Allocate Investments to Multiple Activities

With this release, we have added the ability to allocate a single investment line item in Uptempo Spend to multiple campaign activities in Uptempo Plan.

Previously, each investment line item could only be connected to a single activity in Uptempo Spend. To address situations where a single investment line item funds multiple separate activities, we have completely reworked the connection process between investments and activities.

Now, you can get much clearer insight into cross-campaign financing by connecting investment line items to all of the activities they are financing, and by specifying exactly how the funds should be allocated between these activities.

Key Changes

Here is a quick summary of the changes:

Connect Investments to Activities In Spend

In the Investments section, you can now open the details of any investment line item and use the Activities tab to connect one or multiple activities.

Allocate Investment Line Items to Connected Activities

When an investment is connected to multiple activities, you can use the new Activity Funding Panel to set how the funds are allocated. If there is only a single connected activity, 100% of the funds will be allocated to it automatically.

View Investment Allocation Details In Plan

In the Activities section, the Details > Budget panel for any activity now shows which investment line item is the activity's funding source, including the allocated amount:

Connect Activities to Investments

To connect activities to an investment, follow these steps:

1. Click Investments.

2. In the Investments section, find the investment that you want to connect to activities, then click Open Panel for that investment.

   Note: You can connect activities to investment categories, sub-categories, or individual line items, but not to placeholders.

3. In the Details panel for the selected investment, click Activities, then click Connect Activity:

   

4. Use the list of activities to find the activity you want to connect to the investment. To connect the activity, click Connect Spend to Activity for that activity's row in the Action column:

   

5. The list of activities will close, and the activity you connected will now be displayed in the Activities tab of the investment's Details panel:

   

   • Click Search to view the details of an activity in Uptempo Plan.

   • Click Unlink to remove an activity from the investment.

   Note: When you connect a single activity to an investment, 100% of the investment funds will be allocated to that activity automatically.

6. To connect additional activities to the investment, repeat steps 3 and 4.

   As you connect more activities, they will also be added to the Activities tab of the investment's Details panel.

   Note: You can only connect one activity to categories and sub-categories. As a result, the Connect Activity button will no longer appear on the Details > Activities panel for categories and sub-categories after you have connected an activity.

You have successfully connected activities to an investment. In the investments hierarchy, investments that are connected to an activity and have been automatically allocated are marked with the icon.

When you have finished connecting activities to the investment, you can allocate the investment between the connected activities.

Manually Allocate Funds Between Connected Activities

By default, Uptempo Spend will allocate 100% of an investment to the first activity that is connected. If there are multiple activities connected to an investment (or if you want to allocate less than 100% of the investment to a single connected activity) you can manually adjust how the funds are allocated.

To adjust the allocation of investment funds between connected activities, follow these steps:

1. Click Investments.

2. In the Investments section of Uptempo Spend, find the investment for which you want to adjust activity allocations, then click its Open Panel button.

3. In the Details panel for the selected investment, click Activities, then click the Open Activity Funding Panel button.

   Note: The Open Activity Funding Panel button is not shown on the Details > Activities panel of any category or sub-category that has a connected activity. This is because categories and sub-categories are not directly associated with any funds (only line items are associated with funds), so adjusting the allocation of funds is not applicable in relation to categories and sub-categories.

   The Activity Funding Panel opens, displaying the details of the investment as well as the connected activities and their current allocations:

   

   There are also some additional options available in this panel:

   • The Activity Funding Panel will open using the same view that you had selected on the main table in the Investments section of Uptempo Spend. To change the view from within Activity Funding Panel, use the dropdown menu.

   • Click Add activity to add another activity.

   • Click Unlink on an activity to unlink it from the investment.

   • If only one activity is linked to the investment, click Convert to Manual Allocation to make changes to the allocation.

4. Double-click a cell in the table to edit the amount inside. Enter the amount you want into the cell, then click anywhere outside of the cell (or press the Enter key on your keyboard) to finish editing.

   Note: The Unallocated row displays the balance of funds which have not yet been allocated to an investment. You can underallocate (allocate less than 100% of the available fund), but the system will not allow you to save if an investment is overallocated (more than 100% of available funds are allocated, indicated by a negative amount in the Unallocated row).

5. To save your changes and exit the Activity Funding Panel, click Save (or click Close if you want to discard your changes).

You have successfully adjusted the investment allocations between connected activities. In the investments hierarchy, investments that have been manually allocated are marked with the icon (replacing the icon).

Additional Details

Here are some important additional details to be aware of as you use this feature:

• When you connect an activity to a category or sub-category, the system will automatically allocate 100% of available funds to the connected activity. However, categories and sub-categories are not directly associated with any funds — only the line items within them can be linked to fund amounts. This means that, when you connect a category/sub-category and an activity, it is actually the funds that belong to line items within the category/sub-category that are being allocated to the activity.

• In the investments hierarchy, line items that are indirectly connected to activities (i.e. the line item is part of a category/sub-category which has a connection to an activity) are displayed differently than line items with a direct connection to an activity:

  • Line items with a direct connection to an activity are marked with either the icon or the icon (depending on the allocation methods used), and are highlighted with a yellow background.

  • Line items with an indirect connection to an activity are marked only with the icon, and are displayed with a white background. The line item's category/sub-category is also marked with the icon and is highlighted with a yellow background to indicate that it contains the connection.

• On the Details > Activities panel of any line item that is already indirectly connected to an activity, you can click Connect Activity to directly connect the line item to an activity instead (either the same activity, or another activity).