Partner MDF Request Tracker
Build your own internal tool where channel partners request market development funds, you check eligibility and remaining budget, a program manager approves the commitment, partners upload proof of execution, and only approved-with-proof requests become payable - with a finance-ready CSV export.
A private, login-protected tracker where partners submit MDF requests, eligibility and remaining budget are checked automatically, a manager approves the commitment, the partner uploads proof, a manager approves the proof, and finance gets a reimbursement CSV in the exact columns they need.
Before you start
- A partner list with each partner's MDF/co-op budget for the period (CSV or Google Sheet)
- A way to receive MDF requests (a form is fine) and proof-of-spend files (receipts, screenshots, results)
- Free accounts for Vercel, Supabase, and Resend (the plan walks you through them)
The problem this kills
Market development funds are real money you've promised your channel partners, and they almost always get managed in a tangle of email threads, a shared spreadsheet, and a folder of receipts that never quite matches the spreadsheet. A partner emails asking for funds to run a webinar. Someone says "sounds good." Three weeks later the partner says they spent it, attaches a blurry receipt, and asks to be paid. Nobody can find the original approval. Nobody is sure if this partner has any budget left for the quarter. And the same activity quietly gets funded twice because two people on your team both said yes in two different threads.
By the time the quarter closes, finance is asking you to prove that every dollar was committed by an authorized person, against an eligible activity, within the partner's budget, and backed by valid proof of execution. The spreadsheet can't prove any of that. It has no memory of who approved what, no guard against overspending a partner's cap, and no link between a request and the receipt that should justify it.
This Implementation Plan replaces that whole mess with a small, private internal tool that takes the request, checks the budget, routes it for a real approval, holds the partner accountable for proof before any payout, and keeps a permanent record of every step.
What you'll build
A login-protected web app for your partner/channel marketing ops team and your partners that:
- Lets a partner submit an MDF request (partner, proposed activity, requested amount, period, expected results).
- Checks eligibility and remaining budget automatically against that partner's cap for the period - and won't let a request exceed what's left.
- Routes the request to a program manager who approves the commitment before any funds are reserved.
- Lets the partner execute the activity and upload proof of spend (receipts, screenshots, results).
- Requires a manager to approve the proof of execution before the request becomes payable - no proof, no payout.
- Produces a reimbursement record and exports a finance-ready CSV in the exact columns your AP system expects.
- Guards against the same activity being funded twice with a dedupe key of partner + activity + period.
It's built to fit your program, because the very first thing it does is interview you about how your MDF program actually works.
What's inside the Implementation Plan
The plan is a single file you paste into an AI coding agent (Claude Code), and it builds the tool with you step by step. No prior coding needed.
- It starts by interviewing you about your business. Before writing a line of code, the plan has the agent ask about your current process, your partner list and budget spreadsheet, the exact field names and activity/period conventions in your data, your typical and peak request volumes, your eligibility and approval rules, and your real edge cases. Then it reads back a short tailored spec and waits for your thumbs-up. You get a tool shaped to your program - not a generic template.
- A clear definition of done so you know exactly what "finished" looks like.
- Every build step ends with a ready-to-copy prompt you paste into the agent.
- A "No API yet?" fallback so you can build the whole thing today using a CSV/Google Sheet import for requests and budgets, file uploads for proof, and a clean reimbursement CSV export - no integration with your PRM or finance system required.
- A verification checklist so you can prove it works before anyone relies on it.
The governance it includes (this is the point)
This isn't a toy. Every runbookify plan builds in the controls that make an internal money tool safe to use:
- Login so only your team and your partners can open it.
- Row-level security so each organization only ever sees its own partners, requests, and budgets - and a partner only ever sees their own requests.
- A complete audit trail - who submitted, who checked budget, who approved the commitment, who uploaded proof, who approved the proof, and when.
- Two hard human-in-the-loop approval gates - the tool drafts and checks, but nothing gets committed until a manager approves the request, and nothing becomes payable until a manager approves the proof of execution. The AI and the form do the work; a person commits.
- Budget caps and duplicate guards - a request can't push a partner over their remaining budget, and the same partner + activity + period can't be funded twice.
Who it's for
Partner and channel marketing ops people who administer co-op / MDF programs out of spreadsheets and email, and who are tired of chasing approvals and receipts at quarter close. If you can keep a clean partner budget spreadsheet, you can run this tool - and you'll finally have a defensible, auditable record tying every dollar to an approval and a proof of execution.
You've got this - paste the first prompt and let the agent interview you.