# Budget allocator — B2B SaaS

The budget allocator with three columns a subscription business needs: which slice of the ideal customer profile a share is for, where in the funnel it acts, and how much pipeline coverage the share is meant to produce.

Everything else is the general allocator, unchanged. One row per destination, a basis for every share, a floor and a ceiling, and a reallocation rule written before it is needed.

## How to use it

1. Copy this file, or the CSV version if you would rather work in a sheet.
2. List the destinations first, at the level the argument is actually being had.
3. Write the basis for each row before the number, and keep measured performance, bets and commitments in separate rows.
4. Set floors before shares: a destination that cannot clear its floor should not be in the split at all.
5. Fill Share of total so the column sums to one whole, per currency.
6. Write the reallocation rule now, while nothing is going wrong.
7. Re-argue each row on its own cadence, and record what changed and why.

## The columns

**Allocation name** (Text). What this split is called and the period it covers, normally a quarter, because budgets, targets and pipeline coverage in this business are all set quarterly.

**Destination** (Text). What the share goes to, at the level the argument happens: an ICP segment, a funnel stage within one, a named channel. One destination per row, never a blend of two stages.

**Basis** (Text). What the share rests on: measured performance from your own pipeline, a bet on a segment with no history, a contractual commitment, or a floor somebody insisted on. Named separately so each can be judged.

**Share of total** (Percent). This row's proportion of the quarter's budget. The column is where a drift towards demand capture becomes visible before it has emptied the top of the funnel.

**Amount (minor units)** (Integer). The share as money, in the smallest unit of its currency, as a whole number, so the quarterly rows add to the figure the revenue plan assumed.

**Currency** (ISO 4217 code). The ISO 4217 code this destination is billed in. A company selling into several regions runs several, and a share is a proportion of one currency's total rather than of a converted sum.

**Floor (minor units)** (Integer). The least this row can hold and still do its job. For an awareness row set it from the weight needed to reach the segment often enough to be remembered, not from what is left over.

**Ceiling (minor units)** (Integer). The most this row can absorb before the money buys frequency rather than reach, which for an account-based row is set by the size of the list. Write unknown where it genuinely is.

**Reallocation rule** (Text). The condition that lets money move in or out of this row, and the cap on a single move. Awareness rows are excluded from weekly reallocation by design, and the rule should say so in words.

**Review cadence** (Text). How often this row is re-argued: fortnightly for capture, quarterly for awareness. Reviewing awareness on a two-week cost per lead is how upper-funnel spend is cut without a decision.

**Evidence** (Text). What the share rests on, named: the baseline window from your own pipeline, the deal size for this segment, the coverage assumption, the test result behind a bet.

**Owner** (Text). The person who defends the size of this row, and for anything upstream of capture that is whoever owns the pipeline number rather than whoever spends the budget.

**Notes** (Text). What the next person needs: the assumption behind a bet, the coverage this row was sized against, the segment whose deal size nobody has checked recently.

**ICP segment** (Text). The slice of the ideal customer profile this share serves: a size band, an industry, a role. It sets the deal size, and therefore what a lead from this row is worth.

**Funnel stage** (Text). Where this share acts: awareness, demand capture, pipeline acceleration, expansion. Blending stages in one row is how a split quietly stops funding anything upstream.

**Pipeline coverage** (Text). What this row is meant to contribute towards the coverage a quarter needs, as a proportion or an amount. It is the link between a media budget and a revenue number.

## The budget allocator

| Allocation name | Destination | Basis | Share of total | Amount (minor units) | Currency | Floor (minor units) | Ceiling (minor units) | Reallocation rule | Review cadence | Evidence | Owner | Notes | ICP segment | Funnel stage | Pipeline coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Before you commit it

- Every row names an ICP segment and a funnel stage.
- Awareness rows are reviewed quarterly, not weekly.
- Shares sum to one whole per currency.
- Every row has a floor, and no segment is funded below it.
- Every row states what it contributes to pipeline coverage.
- Bets are named as bets and given time to be wrong informatively.
- Anything that is an assumption says so, in Notes, in words.