Setting Up Market Development Funds
This page covers turning MDF on for the first time, confirming it worked, and what to do if it did not.
The first activation needs elevated access. Enabling MDF creates lookup fields on the MDF entities that point to your partner account, contact and lead records, and creating fields needs more than ordinary administrator access. An administrator without it can open the module and change its settings, but the initial activation stops partway with a permission error. Ask your Magentrix representative to run the first activation.
Activation changes your schema, safely. It adds new fields to the MDF entities. It does not delete anything, it does not modify your data, and it is safe to run again.
Enabling the Module
- Go to Setup > Partner Management > Market Development Funds.
- On the Settings tab, switch Enable Market Development Funds on.
- The button on the right changes to Activate. Click it.
Activation takes up to a minute, and your portal may briefly become unavailable while the new fields are published. This is expected and recovers on its own.
When it succeeds the status badge reads Active, the full set of module tabs appears, and you land on the Review Queue.
What Activation Does
Activation runs eight steps in order and reports the outcome of each. The full list stays on the Settings tab after any activation or check.
| # | Step | What it does |
|---|
| 1 | Detect CRM entities | Identifies which records represent accounts, contacts and leads. These differ between standalone and CRM-connected portals, so MDF resolves them rather than assuming. |
| 2 | Create CRM lookup fields | Adds the fields connecting MDF records to your partner accounts and contacts. They cannot ship with the module because their target depends on step 1. |
| 3 | Deploy lookup fields | Publishes those fields so they become usable. |
| 4 | Configure contact lookup filters | Restricts contact pickers so a user can only choose a contact belonging to the relevant partner account. |
| 5 | Create roll-up summary fields | Adds the fields counting leads and opportunities attributed to an activity, and their values. |
| 6 | Verify the fields are usable | Checks every field MDF needs exists and is actually available, repairing any created but never published. |
| 7 | Publish the updated schema | Publishes the roll-up fields. |
| 8 | Migrate existing activity types | Moves any pre-existing activity records onto the current activity-type structure. |
Each step depends on the one before it, so activation stops at the first failure rather than reporting further errors that are only consequences of the first.
If Activation Fails
The module is not switched on. MDF is marked enabled only once every step has succeeded, so a failed activation leaves it off rather than half-configured. You will not end up with MDF appearing active while its fields are missing.
The Settings tab shows the step list with the failing step marked, the underlying error, and guidance for that step. Work through it, then click Activate again - activation is safe to repeat and skips whatever already succeeded. A step that never ran because an earlier one failed is shown as Not reached rather than as a failure.
| Step that fails | Usual cause and fix |
|---|
| Detect CRM entities | The portal cannot resolve an account, contact or lead record type. Confirm your CRM connection, then activate again. |
| Create CRM lookup fields | The signed-in user cannot create fields, or a required field is missing from an account or contact record. Ask your Magentrix representative to run the activation. |
| Configure contact lookup filters | Contact records have no link to an account. Confirm that relationship exists, then activate again. |
| Deploy lookup fields / Publish the updated schema | The schema publish did not complete. Activate again; if it keeps failing, contact support with the error shown. |
| Create roll-up summary fields | Fields from earlier steps are not present. Confirm those steps show as done, then activate again. |
| Verify the fields are usable | A field exists in configuration but is not yet available, and rebuilding it failed. Ask your Magentrix representative to run the activation again. |
| Migrate existing activity types | Optional. If it does not complete, MDF still works and you can finish the migration later from this page. It never blocks activation. |
After Activation
Activation only provisions the module. To make it usable:
- Create at least one fund program and allocate budget to partner accounts.
- Set up activity types and templates.
- Configure your approval rules.
- Review the module settings, including which notifications are on.
- Grant access to the colleagues who will run it - see Who Can Access Market Development Funds.
Turning It Off
Switching the module off hides it from partners and stops new submissions. Your programs, allocations, requests, claims and ledger history are all retained, and switching it back on restores them.
<< About Market Development Funds | Who Can Access MDF >>