The purpose of this article is to gather solutions for common questions about Budgets and Balances in Postal. Not seeing an answer you need? Search the Postal Help Center and if you are still unable to find an answer, reach out to our Postal Support team.
Need help understanding the difference between balance and budget? Or how about a negative budget? Keep reading!
FAQs
What is the difference between Funds (Balance) and Budget?
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Funds or Balance is the actual money that is loaded onto your Postal account.
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Budget is a rule on how much you can spend expressed in a $ format.
Ex. $1200 (funds) can be loaded onto an account and a Budget can be set at $100 per month. This would mean you can only spend $100 a month despite having $1200 on your account (balance).
Why is my Budget showing as negative?
Sometimes sends (or purchases) are larger than the remaining budget but there is a balance to cover. In these rare cases, Postal will allow the Budget to go negative so the order will not fail.
Why is my Balance showing as negative?
Sometimes sends (or purchases) incur a cost adjustment. In these rare cases, Postal will allow the Balance to go negative so the order will not fail.
Cost adjustments are triggered by:
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Recipient accepting gift email
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The warehouse ships an order and provides the most up-to-date shipping cost
How often do budgets reset?
Budgets can be configured to reset on a Monthly, Quarterly, or yearly basis. This can be done on a per-team basis.
TROUBLESHOOTING
I can’t send because of a low-budget warning
A low-budget warning indicates that the Budget for the team you are on is not enough to cover the send. This can be solved in three ways:
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An Admin in your account can increase the budget of your team.
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If using the per-person budget mode, an Admin in your account can increase the budget for just you.
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Budgets will reset at a regular cadence (the most common is monthly). Once a Budget reset occurs you will be freed up to send.