Allocating Services Credits

Before you can allocate services credits to a milestone, the customer account linked to the milestone's project must have purchased services credits and you must have created the relevant services credits customer purchase records.

You can allocate services credits to a single milestone using the Manage Services Credits button on the milestone record. This enables you to allocate services credits in two different ways:

Alternatively, you can allocate services credits to multiple milestones in one go using the Allocate Services Credits to Milestones action link in the Planning Tools section of the Actions tab on a project record page. This option only supports automatic allocation of credits. For more information, see Allocating Services Credits to Multiple Milestones.

Allocating Services Credits with Automatic Selection of Credits

The automatic allocation process automatically selects the customer purchase records that credits are drawn from.

To automatically redeem services credits against a milestone:

  1. On the milestone record, in the Services Credits field, enter the number of services credits you want to allocate.
  2. Click Manage Services Credits. If the customer account has sufficient services credits available in the same currency as the project, a confirmation window opens.
  3. Click Allocate. The services credits are allocated to the milestone.

Related services credits consumption and allocation records are generated to store details of the credits that have been allocated to the milestone. These records are read-only and cannot be created or edited manually. They are automatically generated as a result of the allocation, allocation adjustment, and expiry processes.

Allocation Process

When you allocate the services credits to a milestone, the process identifies the first services credits customer purchase record with:

  • Available services credits
  • The same currency as that of the project of the milestone
  • A start date on or before the latter of the allocation date and the milestone start date, and that has the earliest expiry date.

The available services credits from the eligible services credits customer purchase record are allocated to the milestone. This generates a services credits consumption and services credits allocation record.

If the first eligible services credits customer purchase record does not have sufficient services credits, the allocation process finds the next eligible purchase record and allocates from that one.

The process ends when the required number of services credits are allocated to the milestone.

Notes:

Once the services credits are allocated, the milestone and related services credits customer purchase records are updated as follows:

  • The services credits customer purchase records are updated to move the number of credits allocated from the Services Credits Available field to the Services Credits Allocated field.
  • The Services Credits Allocation field is automatically populated with the services credits allocation record that has been created.
  • The Milestone Amount field is automatically updated with the total value of the services credits allocated. The existing value in this field is overwritten. You cannot edit this field.
  • The milestone is excluded from billing and you cannot edit the Exclude from Billing checkbox.
  • You can create Salesforce Flows to automate the allocation of services credits to milestones.

For more information, see Services Credits Allocation Fields, Services Credits Consumption Fields, and Services Credits Apex Actions.

Allocating Services Credits with Manual Selection of Credits

The manual allocation process enables you to select specific customer purchase records to draw credits from.

Note:

The Enable Manual Allocation of Credits field must be selected in the Services Credits Settings custom setting for the Allocate Manually button to be available.

To manually redeem services credits against a milestone:

  1. On the milestone record, in the Services Credits field, enter the number of services credits you want to allocate.
  2. Click Manage Services Credits. If the customer account has sufficient services credits available in the same currency as the project, a confirmation window displays.
  3. Click Allocate Manually. A grid displays the services credits customer purchase records that you can draw credits from. Only purchase records with a start date on or before the latter of the allocation date and the milestone start date are listed.
  4. In the Credits to Allocate field, enter the number of services credits you want to draw from each applicable purchase record. Note that the total selected credits must match the number of credits required for the milestone before performing the next step.
  5. Click Allocate. The services credits are allocated to the milestone.

Consumption and allocation records are generated. The Manually Allocated checkbox is selected on the consumption records to indicate that the services credits were consumed through the manual allocation process.

Allocating Services Credits to Multiple Milestones

Instead of allocating credits on a milestone-by-milestone basis, you can simultaneously allocate services credits to multiple milestones on a project.

To allocate services credits to multiple milestones on a project:

  1. On the project record, click Actions | Planning Tools | Allocate Services Credits to Milestones.
  2. Select the milestones you want to allocate services credits to.
  3. Click Allocate.

The corresponding consumption and allocation records are generated.

Note:

The table's search box in the Allocate Services Credits to Milestones window only filters milestones by milestone name or business unit.

Considerations and Limitations

When a milestone is set up to be funded by services credits, the actual date on the milestone cannot be specified until the allocation of credits has been done. You must allocate services credits to the milestone before it is marked as complete. This is to avoid the risk of work being done without having enough credits to fund it.

In addition to that, you can also define which milestone statuses do not require the allocation of services credits to be performed. This is controlled by the Milestone Status: No Allocation Required field in the Services Credits Settings custom setting. By default, milestones with the status of "Planned", "Canceled" or "--None--" allow you to determine the number of services credits without allocating them. You can update this field and include all the relevant statuses that apply based on your own use case.

If you want to update the milestone and select a different status that is not listed in the Milestone Status: No Allocation Required field, you must allocate the services credits assigned to the milestone first.