# The weekly plan and the Monday budget memo

> Every Monday at 8:00, Piste runs a plan on last week's ad spend and Shopify sales, and posts it with any budget change waiting for your approval.

Source: https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement/weekly-plan

The weekly plan is an automation that runs a measurement plan every Monday at 8:00, in your workspace's time zone, and reports it. Piste creates it, named Weekly measurement plan, the first time a Google Ads or Meta account connects. In Slack it can become the Monday budget memo: the same plan, posted in `#piste-budget` as a one-minute read with buttons to decide its budget change.

> **Early access**
> Google Ads and Meta connections are in early access and aren't available to every workspace yet. The weekly plan needs one of them to have anything to measure.

## When is the weekly plan created?

When the first ad account connects to your workspace, Piste reads that account's last 30 days and creates the Weekly measurement plan, switched on. A workspace has one weekly plan, so connecting a second account later doesn't add another.

The plan posts where you already read: your Slack DM with Piste, else iMessage, else the web chat. It runs as an ordinary [automation](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations), so you'll find it on the Automations page, where the owner can change its schedule, pause it or change where it posts.

## What does the weekly plan report?

Each Monday the plan covers last week, Monday to Sunday, against the week before. Its post gives:

- blended spend, revenue, MER and CAC;
- each channel's spend beside Shopify's last-click revenue and the revenue the platform claims, each labelled with its evidence;
- the evidence the plan rests on, and its confidence;
- what happened after any budget change applied a week or more ago;
- the budget change it recommends, if any: platform, account, campaign, current and proposed budget, and why;
- anything Piste couldn't read, or a connection that needs reconnecting.

The run also creates a study you can open on the [Measurement page](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement), marked "The weekly plan". The weekly plan never approves its own change: it waits for a person.

How you decide depends on where the plan posts:

| Plan posts to | How you decide the change |
|---|---|
| Slack | A card under the post with `Approve and apply`, `Not this week` and `Show the working` |
| iMessage or the web chat | Reply to approve or decline it, or decide it on the study's page |

## What is the Monday budget memo?

The Monday budget memo is the weekly plan posted in its own Slack channel, `#piste-budget`, so the people who look after ads see it. When it starts, Piste posts a setup message in the channel: what it posts and when, that anyone there who's a full member of your Slack workspace can take a decision and guests can't, and anything still to connect.

Each Monday's memo is short enough to read in a minute:

1. What last week's change did, if the plan recorded an outcome, and the evidence it rests on.
2. This week's proposed move: platform, campaign, current and proposed budget, why, and its evidence and confidence. With no change to make, it says "Nothing to decide this week."
3. Anything missing or needing reconnecting, in one line.

The memo doesn't describe the buttons. The budget change's card sits under the post, with `Approve and apply` and `Not this week`.

## How do I start the Monday budget memo?

The owner starts it by asking Piste, and Piste needs to be installed in your Slack workspace.

### 1. Choose it in the Kickoff, or ask Piste

In the Kickoff conversation, Piste offers the Monday budget memo with Ad spend watch and Change follow-ups. Pick it there, or ask Piste later to start the Monday budget memo in its own channel.

### 2. Find the new channel

Piste creates `#piste-budget`, invites you and posts the setup message. If that name is taken by a channel Piste isn't in, it adds your store's name to the end. The first memo follows in a minute or two.

### 3. Invite your team

Invite whoever should see the memo and decide its budget change. Anyone who's a full member of your Slack workspace can press its buttons; guests can read it but can't decide.

If your workspace already has a weekly plan, Piste moves it into the channel and switches it on, keeping its name and schedule. If its instructions are still Piste's own, they become the memo's; if you rewrote them, yours stay. If there's no weekly plan yet, Piste creates the memo in the channel, named Monday budget memo, and its setup message says there's nothing to read until an ad account is connected. Until then, each Monday's post says the plan can't run and why.

If Slack won't let Piste create the channel, Piste says what to do. If your install is from before Piste could create channels, reinstall Slack (nothing is lost). Or, as when your Slack workspace lets only some people create channels, create or pick a channel yourself, invite @Piste to it, and tell Piste which one. See [Channels](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/slack/channels).

## Who can decide the memo's budget change?

| Where | Who may decide |
|---|---|
| The card under the memo in `#piste-budget` | Any full, active member of the Slack workspace Piste is installed in; guests can't |
| The study's page on the web | The owner |
| A conversation with Piste | The owner, or the person who started the conversation |

`Not this week` is recorded as the reason for declining, and the next plan takes it into account. Each decision is recorded in the [decision log](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/decision-log), and the card then shows who decided. A budget change has no Undo: to put it back, set the budget to its old amount in Google Ads or Meta. See [Measurement](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement) for how Piste chooses a change and writes it.

## Timings

| What | When |
|---|---|
| The weekly plan, or the memo, runs | Mondays at 8:00, in your workspace's time zone |
| Period it covers | Last week, Monday to Sunday, against the week before |
| Ad history read when an account first connects | The last 30 days |
| First plan with alerts and a recommendation | After 7 days of ad spend and Shopify sales |
| First budget recommendation possible | After 28 days of history |
| What an applied change did | Read by the first plan at least 7 days after it was applied, and posted in the card's thread |

## Related

- [Measurement](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/measurement): evidence rungs, studies and how a budget change is chosen.
- [Templates](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations/templates): Ad spend watch and the other ready-made automations.
- [Proposals and cards](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals/proposals): how cards work in Slack.

## Questions

### When is the weekly plan created?

Piste creates it the first time a Google Ads or Meta account connects to your workspace. A workspace has only one, and nothing is created before an ad account connects.

### What's the difference between the weekly plan and the Monday budget memo?

They're the same automation. The Monday budget memo is the weekly plan moved into its own Slack channel,

### Can I have both the weekly plan and the memo?

No. Starting the memo moves your workspace's weekly plan into the channel instead of creating a second one.

### What does the memo say when there's nothing to change?

It says "Nothing to decide this week." on one line where the proposed budget move would be.

### Can I change when the weekly plan runs?

Yes. It's an ordinary automation, so the owner can change its schedule, pause it or change where it posts on the Automations page.