How verticals work

VertaFlow is one CRM. Your vertical decides what it calls things, which screens show up in the sidebar, and which numbers lead your dashboard. Pick the vertical that matches your business once, and the whole app speaks your language — “Jobs” for a plumber, “Reservations” for a restaurant, “Matters” for a law practice.

There’s no separate “restaurant edition” or “agency edition” to buy. Same platform, same data underneath. The vertical is a layer of terminology, navigation, and dashboard config on top of it.

The five bases

Every vertical is built on one of five bases. The base is what actually drives the behavior — the navigation set, the dashboard KPIs, the “today” widget, and the default nouns. Industries that share a base share that behavior; only the wording differs.

Base	Built for	Leads with
Agency	Agencies, consulting, creative, legal, real estate, education	Pipeline + deals, projects, invoices
Service Pro	HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, landscaping, auto, photography, gyms	Jobs, dispatch, crew, schedule
Restaurant	Restaurants, cafés, bars	Reservations, floor map, kitchen display
Retail	Retail, e-commerce	Storefront, POS, orders, products, inventory, loyalty
Wellness	Spa, yoga, fitness, chiropractic, healthcare	Appointments, availability, packages

There are 16 specific verticals in total. Many sit on the same base — HVAC, Plumbing, and Cleaning are all Service Pro variants, for example. A variant inherits its base’s screens and dashboard, then tweaks the wording: Cleaning calls a Dispatch a “Scheduled Clean,” Photography calls a Job a “Shoot.”

What the vertical changes

Switching vertical changes three things at once:

1. Terminology. Nouns re-render everywhere through VertaFlow’s terminology engine. A Client becomes a Guest in a restaurant, a Customer in retail, a Patient in healthcare. A Project becomes a Job, Matter, Shoot, Work Order, or Course depending on the vertical. See the Terminology reference for the full table.

2. Navigation. The sidebar shows only the screens that base needs. A Service Pro sees Jobs, Schedule, Crew, and Dispatch. A restaurant sees Reservations, Floor, and the Kitchen Display (KDS). A retailer sees Storefront, POS, Orders, Products, Inventory, and Loyalty.

3. Dashboard. Your headline tiles and the “today” widget change. A Service Pro dashboard leads with “Jobs today” and a job list; a restaurant leads with “Reservations today” and covers; a wellness practice leads with appointments, rebook rate, and no-show rate.

Your records and contacts are never rewritten when terminology changes — only the labels you see. A “Client” record and a “Guest” record are the same kind of record under the hood.

Subject hubs

Some verticals add a subject hub — a record type for the thing the work happens to, separate from the client who pays:

• Property — cleaning, landscaping, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, real estate
• Vehicle — auto shop / automotive
• Matter — law practices
• Case — chiropractic, healthcare

The subject hub lets you keep history against the address, the vehicle, or the legal matter — not just the person on the invoice.

You set your vertical at onboarding

You choose your business type when you create your account. See Pick your vertical. If you picked the wrong one, you can change it later — see Wrong terminology or nav.

Previewing other verticals (agencies / resellers)

If you’re an agency reselling VertaFlow, you can preview every vertical you sell without owning five accounts. The skin switcher lives at Settings → Skins and flips the whole app — terminology, nav, dashboard, and theme — into any of the five bases.

Note

The skin switcher is a reseller preview tool, not a way to change your account’s real vertical. Flipping a skin only changes what you see; your clients and data are untouched, and the change is local to your browser (it clears when you reset it). It’s available only on the preview environment or for genuine agency accounts — a real restaurant customer in production always sees their own skin and can’t switch.

See Skins / appearance for the full walkthrough.