Adding custom rewards

Bonusly makes it easy to add a custom reward and keep track of inventory and availability.

Adrianne Hipsher avatar
Written by Adrianne Hipsher
Updated over a week ago

This article is best for:

- Admin users 🎉

- Pro & Core Accounts 💼

Topics in this article:


What are Custom Rewards?

Custom rewards are a great way to personalize your company's reward catalog. In contrast to standard rewards, which are fulfilled electronically by Bonusly, custom rewards are fulfilled by you, offline. Learn how to fulfill custom rewards using Bonusly.

The Custom Rewards help to:

  • Ease the administrative effort of managing a custom rewards catalog

  • Help admins maximize cost flexibility

  • Better incorporate company culture into rewards

  • Save time and money

  • Increase the impact of the employees' reward experiences

Adding a custom reward

To add a custom reward, first head to your Admin tools and select the Rewards > Manage catalog page. Then click the create new reward button at the top right of the screen.


💡Pro tip: You can toggle custom rewards on and off on the main manage catalog page for easy maintenance.


To start you'll add some basic information for your reward. First, select your Reward type, which updates the template to collect the most relevant information for the reward you are adding. Reward type also helps to categorize rewards in the catalog.


Next add your reward name, image, amount needed to claim and any of the other optional fields that relate to the reward.


Adding Catalog settings

If you have certain custom rewards that only apply to a certain user's country, location, department, or role, you can make that happen adding an audience for your reward!

Click the add audience button to target or limit who can see and claim specific custom rewards.

You can filter the audience by data in your Bonusly account about your users including:

  • Country

  • Department

  • Location

  • Role

You can add multiple audience filters by clicking the add audience button as needed.


💡Pro tip: Add a fulfillment partner to help track and filter rewards in reporting.


When you're done, click the Save and publish button to share the reward in your catalog or the Save as inactive to keep as a draft for additional editing. When you publish your reward it will automatically appear in the catalog, and users will be able to redeem it. 🎉

Adding multiple claim amounts

Add multiple amounts needed to redeem for a reward by updating the Amount section under your Basic settings. This will show up as a dropdown menu when users go to redeem the custom reward. This is a great option to include in donations to allow for flexibility of how much people choose people to donate.

Adding a quantity for Custom Rewards

Are you adding a reward that comes in finite amounts? Bonusly will keep track of inventory for you. Just enter a value in the item's 'quantity' field and each time a user redeems one of those rewards, Bonusly will automatically subtract one from your stated inventory helping identify how many rewards are available to redeem to avoid running out of stock.

Adding claim amount options for Custom Rewards

Streamline the custom reward experience by customizing additional reward options. This is particularly useful for swag items that are available in multiple sizes, colors, and quantities.


💡Pro tip: Select the Collect Shipping Address field to streamline fulfillment processes.


Reward Field Descriptions

Name (required): Enter the name of your reward. This is the headline users will see in the reward catalog. For example: "Lunch with Leaders" 

Reward Image (required): You can add your own custom image to the reward. This helps personalize the reward, and make it easily identifiable. By default, this image will be an image of a gift box if you don't upload your own custom image.

Amount (required): The number of total points it will cost a user to claim this reward. How much does this reward cost? It's up for you to decide. Choosing the cost of the reward is an excellent opportunity to subsidize specific rewards. For example: We'll give this reward a cost of $10 (considerably less than the cost of the lunch) because we want to encourage employees to spend time building positive relationships with upper management.

Other commonly subsidized custom rewards include: educational materials, health and fitness, and team activities. It's completely open-ended, so get creative!

Quantity (optional): how many of this custom reward amount is available. If quantity does not apply or there is no limit, leave that field blank.

Description (optional): Give a quick description of your new reward. This is an opportunity to make sure your users know exactly what they're spending their points on.

Important Information (optional): Communicate critical details that may influence an employee’s decision to claim this reward like fulfillment timelines, fees, limitations, and more.

Website (optional): Does the item you're adding to the catalog have a website? You can add its URL here, so users can click through to learn more about the reward.

Want to learn more? Check out these related articles: 


Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]; we'd be happy to help!

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