How to Set Up Recognition Budgets

Create per-user or fixed recognition budgets, configure limits and defaults, and understand what happens when budgets go live.

Who can use this feature

  • Requires the Super Admin admin permission.

Who this is for

Admins who want to control how many recognition points people can give each month.

What you'll achieve

A working recognition budget — either per-user or fixed — that sets monthly point limits for your workspace. Once created, you'll know how to mark it as the default and where to assign users to it.

Before you begin

Budget changes take effect immediately.

If you edit a live budget mid-month, remaining balances recalculate based on what's already been spent — which can drop remaining points to zero if the new amount is lower than current usage. Make changes during a quiet period when possible.

Steps

1. Open Recognition Budgets

Go to Admin → Programs → Recognition → Budgets. You'll see a table of all existing budgets with their type, total, remaining balance, and number of assigned users. If your workspace already has budgets, review them before creating a new one to avoid overlap.

2. Create a new budget

Click Create New. A dialog opens with two tabs: Per User Budget and Fixed Budget.

  • Per User works well when each person should have the same monthly allowance. The total pool scales automatically as people join or leave — you set the per-person amount and the system handles the rest.

  • Fixed is better when you want a set monthly pool shared across a group, regardless of headcount. You can optionally cap how much any one person can use.

Choose the tab that fits your use case and fill in the fields below.

3. Fill in the details

Both types share these fields:

  • Budget Name — a descriptive label like "Entry Level", "Manager", or "Executive". Names must be unique in your workspace (3–50 characters).

  • Per Recipient Limit (optional) — the maximum points that can be given to a single recipient in one recognition. Leave empty for no cap. When set, the minimum is 1 point.

Per User Budget fields:

  • Per-User Budget — select a currency and enter the monthly amount per person (up to $10,000). The form converts this to points and shows the total: users × per-user points = total monthly budget. That total recalculates whenever someone is added to or removed from this budget.

Fixed Budget fields:

  • Monthly Budget — select a currency and enter the total pool amount (up to $100,000). This is the shared balance everyone draws from.

  • Enable per-user limit (optional) — flip this on to cap how much any one person can spend per month from the shared pool. Without it, a single user could theoretically exhaust the entire pool.

4. Save the budget

Click Save. The budget is active immediately — there is no start date to configure. A success toast confirms creation, and the budget appears in your table.

5. Set a default budget (recommended)

From the table, open the actions menu on the budget you want as the default and select Make Default. New users invited to your workspace are automatically assigned the default budget unless a different one is chosen during invite. Only one budget can be the default at a time. Setting a new default automatically removes the flag from the previous one.

6. Assign users

Creating a budget doesn't assign anyone to it — that's a separate step. You can assign users in three ways:

  • During invite — pick a budget in the invite form's optional fields (or leave blank for the default)

  • Edit an existing user — change their budget from the Users page

  • Bulk action — select multiple users on the Users page and choose Change Recognition Budget

See How to Invite Users to Your Workspace for the full invite flow, including CSV upload with budget assignment.

What to expect after

  • Balances update in real time as people send recognition. Employees see their remaining allowance in the header and in the recognition form.

  • Monthly reset happens on the 1st of each month (01:00 SGT). Remaining balances return to full — unspent points do not roll over. Individual allowance counters reset to zero at the same time.

  • Per-user pool totals auto-adjust. When someone is added to or removed from a per-user budget, the pool recalculates at the next monthly reconciliation.

  • Fixed pool balances are shared. Once the pool reaches zero, no one assigned to that budget can send point-bearing recognition until the next reset (or until an admin increases the amount).

Common mistakes

Budget name already exists

Each name must be unique within your workspace. Check the budgets table — you may have a budget with the same name that you forgot about. Edit the existing one or pick a different name.

Pro tips

  • Name budgets by role or level — names like "IC", "Manager", and "Director" make it obvious which budget to assign during onboarding. Avoid vague names like "Budget 1".

  • Start conservative — it's easier to increase a budget after a quiet first month than to reduce one after people have already spent. A good starting point for per-user budgets is US$5–$10 per person per month.

  • Review usage during the first cycle — check the remaining balance column in the budgets table before the first monthly reset. If most budgets show a large unspent remainder, the amounts may be higher than needed. If budgets hit zero before month-end, consider increasing or splitting into tiered budgets.

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