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Budgets in Empuls control how recognition points are distributed to managers and employees. Rather than manually sending points each month, you can create automated budgets that run on a schedule — weekly, monthly, or quarterly — so your recognition programs always have funds available without manual intervention. You can allocate fixed amounts or prorate distributions based on team size. To access budget management, navigate to Reports & Settings > Manage Budgets in the Admin Hub, or open it directly at https://<your-empuls-url>/home/budget.
Keep your redemption wallet balance in sync with total outstanding redeemable points. When employees redeem points for vouchers, the amount is settled from your organization’s redemption wallet. An underfunded wallet will interrupt the redemption experience.

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Create an automated budget

1

Go to Manage Budgets

In the Admin Hub, navigate to Manage Budgets and click Create New Automated Budget.
2

Click Let's Begin

The budget creation wizard opens. Click Let’s Begin to start.
3

Name the budget and link awards

Enter a budget name and description, then link the award types that will draw from this budget. For example, a “Peer Recognition Budget” linked to your peer awards ensures managers only use these funds for that specific program.
4

Choose the allocation type

Select how points are distributed to recipients:
  • Fixed — Every recipient gets the same number of points per distribution run. Use this for equal-distribution programs where team size doesn’t matter.
  • Prorated — Points are distributed based on a rule you define. Select a proration rule from the dropdown:
    • Number of employees in a department
    • Number of employees in a business unit
    • Number of employees in a cost center
    • Number of employees mapped to an HR representative
    • Number of direct reports
    • Number of direct and indirect reports
Then enter the total points to distribute per run. The system calculates each recipient’s share based on the rule.Check Recover unused points if you want unspent points returned to the budget at the end of each cycle rather than carried over to the next period.
5

Select recipients

Click the pen icon to choose who receives the budget. You can:
  • Select individuals manually
  • Use advanced filters (by designation, location, department, function, etc.)
  • Paste a list of recipients directly
6

Set the distribution cadence

Configure when and how often the budget distributes:
  • Start date — Select the first distribution date using the calendar.
  • Repeat cycle — Choose weekly, monthly, quarterly, or another frequency.
  • Number of runs — Specify how many times the distribution should occur before the budget expires.
7

Review and confirm

Review all settings in the summary. Click Confirm and Create to activate the automated budget.

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Edit an existing budget

To update a budget’s name, description, allocation, or recipients after it has been created:
  1. Go to Manage Budgets in the Admin Hub.
  2. Locate the budget in the list and click on it to open Budget Details.
  3. Click Edit and make the necessary changes.
  4. Click Save to apply the updates.

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Pause and reactivate a budget

If you need to temporarily suspend a budget — for example, during a company restructuring or hiring freeze — you can pause it without losing its configuration.
  1. Open the budget from the Manage Budgets list.
  2. Click Pause Budget.
  3. The budget stops distributing points on its schedule but retains all settings.
  4. When ready to resume, open the budget again and click Reactivate.
Reactivation resumes the budget from its configured schedule without requiring you to rebuild it from scratch.

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Duplicate a budget

If you want to create a new budget based on an existing configuration:
  1. Go to Manage Budgets and click the budget you want to copy.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the Budget Details page.
  3. Click Make a Copy.
A duplicate is created with all the same settings. Edit the copy to adjust the name, recipients, or cadence before activating it.

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View budget history

To review how a budget has performed over time:
  1. Navigate to Reports & Settings > Manage Budgets.
  2. Locate the budget in the list and click on it to expand.
  3. Review the Budget Details section to see historical distribution runs, amounts sent, and recipients.
This view shows the full configuration alongside all historical activity in one place, making it easy to audit past distributions or troubleshoot discrepancies.

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Monitor budget usage

Budget usage data is available in two places:
  • Budget Details — Expanding any budget shows current allocation status and remaining balance.
  • Budget Reports (in the Reports section) — Organization-wide view of allocated vs. spent budgets across all departments, managers, and programs.
Use budget reports to identify managers who are consistently underspending their allocation (and may need encouragement to recognize more) or departments that are exhausting budgets quickly (and may benefit from a larger allocation).
Fixed allocation gives every recipient the same number of points regardless of team size. Prorated allocation scales the distribution based on a rule — for example, a manager with 10 direct reports receives more points than a manager with 3, so both can meaningfully recognize their teams.
Budgets can be distributed on any recurring schedule. Common choices are monthly (for ongoing recognition programs), quarterly (for performance-tied programs), and annually (for long-service awards or end-of-year programs). You set the frequency when creating the budget.
You can assign budgets to individual users, managers, teams, or filtered groups based on attributes like designation, location, or department. Use advanced filters during budget creation to target the right recipients without manually listing them.
If you checked Recover unused points during budget creation, unspent points return to the budget pool at the end of each cycle. If this option is unchecked, points carry over to the next cycle or remain in the recipient’s budget wallet.
Yes. Open the budget from Manage Budgets, click Edit, update the linked awards, and save. Changes take effect on the next distribution run.