Campaign Lifecycle Management

Every marketing campaign in AccuArk moves through a series of statuses that control whether its linked promotions are active at the Point of Sale. Understanding the campaign lifecycle helps you plan launches, respond to changing conditions, and cleanly wind down campaigns when they are finished.

This guide covers each status in detail, the transitions between them, the actions available at each stage, and what happens to linked promotions when the campaign status changes.

Status Flow Overview

The campaign lifecycle follows this general flow:

Draft → Scheduled → Active → Paused → Active → Expired

At any point after activation, a campaign can also be Cancelled, which is a permanent terminal state. The full set of transitions is:

• Draft → Scheduled (set a future start date)
• Draft → Active (activate immediately)
• Scheduled → Active (start date reached, or manual activation)
• Active → Paused (temporarily suspend)
• Paused → Active (resume)
• Active → Expired (end date reached, or ended early)
• Active → Cancelled (permanent stop)
• Paused → Cancelled (permanent stop)

Draft Status

A draft campaign is saved in the system but has no effect on POS operations. The promotion engine ignores draft campaigns entirely, so none of the campaign's linked promotions are evaluated during sales.

Use the draft status to prepare campaigns in advance. You can create the campaign, link promotions to it, review the configuration with your team, and then activate or schedule it when you are ready to launch. Draft campaigns can be edited freely — change any field, add or remove promotions, adjust the budget, or modify the location scope without any impact on live sales.

To move a draft campaign forward, either set its status to Active (for immediate launch) or set a start date and change the status to Scheduled (for a future launch).

Scheduled Status

A scheduled campaign has a future start date configured. The campaign sits in a waiting state until the start date and time arrive, at which point the system automatically transitions the campaign to active.

Scheduled campaigns are useful for pre-planning promotional events. For example, you can create a Black Friday campaign weeks in advance, set the start date to the morning of Black Friday, and let the system handle the activation automatically. This eliminates the need for someone to manually activate the campaign at a specific time.

The automatic transition from scheduled to active is handled by the promotion engine's evaluation cycle. When a transaction occurs at the POS, the engine checks scheduled campaigns and activates any whose start date has been reached. This means the transition happens at the time of the first transaction on or after the start date, not at the exact second the clock strikes the start time.

While a campaign is in scheduled status, its linked promotions are not evaluated. You can still edit the campaign and its promotions freely before the start date arrives.

Active Status

An active campaign is live. The promotion engine evaluates the campaign's linked promotions on every qualifying transaction at the POS. If a promotion's conditions are met (correct items, correct date, correct location, within usage limits, etc.), the promotion's discount is applied to the invoice.

While a campaign is active:

• All linked promotions that are individually active are evaluated at the POS.
• Budget tracking is live — each discount applied by a linked promotion is added to the campaign's running total.
• Usage tracking is live — each promotion application counts toward the campaign's max total uses.
• If the campaign has an end date and that date is reached, the status automatically transitions to expired.
• If the budget limit is reached, the campaign's promotions stop applying even though the campaign status remains active.
• If the max total uses limit is reached, the campaign's promotions stop applying even though the campaign status remains active.

You can edit an active campaign, but be cautious — changes take effect immediately. Modifying the budget limit, location scope, or priority of an active campaign will affect the very next transaction processed at the POS.

Pausing a Campaign

To temporarily suspend an active campaign without ending it permanently, click the Pause button on the Campaign Editor. Pausing a campaign:

• Immediately stops the campaign's linked promotions from being evaluated at the POS. The effect is instant — the next transaction processed after pausing will not include any of this campaign's promotions.
• Preserves the campaign's state, including its budget tracking totals, usage counts, and all configuration. Nothing is lost or reset.
• Keeps all linked promotions in their current individual states. The promotions are temporarily suspended because the parent campaign is paused, but their own status fields are not changed.

Pausing is useful for responding to unexpected situations. For example, if you discover that a promotion's discount is configured incorrectly and is giving away too much, pausing the campaign lets you stop the bleeding immediately while you investigate and fix the issue.

Resuming a Campaign

To reactivate a paused campaign, click the Resume button on the Campaign Editor. Resuming a campaign:

• Immediately restores the campaign to active status. The promotion engine begins evaluating the campaign's linked promotions again on the very next transaction.
• Picks up where the campaign left off. Budget tracking and usage counts continue from their previous values — they are not reset to zero.
• Restores all linked promotions that were active before the pause. Promotions that were individually deactivated before the pause remain inactive.

The pause-and-resume cycle can be repeated as many times as needed. There is no limit on how many times a campaign can be paused and resumed.

Ending a Campaign Early

If you want to stop a campaign before its scheduled end date, click the End Early button on the Campaign Editor. Ending a campaign early:

• Sets the campaign's end date to the current date and time.
• Changes the campaign's status to Expired.
• Immediately stops all linked promotions from being evaluated at the POS.
• Is a permanent action — an expired campaign cannot be reactivated or resumed. If you need the campaign again, you must create a new one.

Use End Early when you have decided that the campaign should be over but the original end date has not yet been reached. For example, if a clearance sale achieved its goals ahead of schedule and you want to stop the discounts, ending early is the clean way to do it.

A confirmation dialog appears before the action is finalized, giving you a chance to cancel if you clicked the button by mistake.

Cancelling a Campaign

Cancelling a campaign is similar to ending early but carries a different semantic meaning. Click the Cancel Campaign button on the Campaign Editor. Cancelling:

• Immediately changes the campaign's status to Cancelled.
• Stops all linked promotions from being evaluated at the POS.
• Is a permanent action with a confirmation dialog. Once cancelled, the campaign cannot be reactivated.

Use cancellation when a campaign should never have been run, was created in error, or needs to be permanently abandoned. The distinction between expired and cancelled is primarily for reporting — expired campaigns completed their run (whether naturally or ended early), while cancelled campaigns were stopped due to a decision that the campaign should not continue.

Cancelled campaigns remain in the system for historical and audit purposes. They appear in campaign lists with a cancelled status badge and their performance data is preserved.

Effect on Linked Promotions

Understanding how campaign status changes affect linked promotions is critical for managing your marketing effectively:

Pause and Resume

When a campaign is paused, all of its linked promotions are temporarily suspended. The promotions' own individual statuses are not changed — they are simply skipped by the promotion engine because the parent campaign is paused. When the campaign is resumed, the promotions are evaluated again based on their individual statuses. This means:

• A promotion that was active before the pause will be active again after the resume.
• A promotion that was individually deactivated before the pause will remain inactive after the resume.
• No manual intervention is needed on individual promotions when pausing or resuming the campaign.

End Early and Cancel

When a campaign is ended early or cancelled, its linked promotions permanently stop being evaluated as part of the campaign. However, the promotions' own individual records are not deleted or modified. This means:

• The promotions still exist in the system and can be viewed and reported on.
• If a promotion is not linked to any other active campaign, it will not apply at the POS.
• If you need a promotion from a cancelled campaign to continue operating, you can link it to a different active campaign or configure it as a standalone promotion.

Individual Promotion Management

Promotions linked to a campaign can still be individually managed independently of the campaign's status. You can activate, deactivate, edit, or delete individual promotions at any time. The campaign status and the promotion's individual status work together:

• A promotion only applies at the POS if both the campaign is active and the promotion is individually active.
• Deactivating a single promotion within an active campaign does not affect the campaign or its other promotions.
• Activating a promotion within a paused campaign has no immediate effect — the promotion will begin applying only when the campaign is resumed.

Best Practices

• Start with draft — Always create campaigns in draft status first. Review the configuration and linked promotions with your team before activating.
• Use scheduled status for planned events — For sales tied to specific dates, set the campaign to scheduled with the appropriate start date. This avoids relying on someone to manually activate the campaign at the right time.
• Pause before editing active campaigns — If you need to make significant changes to an active campaign (such as modifying multiple promotions), pause the campaign first, make your changes, and then resume. This prevents customers from seeing partially updated promotions.
• Prefer End Early over Cancel — Use End Early when a campaign ran successfully but is done ahead of schedule. Use Cancel only when the campaign should not have run or was created in error. This distinction helps with accurate reporting.