Module 04
Fund Management (Zee & MRA)
Marketing Central is the system of record for Zee and MRA fund balances. Dynamics GP is downstream accounting — it receives the results of fund activity, not the source of truth. This distinction matters: real-time balance accuracy at the point of purchase requires that the balance lives here, not in a nightly batch from GP.
"Manage discretionary spending funds (Zee Funds and MRA funds), allow use at checkout, enforce expiration rules, support reimbursement workflow."
The Fund Model
Two distinct fund types exist within Marketing Central, each with its own eligibility rules, funding source, and usage restrictions. They are tracked in separate ledgers and treated independently at checkout — a franchisee with both fund types available chooses which to apply, rather than the system combining them automatically.
Source: Discretionary marketing funds calculated as a percentage of marketing royalties paid by the franchisee.
Eligibility: Franchise offices only — MOPS offices are not eligible.
Scope: Per-office allocation. Multiple offices under one entity each have independent Zee Fund balances.
Expiration: Hard expiration in mid-to-late March. Zero out with no rollover. The exact cutoff date is Liberty-configured annually.
Source: Fixed $2,000 annual grant for franchisees participating in the Marketing Rights Agreement program.
Eligibility: MRA participants only — territories without physical locations. Eligibility is Admin System-derived.
Scope: Per-territory. Independent from Zee Funds and tracked in a separate ledger.
Expiration: Same hard March expiration as Zee Funds. Separate balance, same deadline.
Per-Office Ledger
Marketing Central maintains a per-office fund ledger that tracks every allocation, reservation, and disbursement. The ledger is the authoritative record of fund state — it is not derived from GP data.
This formula is the core of the fund ledger. It ensures that a franchisee's available balance accurately reflects all pending and completed activity — not just their starting allocation minus what they've spent in the storefront, but also the claims they've submitted and the payments that have been confirmed by GP.
Fund States & Transitions
Fund dollars move through six states as they flow from allocation to disbursement. Every state transition is logged with a timestamp, actor, and reason — creating the 5-year audit trail required by Liberty's compliance standards.
Allocated
The starting balance. Liberty's marketing team allocates fund amounts per office at the beginning of the season. Allocation is an admin action that creates the opening ledger entry. The allocated amount is the ceiling — additional fund dollars can be added by admin at any time, but cannot be reduced below what has already been spent or committed.
Frozen
Fund dollars are frozen (not deducted) when a franchisee completes a storefront order using funds. They remain frozen until the order is fulfilled and confirmed. If the order is cancelled, the frozen amount is returned to available. Frozen funds are not available for additional orders or claims — preventing over-commitment.
Open Claims
Fund dollars enter the Open Claims state when a franchisee submits a claim for reimbursement of an out-of-pocket marketing expense. The claim amount is reserved from available balance (preventing the franchisee from also spending it in the storefront) while the claim is under review.
Approved Claims
When a reviewer approves a claim in Marketing Central, the fund amount moves from Open to Approved and the claim record is pushed to Dynamics GP for AP processing. At this point, the fund is committed for disbursement — it cannot be reallocated or cancelled without admin override.
Paid Claims
When GP confirms that the ACH payment has been issued, the corresponding claim is marked Paid in Marketing Central. The fund dollars are permanently deducted from the ledger. GP sends a payment confirmation callback to Marketing Central to trigger this transition — the loop closes automatically.
Expiration & Enforcement
The hard March expiration is one of the most operationally critical rules in Marketing Central, and it must be enforced automatically — not manually audited after the fact.
On the configured expiration date (set annually by Liberty), all remaining available Zee and MRA fund balances are zeroed out. There is no rollover to the next season. There is no grace period. Frozen balances (tied to pending orders placed before expiration) complete their normal lifecycle. Open claims submitted before expiration are processed normally. The expiration affects only unspent available balance.
Pre-Expiration Communication
The platform generates automated notifications to franchisees as the expiration date approaches — configurable at 30, 14, and 7 days out. Notifications show the franchisee's current available balance and a link to the storefront. The goal is to reduce year-end write-offs of unspent funds by prompting franchisees to use what they have.
Expiration Audit Log
Every zero-out event is logged with a timestamped record of the pre-expiration balance and the system event that triggered the expiration. This log is available to admin for five years, satisfying the audit trail requirement. Franchisees can see their historical balances and expiration events in their account history.
Admin Controls
Liberty's marketing and admin team has direct control over fund allocations, freeze operations, and audit reporting through the admin interface.
Bulk Allocation
Allocate fund amounts to all eligible offices at once via the admin interface, or import allocations from a spreadsheet. Individual adjustments (adding or correcting a specific office's allocation) can be made at any time with a logged reason code.
Freeze Controls
Admin can freeze an office's funds — preventing any new storefront spending or claims submission from that office — without zeroing the balance. A freeze is reversible and is logged with a reason. Common use case: an office under compliance review that should not be spending funds until resolved.
Reconciliation Reports
Exportable fund reconciliation reports show allocated, frozen, open, approved, paid, and available balances across all offices — by office, by entity, by country, and at the system level. Reports can be filtered by date range and exported to Excel or CSV for GP reconciliation.
5-Year Audit Trail
Every fund transaction — allocation, freeze, freeze release, order charge, order cancellation release, claim submission, claim approval, claim denial, claim payment confirmation, expiration — is logged with actor, timestamp, amount, and reason. Audit logs are retained for 5 years and are exportable for compliance review.