A tour of the app

Scout has four main pages and a short list of supporting ones, and you can learn all of them in one sitting. This tour goes through each in the order you will meet them, names the controls on each, and says which article covers it in depth.

The header, on every page

The header carries the same things everywhere:

Inbox, Map, Found, and Connections — the four main pages. The Inbox link carries a count of open items.
A sync indicator that reads either how long ago Scout last read your sources ("Synced 8 min ago") or Attention needed when a connection has a problem. Choosing it takes you to Connections.
The alerts bell, for workspace housekeeping.
Your avatar and name, with the workspace name beneath it. Choosing it opens the profile menu.

The alerts bell

The alerts panel open from the header bell, showing that nothing needs attention.

The bell is for two things only: connections that need an administrator, and identity reviews waiting on a decision. When there is nothing, it says so: "Nothing needs your attention. Scout will alert you here about connections and account housekeeping. Client work stays in your Inbox." That last sentence is the rule — customer work never appears in the bell, and housekeeping never clutters your Inbox. See The alerts bell.

The profile menu and the workspace switcher

The profile menu shows your name and email address, then shortcuts: Your account, Workspace settings, Watches, Teams, People & roles, and Help & docs. Below those, under Workspaces, every workspace you hold a seat in is listed with your role and its headcount, plus Create workspace. Sign out is at the bottom.

Switching workspaces switches everything — Inbox, Map, Found, connections, settings. Nothing crosses between them. See Multiple workspaces.

Inbox — your living action item list

The Inbox with the morning line at the top, filter chips and housekeeping links in the left rail, items grouped by due date, and a selected item's detail on the right.

The Inbox is the page Scout opens on, and the one you will use daily. Across the top is the morning line — one sentence reading the day, with the time your brief was compiled and a Click for analysis link that opens the brief's reasoning. Below that, items are grouped into five sections by when they are due: Overdue, Today, Week, Month, and a final section for work with no due date. A line under the chips states the window you are looking at, for example "45-day window through 2026-09-13. Undated work stays visible."

The Inbox section chips showing counts for Overdue, Today, Week, and Month.

The left rail has two sets of controls. The filter chips at the top switch what kind of point you are looking at — Everything, Needs you (things to act on), Worth knowing (things to know), and Notices (housekeeping). Under Housekeeping are the four supporting surfaces — Identity review, Visibility review, Settled, and Lapsed — and a What do these mean? link that explains all four in plain language without leaving the page. Below that sit a Seasonal observations panel and a Found tile summarizing the last thirty days.

The Inbox scope pill with the Teams menu open, showing Mine, All, and individual teams.

The scope pill decides whose work you are looking at: Mine, All, or one or more Teams. Mine and your teams are available to everyone; All is for Owners and Admins. In a workspace with a single working seat the scope controls are hidden entirely, because there is no one else to scope to.

Selecting an item opens its detail on the right: the kind of point, the customer and work it concerns, the accountable team and person, who is following it, and The work — where this came from with every piece of evidence Scout used. Where Scout has prepared a message you might send, it appears under Draft — prepared by Scout with a link to open the thread in your own mail program and a Copy draft button, over the line that governs the whole product: "Scout prepares — you send."

The actions on an item are Claim, Handled (with Dismiss under its menu), Follow, and Hide, plus the three verdicts Useful, Not useful, and Wrong. Working an item covers each one; How the Inbox is organized covers the sections, scopes, and filters.

Map — the linked book of business

The Map showing clients on the left, a graph of linked accounts, contacts, work, quotes, and invoices in the center, and totals on the right.

The Map answers "how does this account actually hang together?" It draws your clients, contacts, projects, quotes, invoices, and vendors, and the links Scout observed between them, with a note on each link saying whether it was declared by a source, resolved by Scout, or derived from other links. Filters across the top switch the tone of what is shown — all, needs you, worth knowing, notices, quiet — and a Showing control switches between active work, a rolling window, and everything. Settled work is dimmed rather than removed, so it stays visible without competing for attention.

A single client selected on the Map, with their contacts, projects, quotes, and invoices drawn around them.

Choosing a client narrows the picture to that account. See The Map.

Found — the value ledger

The Found page showing the period total, the Collected, Margin won, and Cost avoided columns, precision figures, and seasonal patterns.

Found is the record of what Scout has been worth. It keeps three separate columns — money collected, margin won, and cost avoided — and deliberately never adds them into one number, because they are three different kinds of claim. Period buttons switch between thirty days, sixty days, six months, and twelve months, and a How are these calculated? link explains the arithmetic.

The receipts section of Found, each line naming what was caught, what happened next, and the source record that proves it.

Under the totals sit Point precision (how many points you marked useful), Acted on, the seasonal patterns Scout has learned about your accounts, and The receipts — one line per counted item, each naming the source record that proves it. A What didn't count section lists what Scout got wrong or you muted. See Found: the value ledger.

Settled — the archive of closed work

The Settled archive with filters for how items closed and a selected item showing its closure receipt.

Reached from Housekeeping in the Inbox rail. Everything that leaves your Inbox lands here with a receipt saying how it closed: by evidence (the source showed it resolved), by you (handled or dismissed), or muted by an administrator. You can search close notes and filter by date, by how it closed, by owner, and by source. Nothing is ever deleted — this log is what the precision figure and Found are built from. See The Settled archive.

Lapsed — work nobody claimed

The Lapsed shelf listing items that passed their due date unclaimed, with a Claim to revive action.

Also reached from Housekeeping. An item that passed its due date, was never claimed, and stayed visible for ten business days moves to the Lapsed shelf. It is not deleted and it is not a penalty — Scout moves it aside to keep the Inbox current, and tells you in your brief how many lapsed last week. Claim to revive brings one back into the Inbox as yours. See Lapsed items and the Lapsed shelf.

Identity review and Visibility review

An identity review card proposing that two records are the same client, with Confirm and Keep separate actions.

Identity review is where you settle Scout's proposals that two records are the same customer or contact. Visibility review is an Owner and Admin queue: when work derived from someone's personal mailbox matters to a teammate, Scout asks permission before widening it, shows only the reasoning and participants rather than the message, and records the decision. Members and Viewers do not see that queue at all.

A visibility review with Scout's recommended destination and the Approve and assign, Edit destination, and Deny actions.

Connections — what Scout reads

The Connections catalogue grouped by category, with each source card showing its state and when Scout last read it.

The catalogue of sources, grouped by category, with a count of how many are connected. Each card says what that source gives Scout, whether it is connected, when Scout last read it successfully, and what to do if something is wrong. The page states its own rule at the top: Scout reads these sources and never owns the records — your tools stay authoritative. Views switch between By category, All A–Z, and Coming Soon. See Connections overview.

Settings

Settings is reached from your profile menu and has a Back to Inbox link at the top. It is in two groups. Your account holds Profile (name, title, time zone, avatar) and Sign-in & security. Workspace holds General, Watches, Notifications, Teams, People & roles, and Plan & billing. Which section you land on depends on your role: Owners and Admins land on General, Members and Viewers on People & roles.

Sections an Owner or Admin writes are visible to Members as read-only rather than hidden, so everyone can see how the workspace is configured without being able to change it.

On a phone

The Scout Inbox at phone width, with items stacked in one column and navigation at the bottom.

Every page reflows to phone width, with navigation at the bottom of the screen. There is nothing to install — Scout runs in your browser. See Which browsers and devices does Scout support?

Good to know

The Inbox, Map, Found, Settled, and Lapsed all show only what you are authorized to see. Two people in the same workspace can look at the same page and see different work.
Every page has its own address. You can bookmark a client on the Map or a filtered Inbox scope and come back to it.
Scout refreshes in place while you are on a page, so items appear and settle without a manual reload.
The What do these mean? link in the Inbox rail is the fastest in-product explanation of Identity review, Visibility review, Settled, and Lapsed.