Alongside HQ-run national campaigns, the Marketing Fund also has a franchisee-initiated side: a shop spends on something local — a flyer run, a local sponsorship, signage, a local ad buy — and requests reimbursement from HQ. Submission happens from the shop; review, approval, and payment happen from HQ's Marketing Fund page.
Submitting a claim (shop side)
Settings → Marketing Fund Claims → New claim. Fill in:
- Amount (USD)
- Category — Local advertising, Print, Event / sponsorship, Signage, or Other
- Description — required, up to 2,000 characters, what the spend was and when
- Receipt — optional upload (JPG, PNG, WEBP, or PDF, up to 20MB)
Submitting sets the claim to SUBMITTED and it appears immediately in HQ's review queue. Below the form, Your claims lists your own submission history, most recent first, with a status badge (Submitted / Approved / Rejected / Paid) and any HQ review note attached once it's been reviewed. Like the NPS/Pulse surveys, this only works for shops linked to a franchise org.
HQ's review queue
HQ dashboard → Marketing Fund → Claims tab. Claims default to the Submitted filter (Submitted / Approved / Paid / Rejected / All chips across the top), each shown as a card with the shop name, amount, category, description, and a receipt link if one was attached.
From SUBMITTED, HQ can:
- Approve — one click, with an optional review note.
- Reject — requires typing a reason first; the claim moves to REJECTED and the franchisee sees that note on their own claims list.
From APPROVED, HQ can:
- Mark paid — requires a reference note (check #, wire ref, whatever your own paper trail needs). This is a manual record-keeping step only — there's no Stripe/Rainforest payout call behind it, since the platform's payment rail is mid-migration. You still pay the franchisee outside SalesThumb; this just logs that you did.
Fixing a mistake
Anyone with permission to approve claims can also correct a decision after the fact:
- Reopen — sends an APPROVED or REJECTED claim back to SUBMITTED for re-review. Requires a reason. The franchisee isn't notified, and the prior reviewer/notes are cleared so the claim doesn't look like it was already decided.
- Correct payment — moves a PAID claim back to APPROVED. Also requires a reason. This only fixes SalesThumb's own record of who was paid what — it doesn't reverse a real bank payment, since Mark paid never touched a real payment rail to begin with.
A PAID claim has to go through Correct payment before it can be reopened — you can't jump straight from Paid back to Submitted.
AI triage — a suggestion, not a decision
On a SUBMITTED claim that has a receipt attached, HQ can click Get AI suggestion. It reads the receipt image against the claimed amount, category, and description, then returns a suggested verdict — Approve, Flag for review, or Reject — with a one-line reason, tagged "you decide." It never writes anything to the claim itself; approving or rejecting still requires clicking the real button. If there's no receipt attached, it doesn't bother calling the model — it just flags the claim for manual review, since there's nothing for it to look at.
Who can approve
Approving, rejecting, marking paid, and correcting claims all require the org.approveMarketingFundClaims permission, which defaults to ORG_OWNER and ORG_ADMIN — an org owner can grant it more broadly if they want other roles reviewing claims too. Anyone else attempting one of these actions gets a permission error.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Q: What can I submit a Marketing Fund claim for?
A: Local marketing spend your shop already paid for — local advertising, print, an event or sponsorship, signage, or another category — with an amount, a description, and an optional receipt.
Q: Is a receipt required to submit a claim?
A: No, the receipt upload is optional. It does need to be a JPG, PNG, WEBP, or PDF under 20MB if you attach one, and HQ's AI triage suggestion only works on claims that have one.
Q: Does HQ's AI suggestion actually approve or reject my claim?
A: No. It's a suggestion chip only — Approve, Flag for review, or Reject with a one-line reason — that HQ can request on a submitted claim. A human still has to click the real Approve or Reject button; the AI never writes a decision itself.
Q: How do I actually get paid once HQ approves my claim?
A: HQ pays you outside SalesThumb (check, wire, however you've arranged it) and then marks the claim Paid with a reference note. Marking paid is a manual record only — there's no automatic payout through the platform.
Q: Can HQ undo a claim decision if they made a mistake?
A: Yes. An approved or rejected claim can be Reopened back to Submitted for re-review, and a paid claim can have its payment Corrected back to Approved — both require HQ to type a reason.
Q: Who at HQ is allowed to approve or reject claims?
A: By default only ORG_OWNER and ORG_ADMIN roles, via the org.approveMarketingFundClaims permission — an org owner can extend that permission to other roles if they want a broader review team.