Having made the decision to part company with Ian Sampson and bring in Gary Johnson last season, Cardoza endured some nervy moments as Northampton endured a long winless run under their new boss and flirted with relegation out of the Football League.
Now though he has sanctioned a summer of activity in the transfer market and some high-profile signings.
"We're not spending this money to be in the top half, we're doing this to go up," he told the Chronicle & Echo.
"That's why (manager) Gary Johnson is here, we wouldn't have brought him in if we were going for anything other than promotion.
"The coaching team here is top quality and it was important to give him money to spend, but we're not far off where we were last season in terms of the budget.
"We may end up with 19 or 20 players whereas last season we had 30-something, so it's more about quality over quantity this season."