Managing membership eligibility

This article explains how Reward Gateway clients can add and remove members from their program.

What is membership eligibility?

It is important to manage membership eligibility to ensure only legitimate employees have access. To achieve this we need a list of people who are allowed access to the client's program. This is called an Eligibility List.

Only employees who are in an Eligibility List will be allowed access to the program.

What data is required to maintain an Eligibility List?

At a minimum, Reward Gateway needs a unique identifier for each person, for example, a payroll number. A second distinct piece of information only known to these individuals is also needed, for example, their date of birth, postal code or last name.

Why does Reward Gateway need a second unique identifier to maintain eligibility?

Although the main identifier provided may be unique, it is not necessarily private. It could be obtainable information through a client's internal systems and this could mean another member could access the program on their behalf.

How to maintain the Eligibility List?

Clients can maintain their eligibility list through a file that is uploaded into their Reward Gateway program. There are a few options for how to do this:

1. SFTP Transfer (Recommended)

This is when the client's system (wherever their members’ information is stored or managed) is configured to routinely send a list of member information to Reward Gateway. The files will be processed automatically and require very limited manual intervention, which means less administration for clients.

Find out more about SFTP Transfers in this article: How to configure an SFTP integration

2. Manual Upload of an Eligibility List

Clients who are Administrators of their program will have access to Reward Manager. From here, they can bulk upload their eligibility list.

Find out more about Manual Uploads in this article: How to upload an Eligibility List

Note: The “Add Member” option, in the Member Section, can also be used to add members individually to a program.

What workflows are available when processing an Eligibility List?

When maintaining eligibility lists for a program, there are two workflows available. 

1. Providing a complete set of members through the file (also known as a Refresh or Snapshot)

This is also commonly known as a Snapshot file or a Refresh of the eligibility. Clients must include a full list of all members they would like to be eligible for the program. Any members not on the file but who may be on the Reward Gateway database, will be marked as an 'Ineligible user'.

Any user not on the Reward Gateway database, but who are on the file will be added to the eligibility list.

2. Adding or Removing members separately (also known as Deltas or Changes)

Clients can also add and remove members from their program separately. They can create an ‘Add workflow’ to add new starters, and a ‘Remove workflow’ can be used to mark members as Ineligible.

What if a member attempts to register but is not on the Eligibility List?

If a member who is not currently on the list of eligible members attempts to register for an account, Reward Gateway will notify the administrators of the program about the request. 

If the client is happy that the member is eligible, they can approve this request and give the member access to the program. This is managed through the administration console, Reward Manager.

If the client is not sure about the eligibility of the member or the validity of the request, then they can reject the request and the member will not be given access to the program.