# Budget allocator — Healthcare

The budget allocator with three columns a provider needs: which service line a share is for, how much capacity stands behind it, and how much of that service's demand is meant to come from referral rather than direct advertising.

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, and where a practice has several sites, which site. Availability differs by location, which makes a group-level split unusable.

**Destination** (Text). What the share goes to: a service line at a location, a channel within one, a referrer campaign. One service per row, because capacity and attendance rates are properties of a service.

**Basis** (Text). What the share rests on: measured performance read on attended appointments, a bet on a new service, a commitment to a practitioner who has just joined, or a floor.

**Share of total** (Percent). This row's proportion of the period's budget. The column is where a practice can see that it funds whichever service is easiest to advertise rather than whichever has room.

**Amount (minor units)** (Integer). The share as money, in the smallest unit of its currency, as a whole number, so the rows add to what the practice agreed to spend rather than to something slightly different.

**Currency** (ISO 4217 code). The ISO 4217 code the destination bills in. Most practices run one; a second usually belongs to a separate entity whose spend should not be summed into the same total.

**Floor (minor units)** (Integer). The least this row can hold and still produce enough attended appointments to read a result. A practice that funds nine services thinly learns nothing about any of them.

**Ceiling (minor units)** (Integer). The most this row can usefully hold, which here is set by the appointment book rather than by the audience. A service with no availability has a ceiling of zero this week.

**Reallocation rule** (Text). What has to be true for money to move into or out of this row, and how much at once. Availability comes first: a full book moves weight out regardless of how the advertising is performing.

**Review cadence** (Text). How often this row is re-argued. Weekly, alongside the appointment book, because availability is the fastest-moving constraint a practice has.

**Evidence** (Text). What the share rests on, named: the attended-appointment window from the practice management system, the availability it was read against, the referral proportion for this service.

**Owner** (Text). The person who defends the size of this row, usually the practice marketing lead, with the practice manager owning anything conditioned on capacity.

**Notes** (Text). What the next person needs: the service that is always full, the referrer row judged on referrals rather than enquiries, the location whose catchment is thinner than it looks.

**Service line** (Text). The service this share is for. Two services with the same budget are not the same investment: they differ in capacity, in claim review and in what an appointment is worth.

**Capacity** (Text). What this service can see over the allocation period, with the day it was read. It is the real ceiling on the row, and it is the number most splits leave out entirely.

**Referral mix** (Text). How much of this service's demand is meant to come from referring practitioners rather than direct advertising. It changes what the share should buy and who it should reach.

## 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 | Service line | Capacity | Referral mix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Before you commit it

- Every row names a service line and the capacity behind it, with the day it was read.
- No row is funded beyond the capacity of the service it points at.
- Shares sum to one whole per currency.
- Every row has a floor, and no service is funded below it.
- The referral mix is stated for every service, even where it is none.
- Every row has a reallocation rule that can be applied on a Monday without a meeting.
- Anything that is an assumption says so, in Notes, in words.