Connect a CRM, MLS, loan-origination, or agency-management system to CoverGuard, choose exactly which fields flow, and keep the two in sync — so the records you already maintain elsewhere show up where you work.
Who this is for: Team and company admins (Sys Admin access). Where: the Sys Admin → Integration Hub area (/sys-admin). Time: ~10 min.
New here? Do Getting started first (signup, terms, navigation).
Why this matters
Your contacts, clients, and documents already live in another system. Connecting it lets CoverGuard pull that data in (so you don't re-key it) and push results back out (so your other tools stay current) — on a mapping you review and approve, never a black box. You decide what crosses, in which direction, and you can see every sync that ran.
Before you start
- An active Professional plan (the Integration Hub is a Professional-tier feature). See
/pricing. - Sys Admin access to your company account.
Try it first with the Sandbox
You don't need a real outside account to see how syncing works. The Sandbox CRM is a built-in, safe demo system with sample contacts.
- Open Sys Admin → Integration Hub.
- Choose CoverGuard Sandbox CRM and provision it. CoverGuard sets up the connection and a ready-made field mapping for you.
- Press Sync now. CoverGuard pulls the sample contacts into a staging area and shows you what it moved.
- Press Sync now again — nothing new moves. That's the incremental behavior working: only changed records cross, so a repeat sync is safe.
Everything you see with the Sandbox is exactly how a real connection behaves — same mapping, sync, and history.
How to connect a real system
- In the Integration Hub, pick your system. The picker shows the systems teams like yours actually connect — an agent sees MLS and real-estate CRMs, a lender sees loan-origination systems, an insurance broker sees agency-management systems — so you're not wading through tools that don't apply to you. Don't see yours? Choose Something else and describe it (or paste its address or API docs) and CoverGuard wires it up.
- Choose how to get access. You'll see up to three paths in the picker, and only the ones that genuinely exist for your system are selectable:
- Sign in — available when CoverGuard has a one-click connection for that system. It sends you to the provider to authorise access and brings you back. Your credentials are encrypted and never shown back to you or anyone else.
- Connect automatically — coming soon in the picker itself (it's greyed out there so you're never left thinking a system is connected when it isn't) — but the same capability is available a step later, on the connection's own page. See the next step.
- Have IT finish the setup — CoverGuard drafts the request for your IT team.
If Sign in is greyed out, CoverGuard doesn't have a one-click connection for that system yet — either path below still gets you connected.
- Or connect automatically from the connection's page. Once the connection is saved, open its page and find the Connect automatically panel. Paste in whatever you have about the system's API — a public OpenAPI/Swagger spec URL, its live base address, or just the API docs — and, if you have one, an API key or access token. One press ingests it, proposes a field mapping, wires up the technical details CoverGuard needs to read the system, stores your key, and runs a real test read — so a system with no one-click sign-in can still go from "just added" to "provably reading" without an IT ticket. Anything it had to guess (rather than read directly off the system's own documentation) is called out so you know what's worth double-checking.
- Verify the connection. On the connection's page, press Verify connection (or re-verify any time). CoverGuard performs a real test read against the system and tells you what happened. This is the step that proves access works — a saved API key or sign-in isn't proof on its own (a key can be expired, scoped wrong, or rejected).
- Review the field mapping CoverGuard proposes (for example, their "email" to your client email). Turn fields on or off, adjust them, and Approve the mapping. Nothing syncs until you approve.
- Choose a direction and cadence: pull data in, push out, or keep both in sync — manually, hourly, or daily.
- Press Sync now, or let the schedule run it.
What you'll see / What it means
- A connection status that reflects what's actually true, not what you clicked. It shows each thing separately: whether access is stored, whether reading works (proved by a test read), whether sending works if your sync pushes data, and whether a field mapping is approved. A connection reads as Unverified until a test read succeeds, and Not connected when no access is stored — CoverGuard won't describe a connection as working until something proves it.
- Reading and sending are checked separately. A read-only login passes a test read, so if your sync sends data out CoverGuard checks that too — and tells you plainly when the access you granted is read-only, or when there's no place configured to send to. For most systems it can confirm sending is wired up and reachable but not that permission will be accepted, because confirming that would mean creating a record in your system — which it won't do. The first real sync settles it.
- Checks are re-run daily. A pass is dated, and CoverGuard re-checks connections about once a day, so access revoked on the other system's side shows up here instead of sitting as an old success. If a check is out of date the page says so, and you can re-check any time.
- A saved connection with no access is a registry entry: a record of what you want connected and why. It's useful (it's what your IT request refers to), but nothing can sync from it. It stays Setup pending.
- Sync now stays disabled until access is proven and a mapping is approved — and the page tells you which one is missing, rather than offering a button that has to fail.
- A sync summary after each run: how many records came in, went out, and whether any failed.
- Sync history for the connection, so you can confirm what happened and when.
- Data pulled in lands in a staging area for review — it does not silently overwrite your live CoverGuard clients or properties. Promoting a staged record is a deliberate, separate step.
- Data pushed out is read from your CoverGuard clients; syncing never changes your CoverGuard data on the way out.
Field mappings are decision support: CoverGuard proposes them from what it can infer about each system, and you confirm them. Always review before approving. Proposed fields are clearly marked as not approved until you approve them, and re-proposing never silently replaces the mapping you already approved — you approve the new one explicitly.
Bringing staged data into your workspace
Pulled-in records wait in a staging area so you can look before anything joins your live workspace. To turn a staged contact into a real client:
- Open the connection and review the staged records.
- Select the ones you want and choose Promote. Each becomes a client in your workspace; the rest stay staged.
Promoting is deliberate — a record you've already promoted won't be created twice. If you keep syncing, you can also reconcile already-promoted contacts: CoverGuard merges the other system's newer values into the existing client field by field, following the rules you set per field (the other system wins, CoverGuard wins, or whichever changed most recently) — so an update on either side lands without clobbering good edits on the other.
Staying in sync automatically
Some systems can notify CoverGuard the moment something changes. When you connect, CoverGuard gives you a one-time webhook link and token — add it in your other system, and a change there triggers a fresh sync here. You can also just leave the connection on an hourly or daily schedule.
Tips
- Verify before you trust it. Press Verify connection after connecting, and again any time a sync starts failing — it's the fastest way to tell "access broke" apart from "there was nothing to sync".
- Start every new connection with a small, one-direction sync to confirm the mapping looks right before turning on two-way, scheduled syncing.
- Re-running the mapping suggestions never erases a mapping you already approved — your approved version is kept separately.
Troubleshooting / Common questions
- "The Sign in option is greyed out for my system." → CoverGuard doesn't have a one-click connection for it yet. Try Connect automatically on the connection's page first (paste its API docs/address + an API key if you have one) — or use Have IT finish the setup and we'll draft the request.
- "I used Connect automatically but nothing's readable yet." → It's best-effort: with too little to go on (no base address, or no matching endpoint for the entity you named) it will say so rather than guess a configuration that would fail silently. Paste fuller docs, try a different entity type (e.g. "contact" vs "lead"), or fall back to Have IT finish the setup.
- "Verify says 'never been connected'." → No access is stored for that system. It's saved as a registry entry only — grant access first, then verify.
- "Verify says the system rejected our access." → The stored credential is present but not accepted. It's usually expired, revoked, or missing a scope. Reconnect to refresh it.
- "Verify says it couldn't reach the system." → The API address didn't respond, timed out, or isn't publicly reachable. Check the address, then try again.
- "Verify says there's no read configuration." → Access works, but CoverGuard doesn't know which endpoint to read. Add the API address and record path on the connection, then verify again.
- "Verify succeeded but returned no records." → Access works — there was simply nothing to pull. That's a healthy connection with an empty result.
- "Sync now is disabled." → Either access hasn't been proven or no mapping is approved. The connection page names which one; clear it and the button enables.
- "Nothing new synced." → That's expected when nothing changed since the last run — only new or changed records cross.
Do this next
- Provision the Sandbox CRM and run one sync to see the whole flow safely.
- Notifications & emails — keep the right people informed.