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Budgets

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This feature is only visible in the Console if it has been enabled for your company. It is managed by your account's Technology Solutions Architect (TSA) and isn't currently available for ES Loyalty Boost™.

The Budgets feature lets you set up and manage budgets that apply to all campaigns. It tracks budgeted spending across campaign iterations and controls actual expenses against a given budget. Once a budget reaches a specified threshold — such as zero, a negative value, or within a set percentage of zero remaining — offers associated with it are no longer targeted. This helps smooth out the spending cadence and ensures some budget remains for later iterations.

Budgets track point issuance from all ES Loyalty™ offers that are flagged as "vendor sponsored" (set in the Metadata section when the offer is created or edited).

For example, point issuance from a flyer offer flagged as "Vendor Sponsored" contributes to the budget issuance even if it didn't originate from ES Loyalty Boost.

View a budget​

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.
  2. The list of budgets is shown on the Budgets page. Use the page numbers, Previous/Next, or arrows at the bottom of the page to navigate additional pages. Use the Show dropdown to control how many budgets are displayed per page.
  3. Click a budget name to view more details.
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When viewing budget settings, you can only edit Enable Budget, End Budget, and any fields that aren't greyed out.

View budget details​

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.

  2. On the Budgets page, click the budget name you want to view.

  3. On the budget details page, the budget name and budget ID are shown in the header. In the Manage Budget section, the Enable Budget dropdown shows whether the budget is enabled (Yes or No). The End button is also shown here. For more information about disabling or ending a budget, see the procedures below.

  4. View the Budget Iterations — the repetitions of the budget. For example, a monthly budget has one iteration for each successive month. The budget amount minus the issuance for each iteration gives the balance remaining for that iteration.

  5. View the Identifier — the unique internal name for the budget.

  6. View the Schedule section to see the start and end date and time, and the cadence (set to Monthly).

  7. View additional Details about the budget:

    • Budget Inclusions: Identifies what is included in the budget using the Category, Entity List, and Lookup Key.
    • Category: The currently supported value is Primary Vendor.
    • Entity List: A list of entities used to filter source data and determine the amount applied to this budget. For the Primary Vendor category, this is a list of vendor codes. Note: Values are always in upper case.
    • Lookup Key: Usually the name associated with the category. For example, if the category is Primary Vendor, the Lookup Key is likely the vendor's company name. Use 3 to 128 alphanumeric characters and allowed symbols (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _@+$&', French letters, and spaces).
    • Budget Amount: Set through the Amount Type, the amount, and whether carry-over is allowed.
    • Amount Type: Currently points only.
    • Amount: Enter a positive numeric value using a maximum of 18 digits.
    • Budget Carry Over: Whether any unused budget at the end of the current iteration can be carried over to the next, set to Enabled or Disabled.

Filter the budgets shown​

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.

  2. On the Budgets page, click the Filter button.

  3. In the window that opens, select the filter parameters:

    • Budget Name: Always set to Equal to. Enter the exact and complete budget name.
    • Status: Always set to Equal to. Select a value such as Enabled or Disabled.
    • Lookup Key: Always set to Equal to. Select a value such as a vendor's company name. Use 3 to 128 alphanumeric characters and allowed symbols (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _@+$&', French letters, and spaces).
    • Category: Always set to Equal to. Select a value such as Primary Vendor.
    • Entity List: Always set to Contains. Select a value such as a vendor ID code. Only correct values return results.
    • Date Range: Choose the date and time range during which the budget's start date falls. Select the start and end date and time for the range.

  4. Click Filter Results. The window closes and the filtered results appear on the Budgets page.

  5. To reset filters at any time, click Reset Filters in the filter window.

Create a budget​

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.

  2. On the Budgets page, click +Budget. A new page opens.

  3. Enter the Identifier — the unique internal name for the budget.

  4. Set the Schedule — the start and end date and time. Note: The default start time is 00:00 and the default end time is 23:59.

  5. Set the Cadence — how frequently budget iterations occur (for example, Monthly). Note: Only Monthly is currently supported.

  6. After setting up the schedule, click Preview at the bottom of the page to review the budget iterations in draft. Check the table of iterations to make sure the dates and amounts are correct. A well-constructed budget typically has iterations starting on the first day of the month and ending on the last, to keep iterations comparable.

  7. Set the Details of the budget:

    Budget Inclusions: Identifies what is included using the Category, Entity List, and Lookup Key:

    • Category: For example, Primary Vendor indicates the budget is provided by a vendor.
    • Entity List: A list of entities used to filter source data. For the Primary Vendor category, this is a list of vendor codes. Note: Values are always in upper case.
    • Lookup Key: Usually the name associated with the category. For example, if the category is Primary Vendor, the Lookup Key is likely the vendor's company name (such as Buyco). Use 3 to 128 alphanumeric characters and allowed symbols (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _@+$&', French letters, and spaces).

    Budget Amount: Set through the Amount Type, the amount, and whether carry-over is allowed:

    • Amount Type: Points or dollars (currently limited to points).
    • Amount: Enter a numeric value. Maximum of 18 digits.
    • Budget Carry Over: Select Enabled or Disabled to determine whether unused budget from one period carries over to the next. For example, enabling this means 1,000 unused points from June are added to the July budget. Disabled is the default.

  8. If you decide not to create the budget, click Cancel. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.

  9. Click Preview to review a summary of the budget details.

  10. Click Create. A success message appears and the budget is added to the Budgets page.

Enable or disable a budget​

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.
  2. On the Budgets page, click a budget name to open it.
  3. In the Manage Budget section, use the Enable Budget dropdown to change the status. Select No to disable or Yes to enable. Note: Disabling a budget (setting Enable Budget to No) immediately stops issuance tracking, halts its use by downstream features such as Campaign Automation, and prevents the creation of future budget iterations. If re-enabled, these functions resume and any issuance during the disabled period is retroactively added to the current iteration.
  4. Click Accept in the confirmation window. A message confirms the change. If disabled, no further spend occurs on the budget unless it is re-enabled.

End a live budget​

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.
  2. On the Budgets page, click a budget name to open it.
  3. In the Manage Budget section, click End.
  4. In the End a Budget window, confirm that you want to end the budget. Note that the budget doesn't end until the last day of the current period (for example, the last day of the month). Click Accept to confirm.
  5. A message confirms that the budget has been ended. On the Budgets page, a message icon appears next to the budget — hover over it to see the end date, which is the end of the current iteration.

Delete a future budget​

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.
  2. On the Budgets page, click a budget name to open it.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
  4. On the bottom toolbar, click More, then Delete.
  5. In the warning window, click Accept to confirm the deletion. A message confirms that the budget has been deleted.

Change the budget during an iteration or between iterations​

Once the budget amount has been set for an iteration, it can't be edited directly. To change the budget amount, you need to create a new budget.

Example: Changing the budget amount during an iteration

You have a Q1 budget running from January 1 to March 31, set to 1,000,000 points per iteration. On March 15, you learn the budget for that month has been increased to 2,000,000.

Since you can't directly change the March budget amount, follow these steps:

  1. Determine how much of the budget has been spent so far in the month — for example, 500,000 points.
  2. Calculate the remaining budget: new total minus points already spent. In this case: 2,000,000 – 500,000 = 1,500,000.
  3. Open the current budget from the Budgets page and disable it (set Enable to No).
  4. Create a new budget with a start date of March 15 and an end date of March 31, with a budget amount of 1,500,000.

Example: Changing the budget amount for the following iteration

You have a budget running from January 1 to June 30, set to 1,000,000 points per monthly iteration. On March 15, you learn the budget for each remaining month has been increased to 2,000,000.

  1. From the top menu of the Console, select Promotions > Budgets.
  2. Open the current budget from the Budgets page.
  3. Click End to end the current budget. It ends at the end of the current iteration — in this case, March 31.
  4. Create a new budget with a start date of April 1 and an end date of June 30, with a budget amount of 2,000,000. This creates three iterations (April, May, and June), each with a budget of 2,000,000.

Understanding Overlapping Budgets​

If two or more budgets provide rewards on the same items, a member collects from both budgets if they meet the offer criteria. For example:

  • Budget 1: Vendor Entity = Bob's Soap, Budget Amount = 1,000,000, offer rewards 100 points on the purchase of a bar of Bob's Soap.
  • Budget 2: Vendor Entity = Bob's Soap, Acme Soap, and other soap vendors, Budget Amount = 10,000,000, offer rewards 100 points on the purchase of any bar of soap.

A member who meets the criteria for both offers collects 100 points from each budget — budget issuance rises by 100 points for each, both budget balances decrease, and the member receives 200 points total.

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