For Admins
What Cards are and why they matter
Cards bring the "office birthday card everyone signs" experience into Bonusly, a shared, collaborative space where your team composes messages, adds GIFs, stickers, photos, and linked recognitions for a single recipient. The card stays private until it's delivered, keeping the surprise intact.
Cards are completely separate from recognition points. No points are spent, no allowances are affected. The value is the collective, personal gesture from the team and it complements your existing recognition programs without adding cost.
Cards are controlled from Bonusly's Cards feature access setting. When the feature is on, people in your company can view cards shared with them and sign cards they're invited to. Whether everyone can create cards or only admins can create them depends on the creation audience setting in Feature Access.
Cards is available on every plan, including trial accounts. There's no tier requirement and no add-on to buy; availability is determined by the rollout and your Feature access setting.
Enable or disable Cards
Cards appears in your company's Feature access settings. Use that page to turn Cards on or off and to decide whether card creation is available to Everyone or Admins only.
To manage the setting:
Go to your Bonusly admin dashboard.
Click Company in the left sidebar, then Account Settings.
Navigate to Feature Access.
Find Cards and toggle it on or off.
When Cards is off:
No one in your company can create, sign, or view cards.
Cards won't appear in any navigation or menus.
Existing cards are preserved but inaccessible until the feature is re-enabled.
When Cards is on:
People in your company can sign cards they're invited to and view cards they receive.
Card creation follows the creation audience setting:
Everyone -- all active people can create cards.
Admins only -- only global admins and awards admins can create cards.
Cards appears in the give menu and navigation.
Choose who can create cards
By default anyone at your company can start a card. If you'd rather keep that to admins, you can change it without turning the feature off.
Go to Feature access.
Find Cards. Next to the toggle you'll see the current setting, either Everyone or Admins only.
Click it to open Who can create cards? and choose:
Everyone -- anyone active at your company can start a card. This is the default.
Admins only -- only global admins and awards admins can start a card.
Save.
This only controls who can start a card. Everyone can still open, sign, and receive cards either way, so a card an admin starts can still be signed by the whole team.
The setting appears only while Cards is turned on.
Manage Cards as an admin
Admins with awards permissions can manage all cards across the company from the admin dashboard.
Viewing all cards
Navigate to Recognition > Cards in the admin dashboard to see an index of all cards in your company. The table shows:
Card title -- the name of the card.
Recipient -- who the card is for.
Created by-- who organized the card.
Status -- whether the card is a draft (undelivered) or has been delivered.
Signatures -- how many people have signed.
Viewed -- when the recipient first opened their card, or Not viewed if they haven't yet.
Created date -- when the card was started.
You can search cards by title or recipient name, and sort by any column.
Delivering a card
If a card has been created but not yet delivered, for example, the organizer forgot or left the company, any admin with awards permissions can deliver it. Click on the card and use the deliver action. Delivery sends the recipient an email, an in-app notification, and a Slack notification (if connected).
Delivery is idempotent: if a card has already been delivered, delivering again is a no-op. The recipient won't get duplicate notifications.
Editing a card
Admins can edit an undelivered card's title, central message, theme and delivery schedule. This is useful if the organizer needs help or if settings need to be adjusted before the card goes out.
Editing doesn't change who has been invited. To notify more people, open the card and choose Invite signers from its settings menu, which is also where the card's shareable link lives.
Once a card is delivered, it can no longer be edited.
Deleting a card
Admins can delete any card in the company. Deleting a card soft-deletes it and all its comments. Any recognitions that were linked into the card are unaffected, they remain in the recognition feed.
How Cards work for your team
Here's what your team members experience:
Creating a card -- If creation is set to Everyone, any active person can start a card for a colleague. If creation is set to Admins only, global admins and awards admins can start cards. The organizer picks a recipient, writes the title and central message, and decides who can sign (everyone, specific groups, or no one).
Inviting people -- Once the card exists, the organizer either shares its link or picks people and groups to notify, or both. Notifying controls who hears about the card, not who is allowed to sign: before delivery, any coworker other than the recipient who has the link can sign. The Everyone suggestion is only offered to companies of 100 or fewer, reducing the risk of notifying a large company accidentally; organizers should still check the recipient count for other groups. The organizer can return to Invite signers until the card is delivered.
Signing a card -- Invited signers get notified via email, Slack, and in-app notification. They can add text messages, GIFs, stickers, photos, or link an existing recognition. Signing is simply adding content to the card.
Delivering a card -- The organizer (or any participant) delivers the card when it's ready. They can deliver immediately or schedule it for a specific date and time in the recipient's timezone. An alternate delivery email can be specified if the notification should also go to a different address.
Receiving a card -- The recipient gets an email and in-app notification with a link to open their card. They see all the contributions from their team in one place.
Sharing a card -- After delivery, a public link is generated so the card can be shared more broadly (in a team channel, a meeting, or printed).
How Cards relate to other recognition programs
Cards don't replace your peer-to-peer recognition, awards, celebrations, or incentives, they complement them. Here's how they fit together:
Program | Points involved? | Who initiates? | Purpose |
Peer-to-peer recognition | Yes | Any team member | Recognize specific contributions |
Awards | Yes (company-funded) | Admins or award givers | Formally reward achievements |
Celebrations | Yes (company-funded) | Automatic | Mark birthdays, anniversaries, welcomes |
Cards | No | Any team member or admins only if creation is restricted | Collaborative group messages for any occasion |
A recognition given through the normal flow can be linked into a card, so it appears alongside everyone's personal messages. But the card itself carries no points it's the thought that counts.
Learn More:
Webinar Recording: Better with Bonusly: Introducing Cards
Relevant Article: Cards in Bonusly
FAQ
Do Cards cost my company anything? No. Cards don't involve points, and there's no additional Cards charge.
Is Cards included in our plan? Yes. Cards is available on every plan tier, including trial accounts there's no tier requirement and nothing to add on. Whether you see it depends on your company's Cards rollout and your Feature access setting, not on what you're paying for.
Who can create cards? By default, any active person in your company, as long as the Cards feature is enabled. If you set Who can create cards? to Admins only on the Feature access page, only global admins and awards admins can start one everyone else can still sign and receive cards.
Who can deliver a card? The organizer (creator), any invited participant, or an admin with awards permissions.
Can I see analytics on Cards usage? Yes. The admin Cards page shows card counts, signature activity, and creation trends. You can use this to understand how your team is engaging with the feature.
What happens to cards when someone leaves the company? Cards they created or signed remain in the system. If an organizer leaves before delivering a card, an admin can deliver it on their behalf.
Can I control who sees Cards in the navigation? Cards visibility is all-or-nothing at the company level. When the feature is on, everyone sees it. When it's off, no one does. There's no per-user or per-group visibility setting for the feature itself, you can limit who may create cards with Who can create cards? on the Feature access page.
Questions? Send us a note to [email protected], we'd be happy to help.