Why verification exists
Your account is built on one piece of contact information — the mobile number or email address you signed up with. That is also how you sign in, so before Pool Founder will send anything to your customers under your company name, or move money on your behalf, it needs proof that the number or address really belongs to you. Proving it means entering a 6-digit code we text or email you. That is all verification is.
Everything else in Pool Founder is open before you verify: importing your book, building routes, adding pools, running visits in the technician app, writing invoices and quotes. It's the moment something leaves the building — an email to a customer, a text, a card charge, a teammate invite — or the moment you start paying us, that verification is required.
Verifying takes about ten seconds and only has to be done once. After that the code screen never comes back unless you sign in again or change your number.
How signing up works
Signup asks for one thing: a mobile number or an email address. On a phone the number field leads; on a laptop the email field leads, and either screen has a Continue with phone / Continue with email toggle plus Continue with Google. Company details are always collected on the next screen, not this one.
- Depending on how you sign up, you may be asked to confirm your number or address with a 6-digit code right then — enter it on the "Enter your code" screen and you are both signed in and verified in one step.
- You may instead go straight into company setup and be asked to confirm later. If that happens, your account is real and usable immediately, but the customer-facing features below stay closed until you verify.
- Signing up with Google verifies your email address automatically — Google vouches for it, so there is no code to enter.
- If the number or address you type already has a Pool Founder account, you will always be sent a code. That is deliberate: it is how we know it is you and not someone typing your number.
Either way, nothing is lost. An account that has not been verified keeps everything you set up — verifying later unlocks the rest exactly where you left off.
What a verified phone or email unlocks
These features require a verified phone number or email address. Until one is verified, each of them stops and offers to verify you instead of failing quietly.
| Area | What's blocked until you verify |
|---|---|
| Invoices | Emailing an invoice to a customer (including resending it) and charging a card on file |
| Quotes | Sending or resending a quote — a quote can still be written and saved as a draft |
| Payments | Connecting Stripe, saving a customer's card, and sending a "card on file" request |
| Texting | Texting customers, replying in the phone inbox, approving an AI draft reply, and "on the way" texts from the technician app |
| Phone | Getting a business phone number, and buying the $25/mo business line add-on |
| Team | Adding a teammate, and resending a teammate invite |
| Subscription | Starting a paid plan when your trial ends, and upgrading to a higher plan — canceling, and updating the card Pool Founder bills, are never blocked |
Everything not on that list works normally, including the whole technician mobile app, routes, job completion, water chemistry, service reports to yourself, importing customers, and recording offline payments (check, cash, Zelle) by hand.
The automatic "on the way" text that fires when a technician starts the next stop will simply not send while the account is unverified — the technician sees no error. If customers have stopped getting on-the-way texts, check verification first.
How to verify
There are three ways in, and they all end at the same 6-digit code.
1. The card on your Overview page
An unverified account sees an amber card at the top of Overview reading "Verify your phone number to unlock billing" (or "Verify your email to unlock billing", depending on what is on your account). Click Verify now.
You can dismiss the card with the × in its corner, but it is a snooze rather than a dismissal — it comes back in a week if the account is still unverified.
2. The prompt that appears when you try a blocked feature
Try to send an invoice, send a quote, text a customer, set up payments, or invite a teammate on an unverified account and a Verify your contact info window opens in place of the action, explaining that "One quick code unlocks invoicing, texting your customers, and taking payments."
- 1Check the number or address shown — it is displayed in full so a typo is easy to spot.
- 2Click Text me a code (or Email me a code).
- 3Enter the 6-digit code on the "Enter your code" step.
The window closes as soon as the code is accepted and the feature is unlocked immediately — no reload, no sign-out. If the thing you were doing did not finish on its own, do it once more.
3. Just sign in again
Signing in at /signin with a code — Text me a code for a phone or Continue with email for an address — verifies you as a side effect, because entering that code proves the same thing. Signing in with Google does it too. If you were going to sign in again anyway, that is the least work.
Wrong number or wrong email on the account
If the number or address in the verify window is wrong — a typo at signup, or a phone you no longer have — click Wrong number? (or Wrong email?) underneath it, type the correct one, and the code goes there instead.
Verifying a different number or address makes it the one you sign in with from then on. Use a phone you can actually receive texts on, or an inbox you can actually open — otherwise you will be locked out at the next sign-in.
If the window says there is no phone number or email on file for your account, add one in Settings first, then come back and verify it.
Technicians and office staff
Verification is checked against the account owner, not whoever happens to be clicking. Technicians and office staff never have to verify anything of their own, and an invited teammate is not asked for a code beyond their normal sign-in.
The flip side is that if the owner has not verified, the whole company is affected: a technician sending an on-the-way text, or an office manager emailing an invoice, is blocked by the owner's unverified account. The fix is always the same — the owner verifies once, from the Overview card or the next prompt they see.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to enter a code to sign up?
Signup asks for a mobile number or an email address, and you may be asked to confirm it with a 6-digit code right away. Sometimes you go straight into company setup instead and confirm later. Signing up with Google skips the code entirely because Google verifies the email address for us. Whichever way you come in, a verified phone or email is required before you can send invoices or quotes, text customers, take payments, invite teammates, or start a paid subscription.
Why can't I send this invoice or quote?
The most common reason on a new account is that the phone number or email on the account has not been verified yet. Sending an invoice or quote emails your customer under your company name, so it stays closed until we know the account is really yours. Click Verify now on the Overview page (or the Verify your contact info window that appeared), enter the 6-digit code we text or email you, and try again. If the account is already verified, check that your role has the invoices:send or quotes:send permission.
Can I use Pool Founder before I verify?
Yes. Importing customers, adding pools, building and running routes, completing visits in the technician app, recording water chemistry, and writing invoices and quotes as drafts all work on an unverified account. Only the things that reach a customer or move money are held back: sending invoices and quotes, texting customers, Stripe payment setup and card charges, buying the business line, inviting teammates, and starting or upgrading a paid subscription.
Why can't I subscribe or upgrade before verifying?
Because every receipt, payment-failure notice, and support reply about your subscription goes to the phone number or email on your account. If neither has been proven, a billing problem has nowhere to land. Verifying takes one 6-digit code, and the plan you clicked on carries on from where it stopped. Canceling a subscription and updating the card we bill are never blocked, verified or not.
Nothing sends and my techs see no error — what should I check?
Check verification. The automatic "on the way" text is deliberately silent when the account is unverified, so a technician starting the next stop sees nothing wrong while the customer gets no text. Verify the owner's phone or email and the texts resume on the next stop.
I verified with the wrong number. Can I change it?
Yes. Open the verify window again and click "Wrong number?" (or "Wrong email?"), then enter the correct one and verify that. Be aware that the number or address you verify becomes the one you sign in with from then on, so use one you can receive messages on.
Do my technicians have to verify too?
No. The check looks at the account owner only. Your technicians and office staff sign in normally and are never asked for a separate verification — but if the owner is unverified, customer-facing actions are blocked for everyone in the company until the owner verifies.