Understanding MDF Balances
Every allocation carries four figures. Understanding how they move is the difference between trusting your MDF numbers and arguing with them.
The Four Figures
| Figure | Means |
|---|
| Allocated | The budget you assigned to this partner in this program. A number you set. |
| Committed | Money promised but not yet paid. Raised when a request is approved. |
| Spent | Money that has actually left the business. Raised when a reimbursement is issued. |
| Available | What the partner can still request. Allocated, less everything committed, spent and any adjustments. |
The essential point: committed and spent are different pots, and money moves from one to the other rather than being counted in both.
When Each Figure Changes
| Event | Effect |
|---|
| You create or increase an allocation | Allocated up. Available up. |
| A partner submits a request | Nothing changes. An unapproved request commits nothing. |
| A request is approved | Committed up by the approved amount. Available down. |
| A request is rejected, declined or cancelled | Its commitment is released. Available back up. |
| A claim is submitted or approved | Nothing changes. The money was already committed. |
| A reimbursement is issued | Committed down, Spent up by the same amount. Available unchanged. |
| An administrator posts an adjustment | Available up or down by the adjustment amount. |
Why available does not drop when you pay
This is the single most common question. When a request is approved the funds stop being available immediately - the partner has a commitment from you, and that money is no longer spendable on anything else. If available only dropped when you paid, a partner could have ten approved requests outstanding and still appear to have their full budget free.
Approval is the moment that matters for availability. Payment is a movement between two columns that are both already outside "available".
How the Figures Are Calculated
Balances are derived, not stored. Every movement writes a dated ledger entry against the allocation, and the figures are summed from those entries:
| Entry | When |
|---|
| Commitment | A request is approved. |
| CommitmentRelease | An approved request stops being a liability - rejected, declined or cancelled, or its commitment converted into a payment. |
| Reimbursement | Cash goes out. |
| Adjustment | A manual correction by an administrator, in either direction. |
Because the figures are derived rather than kept as a running total, they cannot drift out of step with the underlying records. Any balance can be explained by listing the entries behind it, which is what makes MDF auditable.
Available can go negative, and is shown that way on purpose. A negative available balance means the allocation is over-committed - usually because the allocation was reduced after commitments were made. It is surfaced rather than hidden so you can act on it.
Worked Example
A partner is allocated 50,000.
| Step | Allocated | Committed | Spent | Available |
|---|
| Allocation created | 50,000 | 0 | 0 | 50,000 |
| Partner requests 20,000 | 50,000 | 0 | 0 | 50,000 |
| Request approved at 80% (16,000) | 50,000 | 16,000 | 0 | 34,000 |
| Partner claims 9,000 | 50,000 | 16,000 | 0 | 34,000 |
| Claim approved | 50,000 | 16,000 | 0 | 34,000 |
| Claim reimbursed (9,000) | 50,000 | 7,000 | 9,000 | 34,000 |
| Claim deadline passes, 7,000 unclaimed | 50,000 | 7,000 | 9,000 | 34,000 |
Two things to take from the last rows:
- Unclaimed funds do not return automatically. The commitment stands until someone releases it. Use the Fund Expiration / Lapse report to find these, then release the commitment or cancel the activity to free the budget.
- The partner asked for 20,000 but only 16,000 was ever set aside, because approval was at 80%. The 4,000 difference was never committed.
Adjustments
An administrator can post a manual adjustment against an allocation, in either direction, with a memo explaining why. Every adjustment is dated, attributed and permanent, so record the reason properly.
Use them for genuine corrections - a payment made outside the portal, a migration error, budget written off at year end.
Do not use adjustments to work around a process problem. If funds are stuck committed because a partner never claimed, releasing the commitment on the activity is the correct action. An adjustment leaves the activity looking funded when it is not.
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