workspace has more than one.
- Resend the setup email, Sign out everywhere (every device; they keep their seat), Block (they cannot sign in until unblocked) and Remove from the workspace (their work stays). Sign out, Block and Remove ask you to press twice.
- Roles: the four roles with what each can do, who holds them and who is invited, with Invite as for each. A role nobody holds reads Empty.
- Waiting: invites not yet accepted (with Expired, Not delivered or Delivery delayed), Resend and Revoke; and join requests, with the role to give and Approve or Decline.
- Joining: Let colleagues ask to join lets anyone on your email domain ask; you approve. Export the list downloads everyone with role, teams, two factor and last sign in as CSV.
How to use it
- Type the addresses in Invite, pick the role and press Invite.
- Watch Waiting for delivery problems and resend if needed.
- Change roles inline as responsibilities change; block anyone who should no longer have access. Blocking or removing someone signs them out everywhere at once.
Tips
- The seat cap counts pending invites and blocked members, and is checked when someone is added by invite, domain join or SCIM; nobody already on the roster is removed by it. The caps per plan are in Plans & limits.
- The workspace always keeps one active owner: make a second owner before demoting or removing the last one.
- Anyone can leave a workspace themselves from Your data.
Related: Teams · Access reviews · Sign in policy
Teams
Named groups you share restricted contracts and agreements with as one unit. Membership is the access: joining a team grants its documents at that moment, and leaving revokes them.
When to reach for this
- Before the first sensitive document arrives: create the teams the org chart implies.
- Restricted work (a Vault project, a diligence) where offboarding must be one removal, not a document sweep.
On the screen
- The head: teams, people on a team and documents shared to a team. New team is the filled button.
- Teams: each team with who is on it, how many people and how many documents are shared with it. Delete asks twice and stops its shared documents reaching the team.
- New team: name it for how your people work: Procurement, Legal, IT sourcing.
- Who is on which team: every active member against every team, a checkbox per team. A tick adds the person, a clear removes them, and it saves on the press.
How to use it
- Create a team and tick the people who share an access need.
- Open a restricted contract and grant the team under Access, next to the individual grants.
- When someone changes roles, move their ticks; their document access follows.
Related: Members · Access reviews
Access reviews
A record that someone checked who can reach what. A review takes a snapshot of every member and role, every team membership and every restricted document grant; you keep or remove each line, and the finished review is kept for an auditor.
When to reach for this
- The quarterly governance clock (the cadence).
- An auditor or customer asks for your access review process: the finished reviews are the answer.
On the screen
- The head: the last review, when the next is due, how many lines a review covers and the people not signed in for 90 days. Start a review is the filled button (Open the review while one is open).
- Schedule: How often (every 3 months, 6 months or year) sets the next due date and is saved for the whole workspace; only the owner changes it. Start review shows the lines a review covers today. Only one review can be open at a time.
- Who a review covers: every member with role and last sign in, those not seen for 90 days first.
- Past reviews: when each started and finished, the lines checked and how many were revoked or flagged, with a CSV for each.
- The review itself: grouped into members and roles, team memberships and restricted document grants. Each line has Keep, and Flag for removal (a member) or Revoke (a team or a document, which takes effect at once). Complete the review stays off until every line is decided; Finish later keeps it open.
How to use it
- Press Start a review and work through each line.
- A member who should leave is flagged here; finish the removal on Members, which protects the last owner and signs them out.
- Press Complete the review; every decision goes to the audit log.
- Download the CSV for the auditor or the questionnaire.
Related: Members · Teams · Audit log
Team activity
Who uses what over the last 30 days, and a usage report that turns the numbers into a document.
On the screen
- The head: active this week, page views over 7 days, actions over 30 days, the most adopted feature and the features nobody has touched. Usage report is the filled button.
- Use: every member with last sign in, page views over 7 and 30 days, actions over 30 days, features tried and the last screen.
- Recent activity: the last 60 recorded actions: who, what, on what and when.
- Report: Generate writes the month by person and by app: who uses what and what goes unused. It takes a minute or two, and the latest report shows below.
How to use it
- Read the head for overall adoption.
- Use Use to spot who has not started and which features go unused.
- Generate the usage report when you want a written adoption plan.
Plan and billing
Your plan, your seats and what you have used. Everyone reads it; only an owner can change the plan.
When to reach for this
- A feature says an allowance ran out: the meter here says when it frees up (Chapter 10 defines every allowance).
- The quarterly owner check: does the plan still fit how the team uses the platform?
On the screen
- The head: your plan, seats, trial end (on a trial), benchmark credits and billing terms. Invoices and questions and Add seats (filled) open a message to our team.
- Use this year: a meter each for people, contracts, analyst benchmarks, Vera AI talk time, AI reports and AI agent requests, against what the plan carries. On plans billed by an AI allowance, Your AI allowance this month replaces the report and request meters: it is yours alone, with roughly how many runs are left. Your AI tokens gives your own use over the last window.
- Plan: owners change it; everyone else reads it locked.
- Plan: its price and status.
- Seats: used against the cap, with Add seats.
- Benchmark credits: an analyst benchmark on top of what your plan carries, priced by volume, with Contact sales.
- Same Day credits: one request, the deliverable back inside 24 hours. The price table: $10,000 a credit for every vendor, SAP and its license position included; Oracle is priced on the size of the estate, so it reads On request.
- Invoices: plans are set up by our team and billed by invoice, net 30.
- Plans: the five plans with their price and what each carries; yours is marked Yours, and a higher one offers Upgrade, which opens a message to our team.
- Which plan fits: four sliders (people, contracts, analyst benchmarks a month, talk time a month), starting at what you use. The table marks the plans that fit, the header names the cheapest one and what it costs a year against yours, and a line says what moving would give up. When no plan carries that much, it says Enterprise plus benchmark credits and offers Ask sales about credits. Nothing here saves.
- Use what the plan carries: Request a benchmark with how many are left, Open a call with the talk time left, and Contact sales for credits.
How to use it
- Check the meters, then move the sliders to see which plan the work needs.
- Owners: press Upgrade or Add seats and our team sets it up the same day.
- Not an owner? Ask an owner, or message the team.
Related: Members · Team activity · Plans, allowances & limits
Deal approvals
Who signs off a deal before it is sent. An optional chain of up to ten approvers, off by default. The owner sets the chain; anyone who approves can hand over while away.
On the screen
- The head: sign off on or off, approvers, the order, the median wait and what is waiting now (in gold once the oldest is past five days). Add an approver is the filled button.
- Sign off (owner)
- Require sign off: a deal waits for the approvers before it goes out; each gets the deal brief with the negotiator's case.
- Order: Everyone at once (the deal clears when the last one approves) or One at a time (each is asked after the one before approves).
- Approvers: up to 10, in order, with Move up, Move down and Remove. Add an approver picks a teammate.
- Away: Hand over while away names who signs for you between two dates, with a reason for the record; both of you are told, and you can still clear your own. Every hand over is listed with its dates and state, and End it stops one. An approval nobody clears in 5 days goes to an owner.
- How fast each approver answers: every decision on recent requests as a dot, by days from being asked to deciding, with the median and what is waiting on each person. Who signs, and how tries a chain: pick approvers and all at once or one after another, and see how long a deal would take to clear and how many would have escalated. Nothing here saves.
- Recent requests: the last 15 requests with who sent them, approvals so far, how long they took and their state, and Approvals inbox.
How to use it
- Turn on Require sign off and add your approvers.
- Negotiators request sign off from a deal's page under Negotiations; approvers decide from their inbox.
- Going away? Use Hand over while away before you leave.
Related: Decisions · Members · Teams
Contract types
The kinds of contract your organization files (an order form, a master agreement, a ULA, a statement of work) and the fields each must carry, such as a cost center, a PO number or the signing entity. Opt in: a workspace that defines no type files contracts exactly as before. A contract wears a type when its contract type reads as the type's name. The Contract Office reaches this page under File, Contract types and fields.
On the screen
- The head: live types, contracts with a type, required fields filled and types in use but not defined. New contract type is the filled button.
- Types: each type with its contracts, its fields (required ones marked) and how complete they are.
- Fields opens the type: add fields of a kind (text, number, money in USD, date, person, link, document or a choice with at least two options), mark the required ones, add a line of help, and Remove a field.
- Archive retires a type (with Undo), and Put back returns it; contracts already filed under it are untouched.
- Delete asks twice and removes the type and its fields; the answers stay on their contracts.
- New contract type adds one and opens it for its fields.
- In use but not defined: contract types written on your contracts that no type matches, with how many contracts each. Define it makes it a type and those contracts join it at once.
- Completeness: each type and field, required or optional, with how many contracts carry it, how many are missing and the share.
How to use it
- Define the types your organization files, starting with any under In use but not defined.
- Give each type its fields and mark the ones nobody may skip as required.
- File in the Contract Office: the New agreement wizard asks for every required field (it never blocks old contracts), and each field becomes a column in the Index.
Related: Clause positions · Deal approvals
Clause positions
The summary of your negotiation playbook: the positions, approved language and walk away lines every AI review holds your contracts to. Editing lives in the clause library, in the Contract policy screen; this page is the summary.
On the screen
- The head: positions, must haves, your own wording and when the library was last edited (Never until a position is saved). Restore the starter library and Open the clause library (filled).
- Positions: how many clauses sit in each stance and where they came from.
- Must have: a contract without it is flagged on every read; these form the Coverage check.
- Aim for: asked for in every negotiation draft, with the fallback and the walk away line.
- Your own wording and From the starter library.
- Library
- Starter library: Restore adds any of the starter positions you are missing. It never overwrites an edit and never duplicates, and says how many it added.
- Where it applies: proposal reviews, redline drafting, the DPA check and the counter draft linter insert your approved language verbatim.
How to use it
- With nothing on file, press Restore to begin with the starter positions.
- Press Open the clause library to add, edit or delete positions and set the must haves.
Related: Contract policy · Contract types · Negotiation memory
Negotiation memory
Your stance and the facts Vera keeps about each vendor, shared with the team. Briefs, mandates and Ask all open with this record, so it is worth keeping current.
On the screen
- The head: facts, pinned facts, stance questions answered (of 5) and facts measured weekly. Add a fact is the filled button.
- Stance: the owner sets it; everyone else reads it locked. Every brief, mandate and answer follows it.
- How hard you push: Conservative, Balanced or Aggressive.
- What matters more: relationship first, depends on the vendor, or price first.
- Strategic vendors: where hardball is off the table.
- Fiscal year end: budget timing hangs off this month.
- How deals get signed off: who approves, in what order.
- Facts: grouped by kind (facts about the organization, preferences, outcomes of past deals, tactics, notes and measured behavior). Each with its vendor, what Vera keeps (edit it in place and Save), where it came from, a Pinned switch and Delete (press twice).
- Some are added by hand; some are learned when reviewers correct the same extracted field the same way twice, from deal post mortems, call debriefs or a connected agent.
- Facts Measured weekly are read only and can still be deleted.
- Add a fact: a vendor (or none for every vendor), the kind and what Vera should keep.
How to use it
- Owners: answer the five stance questions.
- Prune or correct any fact that is out of date; pin the ones that must always count.
- Corrections in the extraction review queue also teach the reader: the next document from that vendor is read with your past corrections in hand.
Related: Vera and you · Clause positions
Branding
Your logo on the documents you export. With no logo set, exports are unchanged.
On the screen
- The head: whether a logo is set, where it appears (PDF and PowerPoint) and recent exports. Upload a logo is the filled button.
- Logo: PNG or JPEG up to 1 MB; a wide transparent PNG sits best, and SVG is not supported. Drag it onto the box or press Upload; Replace and Remove once one is set.
- Where it lands: the top right of the first page of every exported benchmark PDF, and the title slide of every deck. The document theme stays; only the mark is yours. Files already downloaded keep what they had.
- Recent exports: the last PDF and PowerPoint exports, with when they went out.
How to use it
- Upload a logo.
- Export a benchmark PDF or a deck to see it in place.
Related: Currency and dates
Currency and dates
How money and dates read everywhere in the workspace. It merges the former Display currency and Date format pages, and applies to the whole workspace, not just to you.
On the screen
- The head: the currency, how 03/04/2026 reads today, that benchmarks are computed in USD, and how many currencies your contracts use.
- Format
- Display currency: USD, EUR, GBP, SEK, NOK, DKK, CHF, CAD, AUD, JPY, INR or SGD. Amounts with no currency of their own show in it, and figures the platform keeps in USD convert at the day's rate from a live daily source (a built in rate stands in when the source cannot be reached, and the figure says it is approximate). Hover a converted figure for the USD amount and the rate.
- Date format: US, month first (03/04/2026 is March 4, the default) or European, day first (3 April). It sets how numeric dates in uploaded contracts are read: every extraction, the upload wizard's pre fill, the enrichment after a file is attached and the bulk import.
- What your contracts are signed in: each currency your contracts use, how many contracts and their annual value in that currency. Each contract keeps its own currency whatever the display currency says.
Where the currency applies
- Screens: What you own, Home, Renewals, Contracts, Agreements, Vendors, the Benchmark Library, Negotiation, Sourcing, Invoices, the price watch, licensing, the delivery workspaces and the tools, with the USD amount and the rate on hover over the main figures.
- Exports: the spreadsheets, audit response pack, workbook, Word report, emailed report and deck from What you own.
- Vera's written briefs: kept in USD and shown converted on the page, in Vera's window, in the Word download and in the PDF, with the rate at the foot. A sentence quoted from a contract and a chart's scale are never changed.
- Emails that carry figures: the Archive brief, the filed contract note, the asks sheet, a forwarded second opinion, competitive scenarios and Fusion pricing, the weekly leverage digest and the Java Scanner summary.
- What stays in USD, and says so: amounts you type in a field marked $, copied text and email drafts, the written papers inside the tools, and your platform fees. A figure a contract, quote or invoice states in its own currency prints in that currency.
How to use it
- Pick the currency and the date order your contracts are written in; each saves as you choose.
- Upload as usual; the wizard pre fills term dates in the chosen order.
Tips
- The currency converts, it never relabels, and changing it changes nothing stored.
- Dates that spell the month out and ISO dates (2026-07-01) read correctly under either setting. Dotted dates (15.01.2027) always read day first, and a date only one order can explain (30/06/2026) reads that way.
- The date format applies to documents read after the change; terms already extracted stay as they are.
Related: Plan and billing · Upload a proposal
Sign in policy
How everyone signs in and how long they stay signed in. It gathers the two factor rule, single sign on, SCIM provisioning, sessions and networks, and how far Vera may drive screens.
On the screen
- The head: two factor required or optional, the single sign on state, steps done (of 4), the session length, the members without two factor and, once single sign on is required, the members who sign in through your identity provider.
- Two factor: Require two factor for everyone. The line says how many people would be asked to turn it on; once on, anyone without it is held at enrollment until they set it up.
- Single sign on
- Protocol: SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect.
- Email domain: sign ins from it go to your identity provider. VendorBenchmark verifies the domain when we connect your identity provider, and the row says when. Until then the rules are saved but not applied, and changing the domain sends it back for verification, so no other workspace can claim your domain.
- Metadata URL, or Metadata XML when your provider gives no URL.
- Require single sign on: passwords stop working for the domain. Owners keep password sign in so a broken identity provider cannot lock the workspace out, and every such break glass sign in is written to the audit log.
- Provisioning
- SCIM token: Create token gives a token (shown once, with Copy) your identity provider uses to add and remove members at /api/scim/v2/Users. Tokens are listed with their state and Revoke.
- Groups to roles: which directory group gets which role (approver, analyst, member or viewer; ownership is never set this way). Leaving the group takes the role with it; with no mapping, members your directory adds start as analysts.
- Sessions and network: who changed it last, and when.
- Stay signed in for: no limit, or 1 hour up to 30 days; after it, everyone signs in again.
- Sign out after idle: never, or 15 minutes up to 24 hours.
- Require an approved network and Allowed networks: addresses or CIDR ranges, one per line, with Add my IP. Requests from outside the list are held at a blocked page and logged. The switch refuses to turn on unless your own address is covered, so you cannot lock yourself out when you enable it.
- Vera driving screens: signed by whoever saved it last, and when.
- The most Vera may do: Off, Show and explain, Moves, Moves and staged changes (the default) or Queued commits. Committing a change is always a person's press.
- Queued commits is earned, never granted: it takes zero misses across at least 20 verified moves in 30 days, and the server refuses the rung with your own numbers until then. With it on, the overnight drive may queue up to three commits a night, one per renewal, each waiting for a person's press.
- Per screen: each kind of screen (the benchmark library, the contracts list, the agreements ledger, the Deal Agent and more) follows the workspace ceiling or takes its own.
- Monthly autonomy report: a switch that emails you what Vera did on its own every Monday; a silent week sends nothing. Under it, the last 30 days: driven actions, misses, refusals held, the times a person took the wheel back, trips run, and staged changes kept and discarded. Staged figures are workspace totals; nobody's drafts are read.
How to use it
- Turn on Require two factor for everyone once the team has had a day to register authenticators.
- Enter your domain and your identity provider's metadata, then require single sign on once the domain shows verified.
- Create a SCIM token for automatic provisioning, and map groups to roles if you want roles to follow the directory. If your identity provider pushes groups, members must be provisioned as users first.
- Set the session length and, only if policy demands it, the approved networks.
- Set the drive ceiling to how much your workspace wants specialists doing by voice; the tightest answer wins.
Note: if your office IP later changes, everyone, owners included, is blocked until the policy is updated from an allowed network. Prefer ranges over single addresses if your IP rotates. A policy change takes up to a minute to reach every server.
Related: Sign in and devices · Security posture · Members · The single sign on decision
Security posture
The questions a security review asks first, answered from your live settings. Owners see seven; members see the three that apply to them.
On the screen
- The head: the questions answered yes, two factor enrollment, how people sign in, audit events over 30 days and any deletion request. Download the answers (filled) saves the table as CSV.
- The questions: a table of the question, the answer (yes or no), what is true today, and where it is set. Fix (owners, on a no) goes to the exact setting; Open opens its page.
- Is two factor required for everyone? (Sign in policy)
- Do people sign in through single sign on? (Sign in policy)
- Was access reviewed in the last quarter? (Access reviews)
- Is the audit log streamed to your SIEM? (Webhooks)
- Is a retention period set? (Data controls)
- Do API keys expire? (API keys)
- Is every view and download of a file logged? (Audit log)
- Recent security events: the last sign ins, key events, file access and policy changes, with Open the audit log.
How to use it
- Read the answers that are still no.
- Owners: press Fix on the first one.
- Press Download the answers when a questionnaire asks.
Related: Sign in policy · Trust center · Answer a security questionnaire
Vendor security requirements
What every vendor must meet, checked on each contract. These are the rules the DPA check reads a contract against. It was called the Security baseline; the session and network policy moved to Sign in policy.
On the screen
- The head: your requirements, the rule packs on, contracts checked, vendors meeting every line and open gaps. Check the next contract (filled) appears while a contract is unchecked.
- Requirements: Your requirements, one per line; until you write your own, the starter set stands.
- Rule packs: four switches, each checked only where it applies: GDPR (the processor clauses of Article 28), DORA (the Article 30 clauses for ICT providers), the EU AI Act (the clauses for AI providers), and CCPA and CPRA (the service provider clauses).
- Vendors checked: one row per requirement and one column per checked vendor, up to six, the largest by annual value first. Each cell is met, partial, missing or unclear, each row says how many vendors are short on it, and the last row says which vendors meet every line. Clear a requirement's box to see which vendors would then meet every line; nothing saves.
How to use it
- Write the requirements your organization holds vendors to.
- Turn on the rule packs that apply.
- Run the security check on contracts; the grid fills vendor by vendor and names the line vendors miss most.
Related: Clause positions · Security posture
Audit log
Who did what, and when, including views and downloads of contract files. The log is never trimmed. Old links and saved views under the former address open here with their filters.
On the screen
- The head: events over 30 days, sensitive events (downloads, deletions and member changes), people and events on record. Export CSV (filled) downloads the full log.
- Activity: every event by day and family, over 7, 30 or 90 days. Press a day for its count; the key counts file views, uploads, file downloads, deletions, member changes, report links and everything else.
- Events: the table of every event, with when, who, what, and the device and IP it came from.
- Filters: everything, sign ins, files or changes; a kind (file downloads, file views, uploads, report links, deletions, member changes, the team, API calls); and a person.
- A file view is a document opened in the viewer; a file download is a copy saved to the reader's machine. The log records both.
- Search the log, 25 rows a page.
- Save this view keeps a filter as a named link, as described under Saved views.
- Stream to your SIEM opens Webhooks, where the audit event stream is set up.
How to use it
- Pick a filter or a person, or search.
- Save a view if you audit the same slice regularly.
- Export the CSV, or stream every event to your SIEM.
Related: Security posture · Access reviews · Webhooks
Data controls
How long data is kept, where it lives, how closely Vera reads it and what is shared. Every hard deletion writes a certificate you can hand to an auditor.
When to reach for this
- The two policy decisions of week one: retention and community sharing (the handbook).
- A security questionnaire's data location and deletion questions (the recipe).
On the screen
- The head: how long data is kept, where it is stored, community benchmarks, what the next nightly run deletes and the certificates on record. Export the workspace is the filled button.
- Keeping
- Keep data for: indefinitely, or 12, 24, 36, 60, 84 or 120 months after upload. Retention deletes by upload date alone, rows and files both, even while a contract is still running. Before you save, a table lists what the next nightly run would delete, still running contracts marked; the button reads Save, delete with the count.
- Keep call recordings for: a separate, shorter clock (30 days up to 2 years) for the audio, transcript and memo of a live call. Anyone can delete their own call from its close screen at any time.
- Stored in: the United States (Vercel and Supabase US regions); no setting here moves data.
- Keep documents from tools: on by default. Files handed to the decoders, Second opinion, the Vera Deal-Room, Proposal comparison, the playbook intakes, the Time machine, Quote Face-Off (PDF only) and the Rate Card Benchmark (PDF and DOCX only) are saved privately as contracts. Off, those tools read in memory and keep nothing; documents already saved stay.
- Reading
- Reading depth: Quick, Balanced or Deepest. Briefs, playbooks and reports always run at full depth.
- Capture fields and questions: every read takes the vendor, title, type, term, value and currency. Switch on the optional fields (seats and licenses, the price increase cap, the termination notice window, auto renewal, the year by year fee ramp), and add up to 5 questions of your own, answered from every document with the passage quoted. For the 25 largest publishers Vera also asks that publisher's own questions; yours are asked first. Changes apply from the next read.
- Sharing: your documents and your name never leave the workspace.
- Community benchmarks: numeric data points only, anonymized, shown when five or more organizations add to a figure; off deletes what you gave.
- Negotiation outcomes: where confirmed deals landed, anonymized.
- Reseller quotes: Upload a reseller's quote (the vendor, the reseller and the file) and it is read and placed against the market; each is listed with Delete.
- Deletion certificates: one row per hard deletion with its date, scope, what was deleted and the files removed. Open shows the certificate, ready to print or save as a PDF.
- Export and delete
- Export the workspace: every contract, agreement and benchmark as one JSON file, with file links valid for an hour.
- Delete the workspace data: Request deletion asks to confirm; our team removes the data and a certificate confirms it.
- Start the estate again: removes contracts, files, reads and agreements, and keeps people, settings, the audit log and the certificates. Reset first counts exactly what would go, then asks you to type the workspace name before Delete everything listed arms. It writes its own certificate and cannot be undone.
How to use it
- Set a retention period if your policy requires one, and read what it would delete before you save.
- Choose whether to share with community benchmarks and negotiation outcomes.
- Export before any deletion you might regret.
Related: AI for the workspace · Trust center · Audit log
AI for the workspace
What Vera does on its own for the whole workspace. These moved here from Notifications.
On the screen
- The head: how many of the five are running, the renewal digest, the board report and the dispute threshold.
- On its own
- Renewal copilot digest: off, weekly on Mondays, or daily. A plan for each renewal before its notice date, to every owner.
- Board report: off, monthly or quarterly. A spend and savings report for leaders.
- Enroll approved renewals in AI Managed: an approved mandate arms its negotiation; every draft still waits for a person.
- Watch for anomalies: a weekly scan for missing uplift caps, misaligned terms, tool overlap and missed notice dates.
- Dispute invoice overcharges: drafts the dispute email and a payment hold task; nothing is sent without a member.
- Dispute above: the USD at stake on one invoice; smaller overcharges are listed, not disputed.
How to use it
- Turn on what you want Vera to do without being asked.
- Set the dispute threshold to what is worth a conversation with the vendor.
Related: Data controls · Vera and you · Webhooks
Trust center
How your data is protected, in one page to send a security reviewer. The figures on it are read live under your own isolation rule.
On the screen
- The head: certifications (SOC 2 aligned, Type II on the roadmap), contracts protected, files in private storage and, after a restore drill passes, when backups were last verified. Download the security summary (filled) prints the page.
- Protection: ten controls, each with how it works, its area (kept apart, kept sealed or kept yours) and where to see it: tenant isolation, least privilege, roles and restricted contracts, private storage, encryption, backups, sign in, the audit log, AI that never trains on your data, and export and delete.
- This workspace, read live: contracts protected, files in private storage, audit events recorded, the last logged activity and backups last verified.
- In your hands: the controls you set, each with Open: data controls, the audit log and access reviews (owners), vendor security requirements and two factor.
- Compliance: built to SOC 2, SOC 2 Type II on the roadmap, and Security FAQ for the questionnaire, the DPA and the pen test summary. The page is not a contractual commitment; your agreements govern.
How to use it
- Read the controls applied to your data.
- Share the page with security reviewers who ask how the platform protects information.
- When a reviewer wants a document, press Download the security summary: the print carries a cover with your organization, the month and the live figures, read under your own access scope when you print.
Related: Security posture · Data controls · Where figures come from
Where figures come from
Every figure the platform has cited for you, with its source and its date, so any number you forward can be stood behind. It was called the Figures ledger.
On the screen
- The head: figures, documents, kinds of source and the latest date. Download the ledger (CSV) is the filled button once there are figures.
- Figures: one row per figure, with the source fact it traces to, its category, the document it was cited in and the date the fact was current. Find a figure, a source or a document searches the list, 100 at a time with Show more.
- What this covers: how a figure is read, what it links to, the check before it ships, and what is not here yet (answers Vera gives in chat, Slack or Teams).
How to use it
- Look up any number a report or brief shows to see the fact it came from and when it was current.
- Search for the figure a reviewer questions and hand them the source.
Related: Trust center · Audit log
Integrations
The systems the workspace reads from and writes to. The JSON event webhooks moved to Webhooks.
When to reach for this
- The highest leverage owner hour (the recipe); each connection has a walkthrough in Chapter 19.
- Checking a connection's health: Recent syncs shows every sync's last result.
On the screen
- The head: systems connected, any failing, and whether agent to agent negotiation is on. Webhooks opens the Webhooks page.
- Systems: one table per lane, each row with its status (Connected, Failing, Ready or Not connected) and what it does here. Connect, Manage or Import opens the connection in a dialog: its fields, Save, Disconnect, and Sync now or Import everything where the source has them.
- Contract intake: the email inboxes (contracts, the estate run, deal emails, invoices, purchase requests, asking an agent), DocuSign, DocuSign sending, Adobe Acrobat Sign, Ironclad, the folder watches (Google Drive, SharePoint, Box, OneDrive, Dropbox, SFTP), and Coupa and SAP Ariba documents.
- Renewal workflow: Jira, ServiceNow, calendar invites, the calendar feed, the Slack app and the Teams bot.
- Spend and usage: Coupa spend, Okta, Microsoft Entra, Ramp, Brex, and the spend CSV, seat usage CSV and Smart import.
- Procurement and ERP: Coupa, SAP Ariba, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement and NetSuite: purchase orders and suppliers.
- Asset managers: ServiceNow SAM Pro and CMDB, Flexera One, Xensam, Snow, a SaaS management platform, USU, Microsoft 365, Oracle LMS and ULA positions, cloud billing, Intune, Jamf Pro and Salesforce usage.
- Data out: the warehouse export to Snowflake or BigQuery.
- Meeting seat addresses: one email address per seat on the contract inbox's private token:
vera+for Vera,demo+for Vera Demo, and one per specialist, also by first name. Add one to a meeting in Outlook or Google Calendar and that seat joins at the start; each address has Copy, New Outlook invite, Google Calendar and Email. The recipe is in Integration recipes. - Agents: Let vendor agents negotiate with Vera turns on agent to agent offers, each waiting for your approval, with links to the protocol and vendor onboarding. Protocol handle is what you give a vendor you invite.
- Recent syncs: the last 12 sync results, with what each brought in.
- What the asset managers found and What procurement systems found: entitled against deployed against active per vendor with the estimated shelfware, and orders at suppliers with no tracked contract.
How to use it
- Pick a system, press Connect, and enter its details or copy the address it needs.
- Let the first sync run, then read what the asset managers and procurement systems found.
Related: Webhooks · API keys · The integration catalog
Webhooks
Send alerts and events to your own systems: every webhook in one place. It gathers the alert webhooks and Vera's Slack address (from Notifications) and the JSON event webhooks (from Integrations).
On the screen
- The head: webhooks and how many are active. Add a webhook is the filled button.
- Webhooks: one table: the address, what it sends (alerts to Slack or Teams, signed JSON events, or Vera's posts to Slack), its events, an On switch, Send a test and Remove (which asks first).
- Add a webhook: choose what it sends, then the address (public https only) and a label.
- Alerts to a Slack or Teams channel: a channel an owner wires up is the organization consenting for that channel; it subscribes to the kinds you pick.
- JSON events for Zapier, Make or your own code: tick the events (contract delivered, benchmark published, contract ingested, license report received, renewal upcoming, renewal notice deadline, savings recorded, audit events, Microsoft 365 scan completed), or none for every event. The signing secret is shown once: check the X-VendorBenchmark-Signature header, an HMAC SHA256 of the timestamp and the body, before trusting a payload.
- Vera's Slack posts: the copilot digest, the anomaly watch and the board report. Adding one replaces the address Vera posts to now.
- Send a test: an alert row tests every active alert webhook; a JSON row sends a signed test event and says what the endpoint answered.
How to use it
- Press Add a webhook, choose what it sends and paste the address.
- For JSON events, copy the signing secret into your system before you close the dialog.
- Press Send a test to check it lands.
Related: Integrations · Notifications · API keys
API keys
Keys for your own tools, Claude, ChatGPT and any MCP client. Every call reads only this workspace.
On the screen
- The head: live keys, when one was last used, calls over 30 days and the next expiry (in gold within 30 days). Create a key is the filled button.
- Keys: each key with when it was created and last used, when it expires, its calls over 30 days (and how many through MCP) and its status. Replace makes a new key with the same name and leaves the old one working until you revoke it; Revoke asks first and stops anything using it at once.
- Rotate keys: every 90 days, 6 months or year, with how many live keys are already past it; saved for the whole workspace.
- Limits and the record: 60 calls a minute per key, with lower limits for Ask, second opinions, Word compares, the Office pane and agreement moves. Every call on record opens the audit log filtered to API calls.
- Create a key: name it after where it is used. The full key is shown once; every key expires after a year.
- Connect a tool: tabs for Claude, OpenAI or ChatGPT, OpenClaw, Any MCP client and Custom API, each with where to paste the key, the server address (
/api/mcp) and the snippet to copy. Custom API lists the endpoints and the Office and Outlook add in manifests.
How to use it
- Press Create a key and store it in your secrets manager; you see it only once.
- Open the tab for your tool under Connect a tool and copy its block.
- Replace a key before its expiry turns gold, then revoke the old one.
Related: Webhooks · Integrations · The API, MCP, and agent-to-agent
Desktop and Office apps
The apps for Windows, Mac and Office: VendorBenchmark Desk, Second Chair and the Office add in. Each installs on the same account and data as the browser and keeps itself current.
On the screen
- The head: the version of Desk, Desk for Mac and Second Chair on offer, and whether you are in Desk or a browser. Download Desk (filled) downloads the Windows installer.
- Apps
- Desk for Windows: the workspace as a desktop app; installs for your user only, no admin rights needed. Since 0.22.0 (23 October 2026) it asks a minute before a meeting, even folded into the tray: with Outlook or Google calendar connected and Ask me a minute before a meeting turned on in Take notes, a small window in the corner of the screen offers Listen (Take notes opens in your browser, ready for that meeting; share the screen with its audio and nothing joins the call), Have Vera join, Join and Not now. See Take notes.
- Desk for Mac: macOS 13 and later, Apple silicon and Intel. The Mac build can trail the Windows one; the line names both versions.
- Second Chair and Second Chair for Mac: the meeting app, Vera beside any app on calls. Chapter 23 is its full manual.
- Office add in: Vera in Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Office file installs it in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Outlook file in Outlook. Copying from the web app into Office needs neither: see Copy into Word, Outlook and Excel. What the pane does is in Microsoft Office.
- On this computer (in Desk only)
- Watch a folder: each new PDF or DOCX saved in the folder is filed and benchmarked; files already there are left alone. Choose a folder and Stop watching.
- Watch the clipboard: a copied quote is offered for a benchmark; read on this computer only.
- Install: the steps per app: running the installer, the "Windows protected your PC" dialog (choose More info, then Run anyway), signing in with your browser email, password and two factor code, the first open on a Mac, Second Chair's permissions on a Mac, and the Office routes for Outlook, Word and Excel on the web, on a Mac, on Windows and for a whole company. Removing an app leaves your account and data untouched. Message the team if an install gets stuck.
- What each app does: a table of the parts of Desk, Second Chair and the Office add in.
How to use it
- Press Download Desk and run the installer.
- If Windows warns about a new app, choose More info, then Run anyway.
- Sign in with the same email, password and two factor code you use in the browser.
What the Desk does
- Home is the market: Market news leads, with a yours mark on items touching your estate, then the newest briefs and films, the main apps and an ask bar.
- Your vendors, one press from a verdict: Market lists every vendor on your shelf from the app's own copy; a row opens its benchmark with your figures carried in, and Benchmark it sits on every Contracts and Renewals row.
- The Benchmark Library on the machine: the curve draws and the verdict reads with no network at all, and the foot of the window says when it is showing the copy.
- Every app, one window: Apps lists every app with search, and each opens inside the window.
- The estate lives on the machine: Contracts, Renewals and Market open from the app's own copy, readable offline, kept in your own Windows profile and erased when you sign out. Renewals counts the notice deadline, the date you must act by.
- Your contracts as folders: from 0.19.0, Desk can keep your estate as Windows folders, one per vendor. Drag a document between vendor folders and it changes vendor everywhere; deleting a file there removes only your copy.
- Vera anywhere: Ctrl Shift Space brings the ask bar forward from any app; select text and press Ctrl Shift A to ask about it. Your clipboard is restored as it was.
- Right click a contract in Explorer: Benchmark with VendorBenchmark files the document and opens it, whether the app is open, in the tray or closed.
- A filed contract opens in the reader: the document fills the window with Vera's read, the markup, the comments and the way to send it on.
- The machine lock: switch on Windows Hello and the app asks for your face, fingerprint or PIN each time it opens. The Mac build does not offer it.
- It waits in the tray: closing parks the app; notifications still arrive, and Quit lives in the tray menu.
- Your settings, inside the app: Settings › This machine opens every account and workspace setting inside the window, and names the version, the last update check and Check now.
- On a Mac: Cmd Shift Space and Cmd Shift A; the first open needs a right click and Open, once, and the selection shortcut needs Accessibility permission.
Related: Mobile app · Second Chair · Microsoft Office
Mobile app
Vera AI on your phone. Five native screens for the things a phone is better at, and a Screens tab that opens the instruments themselves, signed in, running the same figures as the web app.
On the screen
- Renewals: the notice countdown, nearest deadline first, with the price and terms watch alerts underneath. A notice window you miss on a laptop is a notice window you miss.
- Screens: sixteen instruments grouped by the job they do, with a search field: Start (the workspace screen, Ask Vera, the contract and SOW Agents, second opinion), Negotiate (the live call, case files, playbooks, the renewal calendar), Watch (the research library, videos, instant benchmark, the buyer network) and Operate (agents, agreements, the full catalog). They are the same screens as on your laptop, so the two never disagree on a number.
- Ask: the assistant, streaming, with your own contracts and the research library behind the answer.
- Submit: photograph or pick a contract and send it for benchmarking, the same path as the upload wizard.
- Reports: your delivered benchmark reports and documents, readable offline once opened.
- Settings: notification kinds and channels, your registered devices, and the fingerprint or Face ID lock.
- The live call on a phone: the microphone is wired through, so Vera can listen and prompt during a vendor call away from your desk. The app asks for the microphone the first time you open that screen, and the live call's own consent check governs recording.
- Links out: a link that leaves the platform opens in your phone's own browser.
How to use it
- Install the app, then sign in with the same email, password and two factor code you use in the browser.
- Turn on the fingerprint or Face ID lock if the phone is shared or travels with you.
- Choose your alert kinds in Settings; renewal alerts start off, exactly as they do on the web.
Tips
- Signing out clears the session inside the app's instruments as well as the native screens, so a shared phone cannot be handed on with an account still open.
Related: Notifications · Desktop and Office apps
Deployment
Where the platform runs for you: the three ways to run Vera AI, with the one your workspace runs on marked. A reference page for the security and IT reviewers who ask where contract files live; it changes nothing and carries no prices.
On the screen
- The head: the method this workspace runs on, its updates, the benchmark network and the operational work it asks of you. Services and Talk to us about it (filled).
- Options: SaaS on our shared cloud (every plan, live the same day), SaaS on your own instance (a single tenant instance in the region you choose, on Enterprise agreements) and your own customized environment (inside your boundary, by arrangement), with where each runs, who runs it and when it is available.
- Side by side: the three methods row by row, from who operates it to time to first benchmark.
- What each asks of your team: for each method, why teams choose it, the trade offs and what your team provides.
- Your own customized environment: its two routes (fully inside your boundary, or hybrid with files at home) and what you can shape: integrations, workflows, layout, rules and data. Links to the user guide, Services and the Trust center close the page.
Related: Deployment methods · Services · Trust center
That covers the settings. When you are not sure where a screen belongs, start from the manual index and follow the chapter that matches the menu group you are looking at.
Next: Chapter 07 · Common workflows
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