Daily Caps

Q: When do daily caps reset?

At midnight in your account timezone (set in Settings → Account → Timezone). Weekly caps reset Monday at 00:00; monthly caps reset 1st of the month at 00:00. Total caps never reset automatically — they require manual intervention (Reset Cap button) or campaign termination.

Q: Do dollar budget caps include cost or revenue?

Buyer-side dollar caps count revenue (what the buyer pays you per lead). Supplier-side dollar caps count cost (what you pay the supplier per lead). They're separate settings. For Revenue Share suppliers where cost is a percentage of revenue, the supplier dollar cap counts the calculated cost — so a $1,000 supplier dollar cap on 75% revenue share triggers when cumulative cost (75% of cumulative revenue) hits $1,000.

Q: Can I get an alert when a buyer is approaching its cap?

Yes — configure threshold alerts in Settings → Notifications. Common alerts: 80% of daily cap (warning), 100% of daily cap (pause notification), 100% of weekly/monthly (escalation). Alerts can go to Slack, email, or SMS based on the Notifications tab routing.

Set per-buyer daily, weekly, monthly, and total lead caps plus dollar budget caps in Lead Distro AI. Cap reset behavior, overflow routing, and FAQs.

Last updated: May 22, 2026

What Are Daily Caps?

Caps are limits on how many leads (or how much dollar value) a buyer can receive in a given window. They're configured per buyer, not per campaign — each buyer has their own cap windows. When a buyer hits its cap, it stops receiving leads until the window resets; remaining leads route to other eligible buyers based on your distribution method.

Cap Windows

Window	Resets	Common use
Daily	Midnight in account timezone	Smooth daily volume — buyer wants 50/day max
Weekly	Monday 00:00 in account timezone	Match buyer's staffing capacity (200/week)
Monthly	1st of month 00:00	Contractual lead allotments (1,000/month)
Total	Manual reset only	Test buyers, one-time campaigns, finite budgets

Lead Caps vs Dollar Budget Caps

Both types run on the same windows independently. Lead caps count leads received. Dollar budget caps count revenue (or, for the supplier side, cost). Use whichever matches the buyer's actual constraint — most buyers pace by lead count (their intake team handles N/day), but some pace by spend (a fixed monthly budget regardless of lead price variance).

Set both lead caps AND dollar budget caps for buyers with variable lead pricing (ping-post bidders, conditional pricing rules). Whichever caps first acts as the limit — protects against single high-bid days exhausting a monthly budget early.

How Caps Interact with Distribution Methods

Distribution method	What happens when a buyer hits cap
Round Robin	Buyer drops out of rotation. Remaining buyers split leads evenly. No paused 'skip turns' — distribution stays balanced across active buyers.
Weighted	Buyer drops out. Remaining buyers' weights renormalize to 100%.
Priority	Cap-hit buyer is skipped; leads cascade to the next-priority eligible buyer. This is the core mechanic of waterfall — caps trigger the overflow.
Ping-Post	Cap-hit buyer is excluded from ping. Other buyers bid normally. The system selects from buyers who are still under cap.

What Happens When All Caps Are Hit

Lead is marked UNMATCHED with status reason `all_buyers_capped`. Held in the dashboard. You can manually route to a buyer (override the cap), archive the lead, or set up a fallback automation that sends UNMATCHED leads to an overflow buyer with no cap.

Manual Cap Reset

Go to the buyer's detail page.
Find the cap you want to reset.
Click Reset Cap — the counter goes to 0 immediately and the buyer starts receiving leads again.
Reset is logged in the buyer's timeline for audit. Common use: a buyer needed more volume than their daily cap mid-day; reset to extend their day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I set different cap windows on the same buyer?

Yes. A single buyer can have caps on all four windows simultaneously: daily, weekly, monthly, total. Whichever cap fires first pauses the buyer for that window — e.g., a buyer with daily=50, weekly=200, monthly=600 hits the daily cap most days but hits the monthly only at end-of-month if volume is consistent. Use this layered approach to enforce both pacing and budget discipline.

When do daily caps reset?

At midnight in your account timezone (set in Settings → Account → Timezone). Weekly caps reset Monday at 00:00; monthly caps reset 1st of the month at 00:00. Total caps never reset automatically — they require manual intervention (Reset Cap button) or campaign termination.

What happens if I add a buyer mid-day with a daily cap?

The new buyer's daily cap starts at 0 used from the moment of creation. They receive leads up to their full daily cap, then pause until midnight when the cap resets. The cap doesn't pro-rate based on partial-day creation — a buyer added at 11pm with a 50/day cap can still receive 50 leads in the next hour before midnight.

Can I temporarily raise a cap for a specific day?

Yes. Edit the buyer's daily cap to a higher value — the change applies immediately. Lower it back the next day. Common pattern: a buyer's intake team has extra capacity on a specific Friday — temporarily raise the daily cap from 50 to 100 in the morning, drop back to 50 the next day. Cap changes are logged in the buyer's timeline.

Do dollar budget caps include cost or revenue?

Buyer-side dollar caps count revenue (what the buyer pays you per lead). Supplier-side dollar caps count cost (what you pay the supplier per lead). They're separate settings. For Revenue Share suppliers where cost is a percentage of revenue, the supplier dollar cap counts the calculated cost — so a $1,000 supplier dollar cap on 75% revenue share triggers when cumulative cost (75% of cumulative revenue) hits $1,000.

Can I get an alert when a buyer is approaching its cap?

Yes — configure threshold alerts in Settings → Notifications. Common alerts: 80% of daily cap (warning), 100% of daily cap (pause notification), 100% of weekly/monthly (escalation). Alerts can go to Slack, email, or SMS based on the Notifications tab routing.

How do I prevent runaway lead volume on a new buyer?

Start with a low daily cap (e.g., 10) and a low monthly cap (e.g., 200) for the first week. Monitor acceptance rate and return rate. If both look healthy, raise the caps gradually. For truly unknown buyers, also enable Test Mode on the supplier sending them traffic — leads flow but don't count for billing while you validate the pipeline.

Campaign Basics

Create and configure lead distribution campaigns in Lead Distro AI. Choose your routing method, set daily caps, map custom fields, and assign buyers with priority rules for every pipeline.

Priority (Waterfall)

Priority (Waterfall) lead distribution in Lead Distro AI — try the highest-priority buyer first, overflow to the next when caps fill or filters reject. Best for maximizing revenue from your top-paying buyer.

Scheduling Filters

Schedule Lead Distro AI inbound and buyer filters by day of week and hour range. Route leads to different buyers based on staffing hours, enforce overnight rules, or pause filters during maintenance.

If you have any questions, send us an email at support@leaddistro.ai

Inbound Filters Test Mode