---
title: "Set up carrier guidelines"
description: "Upload the carrier and TPA program guidelines you work under. Wave extracts the billing rules into a library you review, then audits estimates against it."
group: "account"
lane: "how-to"
status: "published"
publishedAt: 2026-07-31
sidebarOrder: 28
tags: ["guidelines", "settings", "how-to"]
relatedSlugs:
  - "estimates/review-guideline-findings"
  - "account/settings-overview"
  - "billing/plan-comparison"
sidebarLabel: "Set up guidelines"
---

Carrier and TPA program guidelines are the fine print your estimates get judged against. Wave turns them into a checklist you control: upload the document once, review the rules it pulls out, and Wave audits every estimate you attach the program to.

## Wave is not trained on carrier guidelines

Worth saying plainly: Wave doesn't come with any carrier's guidelines built in, and it doesn't train on the ones you upload. Your guidelines are **your** reference material — Wave reads them only to flag *your* estimates against the programs *you* attach. They're never used to improve Wave, never shared, and never visible outside your company. The feature exists to empower you against the fine print, not to collect it.

## Upload a program

1. Open **Settings → Guidelines** (Admin only, on Basic and above).
2. Add a program — name it after the carrier or TPA program it represents.
3. Upload the guideline document (PDF). Wave reads it and extracts the billing rules it finds.

Extraction runs in the background; the panel shows progress while it works.

## Review the rules

The point of the review step is that *you* decide what counts. For each extracted rule you can:

- **Accept** it as written
- **Ignore** it — it stays out of every audit
- **Fix** it — adjust how Wave understood the rule

When the review is done, **publish** the program. Published versions don't change out from under you — uploading a new guideline document starts a fresh draft for review, and your estimates keep auditing against the version you published until you publish the next one.

## Use it on a job

Attach a program when you start a job (the picker on the home composer) or anytime from the chat input. When the estimate is finished, Wave audits it against that program's actual terms. See [Review guideline findings](/docs/estimates/review-guideline-findings).

## Availability

Guideline review is available on **Basic and above**, and included in the free trial. The Guidelines tab appears in Settings only when your plan includes it. See [Plans and limits](/docs/billing/plan-comparison).

## Related

- [Review guideline findings](/docs/estimates/review-guideline-findings): the job-side half
- [Settings overview](/docs/account/settings-overview)
- [Plans and limits](/docs/billing/plan-comparison)