MDF Fund Programs and Allocations
A fund program is a pot of money for a period and a purpose. An allocation gives a share of that pot to one partner account. A partner requests funds against a program shared with them.
Creating a Fund Program
Go to Programs & Allocations and click New Program.
| Field | Notes |
|---|
| Name | Required, up to 200 characters. Partners see this, so name it the way it should appear on their requests - "FY26 EMEA Demand Generation" rather than "Prog 3". |
| Description | Optional, up to 2,000 characters. Visible to partners. |
| Status | Draft, Active or Closed. See below. |
| Fiscal year | Between 2000 and 2100. Groups programs in reporting and enables prior-year comparison. |
| Start date / End date | The window the program runs for. The end date cannot precede the start date. |
| Currency | The currency the budget is held in. |
| Total budget | The full amount available across all partners in this program. |
| Funding model | Fixed, Accrual or Discretionary. See below. |
| Eligible activity types | Which activity types partners may request against. |
| Auto-approve threshold | Requests at or below this skip the approval chain for this program, overriding the organization default. |
| Claim deadline (days) | Days after an activity ends that claims stay open, overriding the organization default. |
| Terms & conditions | Terms partners accept when submitting against this program. Leave empty to inherit the organization default. |
| Owner | The internal user who owns the program. Relevant if your approval chain routes to the program owner. |
Program status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|
| Draft | Being set up. Not visible to partners; no requests possible. |
| Active | Live. Partners the program is shared with can submit requests. |
| Closed | No new requests. Existing requests, claims and reimbursements continue as normal and the program stays in reporting. |
Use Closed rather than deleting. It preserves history and keeps the figures in your year-end reporting.
Funding models
The funding model records how the budget was arrived at. It is reported on and compared across programs; it does not by itself change how approvals behave.
| Model | Typical use |
|---|
| Fixed | A set amount agreed up front for the period, divided among partners. The most common choice. |
| Accrual | The pot grows with partner performance, for example a percentage of revenue generated. |
| Discretionary | Released case by case at the vendor's discretion, with no pre-agreed entitlement. |
If you select no eligible activity types, nothing is eligible. An empty selection is treated as an unconfigured program, not as "everything allowed", and partners cannot add any activity to a request against it. Always choose at least one type - and create your activity types before your programs. See Activity Types and Templates.
Allocating Budget to Partners
An allocation assigns part of the program budget to one partner account. Without one, the partner has no budget to draw on, even where the program is shared with them.
You can allocate to many partners at once rather than one at a time, which is the practical way to open a program to a tier or a region.
Sharing a program with a partner makes it visible to them; an allocation gives them a budget to request against. A program shared without an allocation shows an empty balance - the most common reason a partner reports an empty MDF dashboard.
Changing a Program Partners Are Already Using
Programs can be edited after partners start submitting, but some changes have consequences worth knowing:
- Reducing the total budget below what is already committed leaves the program over-committed. Existing commitments always stand.
- Removing an eligible activity type stops new requests using it. Requests already submitted are unaffected.
- Changing the claim deadline applies going forward.
Deleting
Deleting programs and allocations is possible but rarely right. Closing a program keeps its history and its reporting figures; deleting loses them. Prefer Closed.
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