Overview
This article explains how to keep tabs on your publication balances by category in the "Financial activity" section of the platform. It also covers the types of transactions under each category and how to prevent a negative content balance.
Information
You're able to see a breakdown of your publication balances by category when you visit the "Financial activity" section of the platform. To navigate there, go to the avatar in the top right corner and select "Publication settings" from the dropdown. If you have more than one publication, select the one you'd like to view from the top left and click "Financial activity" on the left side of the screen.
You'll notice a list of categories and their individual balances, which total the publication's current balance.
1. So, what types of transactions fall under each of these categories?
Content: Any funds your team contracts for content production will be uploaded to the content bucket. Every time a workflow step in a story passes with payment attached funds are debited from this bucket.
Editor: Fixed hour funds are uploaded to this bucket, and monthly fixed services transactions are debited from here halfway through the month for the month prior.
Editor flex: As needed, this bank is used to pay for additional services hours used above those that are contracted with fixed.
2. Preventing A Negative Content Balance
You'll notice you are unable to commission new content when its cost exceeds the publication’s current content balance. In the event this happens, you’ll receive a notification that redirects you to request an invoice from your Customer Success Manager. Please keep in mind that this notification takes ‘pending’ story payments into account as well (costs associated with workflow steps that have not yet been reached). For example, if your current content balance is $500, but you currently have $300 worth of pending payments associated with future workflow steps, you’ll be blocked from creating a story worth $250.
To prevent any interruption in service, Contently recommends keeping a minimum content balance of $3,000 at all times. When your balance drops below this number, you’ll receive an in-platform notification to alert you that funds are running low. This notification will appear on the stories library page for all owners and managers on your publication no more than once every 30 days for each user.
Questions? Please contact your Customer Success Manager.
Summary
This article guides users on viewing and managing their publication balance by category in the "Financial activity" section. It details the types of transactions under each category and provides steps to prevent a negative content balance, including maintaining a minimum balance and receiving notifications when funds are low.