Credits and billing
Knowing which department spends what
To charge it back, or simply so each team sees its own.
The balance belongs to the organisation, so at month end there is one number and nobody knows where it came from. If you have to charge it back — or simply want each manager to see their own — spend has to be attributable, and that is decided before spending it, not after.
What makes spend attributable
How to set it up
- 1
One team per area with its own budget
Not by org chart: by who answers for the spend.
- 2
Each process inside its team
A process shared across three areas is spend that cannot be split.
- 3
Review the breakdown monthly
Ten minutes. It is where you spot SMS left on by default in a three-hundred-person process.
Watch out
Splitting the organisation into teams for accounting reasons has a real cost: it makes sharing templates and contacts harder. Do it if you genuinely will charge back; if it is curiosity, the per-process breakdown usually suffices.
Important
Charging back has an effect worth anticipating: the area paying starts avoiding the spend. If that means they stop sending SMS to people who do not read email, you will have saved credits and lost deliveries.
Worth knowing
Before building anything, look at the current breakdown. Often 80% of spend comes from a single process, and knowing which one removes the need to split anything.
›Can I cap a team?
It is controlled by permissions: someone who cannot launch large batches cannot spend in bulk.
›Can it be exported?
Yes, with its dates, which is what finance needs.
›Who is a third party's usage charged to?
Whoever launched the send. The third party never pays anything.
A real case
The situation
A group wants to charge spend back to its three divisions.
What you do
- Looks at the breakdown first
- Finds 78% comes from supplier onboarding, which belongs to purchasing
What you get
Charges that process to purchasing and avoids splitting the organisation in three.
The situation
Cost is split between departments by eye.
What you do
- Checks real consumption by department
What you get
The split rests on data.
The situation
A department says they do not spend that much.
What you do
- Shows them their consumption breakdown
What you get
The conversation closes on the figure.
The situation
You want to know which process consumes most.
What you do
- Checks consumption by activity type
What you get
Optimisation goes where it matters.
The situation
Spend grows and nobody knows where from.
What you do
- Compares consumption across periods
What you get
The increase is located.
The situation
Each department asks for more balance without justification.
What you do
- Allocates according to recorded consumption
What you get
Allocation stops being a negotiation.
This article answers
- split spend between departments
- know how much each team spends
- attribute costs by area
- consumption report by project