This guide will get you started with learning how funds and budgets work in Postal.
Applies to: Admin Role
What You Will Learn
- How billing & fund management work in Postal
- How to add a billing account
- How to add funds
How Billing & Fund Management Work In Postal
Adding and managing funds in Postal is key to making sure you can send. Let’s start by defining some terms:
Billing Account - an account that holds available funds and displays a balance. Funds can be added via credit card.
Funds/Balance - Funds refer to the actual money held within the billing account. Balance is just another way we refer to these funds.
Budget - The rules on how funds can be spent. This is applied to users via their teams under the Team Budgets section. While this is displayed as currency, it is simply the rules on how funds are spent and does not have a reflection on the amount of actual money in a billing account.
Budgets are used to limit user spending. There are 4 parts of the budget. The Budget Mode, Budget Duration, Budget Amount, and Budget Remaining. We’ll dive into these further below.
Transfers - referring to the transfer of funds, both domestic and foreign currency. We won’t be learning about this in this lesson.
How to Add a Billing Account
After logging in, start by clicking the profile icon in the top right corner, then select Profile Billing Accounts.
Select Add a Billing Account. Fill out the required fields. For this example, we’ll set the currency to USD.
A few terms to note:
- Account Name - the name of the billing account, ex. Sales Team, Marketing
- First Name - your first name
- Last Name - your last name
- Work Email - your work email
- State - the state you live in or your company is based in
- Country - the country you live in or your company is based in
- Currency - the currency you wish this account to be associated with (only one can be chosen)
For a detailed dive into Billing Accounts, please check out our How to Add a Billing Account help article.
Once you have created your billing account, it’s time to add funds.
How to Add Funds
Before you begin! In order to actually load funds, you will need to have a CC available. Credit card transactions are subject to a 3.2% processing fee. To upload funds with no additional charge, Admins can request invoicing.
If you’ve been following alon,g you’re on a screen with an option to add a credit card. Go ahead and select Change Payment Method. Then add all the requested information.
From here, there are a few options to note.
- Funds - Enter the amount of money you would like to add. This is a one-time add. a
- Auto Reload - Select whether or not you would want to auto-reload funds.
- Reload Amount - The amount you would like to auto reload.
- When the balance falls below the threshold at which you would like the auto reload to occur. When your balance falls below the number set here, an auto reload will occur.
Best Practice! Auto Reload is a great automated option to make sure your teams always have funds available to send. We recommend making sure the reload amount is enough to cover sends for longer periods of time. The more funds added, the less the funds source will be charged. This will help avoid any issues with your financial institution.
In Review
- Funds and balance refer to the actual money in your Postal account
- Budget is the rules on how your funds can be spent
- Adding Funds can be done via Credit Card or Invoice
- Turn on Auto Reload to avoid any issues with sending
Take it Further