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When one asset is linked to multiple programs, there are two ways to model member balances: pooled, where each member has one ledger entity and one combined balance, or partitioned, where each membership or account has its own ledger entity and its own balance. You choose a shape through your entity model. There is no configuration flag. The shapes differ in member experience and in how ordinary per-program reports attribute activity. For LOT-mode assets, the redemption attribution report can also separate the original issuer from the redemption channel. Pick the shape before you issue value. This guide builds on lots and expiration, transfers, and reporting.

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Pooled: One Entity Per Member

Link the asset to every program, and create one participant per member. Balances and lots belong to the participant and asset, not to any one program, so the member sees a single combined balance no matter which program issued the value.
A redemption through any linked ACTIVE program draws on the pooled balance. For LOT-mode assets, the oldest eligible lots are spent first across everything the member holds, regardless of which program issued each lot. Rule conditions read the same pooled number through participant.balance.<symbol>. See CEL Expressions. This is the right shape for a one-brand currency earned through multiple channels: a retailer with store and app programs, or an airline whose miles accrue through both flights and a status program. Members expect one number, and they get one number.
Ordinary per-program reports attribute each redemption to the program it was redeemed through. For LOT-mode assets, use the redemption attribution report to break that value down by original issuer. See How reporting attributes redemptions before choosing this shape.

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Partitioned: One Entity Per Account

Create a separate participant entity for each membership or account, even when they belong to the same person. Each entity accrues into its own balance, and combining value is an explicit transfer. This is how Chase models Ultimate Rewards: Sapphire Reserve and Freedom each accrue points into separate card-account balances, and moving points between cards is a deliberate action the member takes. In Scrip, each card account is its own participant, and the merge is a transfer:
The transfer requires an ACTIVE program and both participants in ACTIVE status, and it produces a journal entry like any other balance movement. This makes cross-account movement auditable, but it does not bind a participant to one program. Callers still supply the intended linked program_id for transfers and redemptions because ordinary reporting follows that journal-entry channel.

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How Reporting Attributes Redemptions

Journal entries for program operations, such as earning, redemptions, and transfers, carry the program_id of the program the operation ran through. System entries such as expiration carry no program_id and report under a separate no-program row. Liability, rollforward, and activity reports therefore reflect the redemption channel, not the issuing program. In the pooled shape, a member can earn through program A and redeem through program B. Program B’s ordinary redemption line then includes value program A issued, so per-program cells diverge from per-program issuance, and a program’s individual liability cell can go negative. Asset-level totals remain exact: the itemized lines of the liability rollforward always sum to the change in outstanding liability for the asset as a whole. For LOT-mode assets, GET /v1/reports/redemption-attribution adds the missing settlement view. It groups consumed lot value by both original issuer and redemption channel. In the example above, value issued by program A and redeemed through program B appears as its own issued-by-A, redeemed-through-B line. Value whose issuer is unknown remains visible under a no-issuer line, and values are gross of reversals. In the partitioned shape, your application keeps each account’s operations in its intended program. Cross-program movement is visible as a transfer before any cross-program redemption attribution appears.

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Choosing a Shape

A useful test: if members would be confused by holding two balances of the same currency, use pooled. For LOT-mode assets, finance can still answer “how much of program A’s issuance was redeemed through program A or B” with redemption attribution. Use partitioned when the balances themselves must remain distinct, or when a SIMPLE-mode asset cannot provide lot-level issuer lineage. For the mechanics of linking assets across programs, see Programs. For oldest-first spending and lot lifecycle, see Lots and Expiration.