How To: Manage an Instant Awards program

Before you begin, you'll need to contact your account manager to create the new programme template. Once completed for you, it will look like the below example and you can continue with completing the setup.

1. Set up the awards you need

On the Instant Awards admin page, select Manage Awards. You will then see options to create a new Award or edit existing ones. The awards set up here will be available in all pots within this Instant Awards program.

1. When creating a new award, you will need to upload the relevant eCard design. This needs to be a JPG file, horizontal and 3300 x 2100 in size. It will show in notifications to award winners, winners’ accounts, and on the Social Wall

2. As well as a unique eCard, each award needs a unique name

3. The character limit for the award message can be changed on request

4. Each award can have a mix of Custom and Fixed values

   • If you enable Custom Values, senders will be able to enter an amount of their choice when sending this award, up to a maximum value you’ll configure as part of this step

     • Custom values are only available for the sender to choose when the award is sent via Reward Manager
     • Custom values are not available for Global R&R programs

   • There is no limit to the amount of Fixed Values you can set up for each award. These are set amounts the sender can choose between. Each Fixed Value can have a different name to reflect the level or type of the award (e.g. gold/silver/bronze), and a Message explaining when the value should be chosen

5. Click Save to confirm your changes, then repeat the steps above to add more awards

6. When you edit existing awards, the changes will apply to awards sent going forward, and will not be made to awards that have already been sent 

2. Set up the award pots you need

On the Instant Awards admin page, select Manage Award Pots. This will open a page similar to the screenshot below, with no pots listed, and a New Manager Pot button.

1. Each pot requires a unique name

2. Pot Owners will be able to send awards to any eligible employee from any of the pots they are assigned to. They will not have access to the main Instant Awards Budget. They have to be registered to the site in order to be appointed, so make sure you have uploaded their details to Reward Manager and they have activated their accounts before you start the setup

3. The Pot Allowance is the set frequency for top ups to this pot

   • If you choose Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly, the timing for automated top ups will follow the settings configured on setup

   • If you choose Ondemand, there will be no automated top ups, and the pot will only be filled when a Main Budget Owner transfers funds to it  

4. The pots’ Budget is the maximum amount of money that can be available in the pot at any time

   • If you enter an amount at this stage, and the Main Budget has enough funds, the pot will be filled as soon as you save your changes. Going forward, if you have set up a Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly Pot Allowance, the pot will be automatically brought back to the maximum Budget amount with each automated top up (as long as there are enough funds in the Main Budget)

   • If you enter 0 in this field, the pot will only be filled when a Main Budget Owner transfers funds to it

5. If enabled on set up, the Instant Awards webform will state whether Pot Owners will be allowed to request additional funds to Main Budget Owners when their balance is running low

6. Click Save to confirm your changes. If you need to create more pots, repeat the steps above, or follow the instructions in the next section to manage pots in bulk 

3. Do you need to fill pots with a bulk file upload?

On the Instant Awards admin page, select Manage Award Pots > Bulk Change. Main Budget Owners will see this same option when they log in to Reward Manager; it will allow them to change pot settings in bulk, as opposed to updating each pot manually.

The workflows available are Add (used to create brand new pots), Refresh (used to process new pot creation, outdated pot removal and existing pot updates in bulk) and Remove (used to delete outdated pots) 

How does the file need to be formatted?

All files must be in .csv format and contain ALL the fields below:

• Manager Budget Name (unique pot name that needs creating in the system)

• Payroll Number (unique employee ID of the main budget holder)

• Budget

• Budget Allowance (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly)

• Ondemand

• Fill this pot now? (Yes or No, see below)

• Allow owners to request additional funds? (Yes or No)