Developing and Managing Marketing Funds

Many marketing organizations, especially those that operate in multiple business lines and geographies, typically use disparate methods to track the sources, uses, and status of marketing funds. These methods might include the use of multiple, disconnected applications and media including spreadsheets, email messages, and departmental databases. Gaining control of these funds and maintaining a consistent view of the available fund balance is a challenge that is complicated by the lack of consistent processes across the organization.

By creating Marketing Funds, you can delegate spending authority to a particular department or cost center, and use Siebel Marketing to manage each budget. Because there is often a delay between the execution phase of a program and the date when all the invoices are received and processed in your back-office financial applications, your Marketing Funds and related tactics can provide a more up-to-date forecast with your organization's financial position.

Using Marketing Funds, an organization can:

• Establish a budget for each marketing department or cost center

• Draw money from these funds to pay for marketing tactics

• Transfer funds from one budget to another

• Adjust a fund with an increase or decrease (but not a transfer)

• Monitor current amounts for initial, allocated, committed, and spent funds

This task is a step in Process of Creating Marketing Plans and Budget Requests.