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Calculate Accrual Amounts Across Multiple Accrual Periods (Example)
This example shows how accruals are calculated for a member across multiple accrual periods. Accruals help finance teams project future liabilities and reserve funds before final settlement.
Required Editions
| Available in: Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions that have Advanced Rebate and Accruals Management enabled. |
Rebate Program
A company is running a rebate program for their partners in the APAC region. Acme is a member enrolled in the program. The finance team wants to track liabilities monthly using accrual periods.
Rebate Type
The program manager creates a volume-based rebate type and specifies these details.
- Measure Type: Amount Per Unit
- Measure Field: Total Transaction Quantity
- Calculation Method: Retrospective
- Calculation Basis: Accrual
The engine calculates accruals using the benefit tier values defined in the Program Rebate Type Benefit records. In this example, a $5 per unit accrual rate is applied based on the benefit configuration.
Transaction Data
The following Transaction Journal records are ingested into Data Cloud for accrual processing. Each record falls within the start and end dates of the corresponding accrual period.
| Accrual Period | Member | Transaction Activity Date | Total Transaction Quantity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | Acme | Jan 12, 2026 | 2000 |
| Feb 2026 | Acme | Feb 18, 2026 | 6500 |
| March 2026 | Acme | Mar 09, 2026 | 8000 |
| April 2026 | Acme | April 25, 2026 | 11000 |
Member Accruals
The admin runs the required Data Processing Engine definitions in sequence to calculate accruals. Each DPE must be executed in order. The accrual amounts are updated based on the aggregate data in Data Cloud at the time of execution.
| Accrual Period | Total Transaction Quantity | Last Calculation Date | Accrual Rate | Accrued Amount | Accrual Sources Created |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | 2000 | Jan 31 | $5 per unit | $10,000 | 1 |
| Feb 2026 | 6500 | Feb 28 | $5 per unit | $32,500 | 1 |
| March 2026 | 8000 | March 31 | $5 per unit | $40,000 | 1 |
| April 2026 | 11,000 | April 30 | $5 per unit | $55,000 | 1 |
The Delta Calculation DPE identifies only NEW transactions each month to prevent double-counting when syncing data back to Salesforce Core. In the first month, the Finance team reserved $10,000 in accrual liability based on 2,000 units transacted. This ensures adequate funds are reserved as the member accumulates more transactions throughout the year.
If you configure the rebate type with the Stepped calculation method instead, the engine may create multiple accrual source records per accrual period when transactions cross benefit tier boundaries during Data Cloud processing. For instance, if the February transactions crossed from one tier threshold to another, the engine would create separate source records for each tier portion (e.g., Source 1 for units in Tier 1, Source 2 for units in Tier 2). The total accrued amount remains the same, but the Stepped method provides more granular tracking for audit purposes.
