Audience: For Admins. To set up an award, you must either be a global admin or have awards admin permissions.
Note: Awards are only available on the Organization plan (as well as certain legacy plans).
A points award asks the winner to go pick something out later. Sometimes that's exactly right. But for the moments that deserve a bit of ceremony, a milestone, a big win, a send-off, you want them to open something.
Rewards in Awards lets you attach a real item from your rewards catalog to an award. The winner gets the gift itself, not a balance to spend someday.
Behind the scenes we credit them the points the gift is worth and spend those points on the gift right away. They don't have to visit the catalog or claim anything, and their balance ends up about where it started.
You'll find this in the Budget section when you create or edit an award, under Admin → Recognition → Awards.
Decide who picks the gift
The Budget section asks whether this award gives out points or a reward item. Choose Reward, then choose who selects it.
Admin — you pick one item now, and everyone who wins this award gets that same gift. Best when the award is a set thing, like a five-year anniversary gift.
Giver — you set a budget in USD and whoever gives the award picks the gift at give time. Best when the giver knows the person better than you do.
Either way, the point amount for the award is set for you. It has to match what the gift is worth, so it's not editable.
If you're picking the item
The reward selector shows your catalog with the item type (gift card, curated gift, swag, donation, and so on), category, and price in USD. Gift cards may show a range, since you'll also choose a denomination.
Availability varies by country, so there's a Country dropdown at the top. It defaults to All your countries, and you can narrow it to see what someone in one place can actually receive. You're not locked to any recipient's country here. If you attach something that's only sold in one country, see what happens across borders.
If the giver's picking the item
Set a reward budget in USD instead, and we'll show you the equivalent in points. Givers can choose anything up to that amount, or the equivalent in local currency. The budget can't go above the maximum reward price in your catalog settings.
What givers see
Givers use the same Award button as always. Two things change.
The gift shows up in the give modal, so they know what they're handing over. On a giver-choice award they pick it there, after choosing a recipient, and they'll only see items that fit the budget you set.
An award with a gift goes to one person at a time. A gift is priced and stocked for a single winner, so groups and CSV upload aren't available on these awards the way they are on a points award.
Before they send, we check whether the gift can actually reach that person, and we'll say so:
"This item is unavailable for [name]. They will receive [number] points instead." We won't attempt the gift. They'll get the equivalent points.
"This item may not be usable in [name]'s location." We'll still send it. This is just a heads-up, for example a gift card for a store that only operates somewhere else. Whether that's worth having is the winner's call, not ours.
Givers write their message around these warnings, so they're built to match what actually happens next.
What the winner gets
They get one email, "Congratulations, you got an award!", with the gift and how to claim it. We hold back the usual "you received points" email so the gift isn't buried under it. The award post shows up in the feed as normal, with the gift on the post.
Curated gifts and other physical items need somewhere to ship. If they've saved a shipping address in Bonusly before, we claim it for them straight away. If not, Snappy, our fulfillment partner, emails them to ask where to send it, and it ships once they confirm. The award email tells them to watch for that.
Gifts can expire. When one does, the email says the date.
When the gift can't be sent
The gift never blocks the award. If we can't deliver it, the winner keeps the equivalent points, and nobody has to chase it:
They're emailed to say they got points instead.
The giver and your admins get an "Update on [name]'s [award]" email with the reason.
The usual reasons are that the item is out of stock, it's no longer in your catalog, your redemption rules don't allow it for that person, rewards billing is off or there's a billing problem on the account, a daily redemption limit was hit, or we couldn't confirm the price.
This holds after the fact too. If our fulfillment partner rejects the order once it's placed, we refund it and move the winner onto points then, so nobody's left with a post promising a gift that never showed up.
What happens across borders
It depends on how the item gets there.
Gift cards travel by claim link, which crosses borders fine, so we send them. The giver just gets the "may not be usable" heads-up.
Curated gifts and other physical items ship to a real address. If the item isn't available in the winner's country, we don't attempt it, and they get points instead.
How it's billed
Nothing new to set up. The gift is billed through your normal rewards billing, in real USD, exactly as if the winner had redeemed it themselves, and it shows up in your rewards reports and invoices alongside every other redemption.
The price in the reward selector includes provider fees, so it's what you'll actually be charged.
Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]; we'd be happy to help!
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