Points earn, spend & balance caps
Learn to set earning, spending, and balance points caps in the Loyalty Engine. Points caps help control program costs, ensure fairness, and limit points accumulation and redemption.
Overview
Points caps let you control how many points a user can earn, spend, or hold at any one time or within a given period. This helps you manage financial exposure, reduce operational risk, and promote fair use of your loyalty program.
You can configure the Loyalty Engine to apply the following types of caps:
Earn caps – limit how many points a user can earn within a time period
Spend caps – limit how many points a user can spend within a time period
Balance caps – limit how many points a user can hold at any one time
You can also configure multiple points caps to run in parallel (e.g. one monthly earn cap and one rolling 7-day spend cap).
Why use points caps?
Points caps provide financial and operational benefits by:
Preventing excessive point accumulation (liability control)
Smoothing out redemption rates (cash flow and fulfilment planning)
Capping high-frequency usage (fairness and anti-gaming)
Making program outcomes more predictable
Understanding points caps
Point earn caps
All positive point adjustments count towards the earn cap, including:
Points awarded via reactors
Manual points adjustments via the Loyalty Console (unless Bypass caps is selected)
If an adjustment would take the user over the cap, the excess is forfeited.
Example: A user has 900 points earned in the current cap period, with a cap of 1,000. If a reactor tries to award 200 points, only 100 will be awarded.
Users can start earning points again once the cap period resets or ends.
Point spend caps
All negative point adjustments count toward the spend cap, including:
Points deducted via reactors
Points spent on reward redemptions or payouts
Manual deductions via the Loyalty Console (unless Bypass caps is selected)
Spend caps are only enforced at the moment of a user-initiated redemption, such as:
Purchasing a reward
Requesting a payout
If a user attempts to spend more than the cap allows, the redemption is blocked.
Important: Negative points adjustments via reactors (e.g. refund deductions) are not blocked by the spend cap and will always be applied in full, even if the cap has already been exceeded.
Balance caps
Balance caps limit the total number of points a user can hold in their account.
If a points adjustment would cause the balance to exceed the cap, the excess is forfeited.
Balance caps apply at all times—there is no user action or trigger required.
Creating and editing earning & spending caps
Login to the Loyalty Console and navigate to Settings > Points Liability.
Create a Rule: Click on the option to create a new rule and give it a name for internal reference.
Select Rule Type: Choose ‘Points spending cap’ or 'Points earning cap' as the rule type.
Define Applicability:
User: The cap applies to individual users. Each user’s point spending or earning cannot exceed the specified threshold.
Tenant: The cap applies to all users within the tenant. The combined points spending or earning of all users cannot exceed the specified threshold.
Set the Threshold: Enter the maximum number of points that a user or the tenant can hold.
Set the Interval: Choose the period the cap applies to.
Daily: The cap resets each day at around 00:00 UTC for all users.
Weekly: The cap resets each week at around 00:00 UTC (between Sunday and Monday) for all users.
Monthly: The cap resets each month on the 1st at around 00:00 UTC for all users.
Yearly: The cap resets each year on the 1st January at around 00:00 UTC for all users.
Rolling hours/days: The cap applies to the individual user and takes into account the number of points they have spent/earned in the immediately preceding hours/days from the current moment.
All time: Once the cap is hit, the user can never spend/earn anymore points for as long as the rule exists.
Save the rule
For example, if the rule is applicable to user and the threshold is 10,000 points, that user can spend/earn 10,000 points before the cap is hit.
If the rule is applicable to tenant, and the threshold is 10,000 points, all users across the entire tenant can spend/earn 10,000 points combined before the cap is hit. So, if User A spends/earns 5000 points and User B spends/earns 5000 points, User C would be unable to spend/earn any of their points.
Creating a wallet balance cap
Login to the Loyalty Console and navigate to Settings > Points Liability.
Create a Rule: Click on the option to create a new rule and give it a name for internal reference.
Select Rule Type: Choose ‘Points balance cap’ as the rule type.
Define Applicability:
User: The cap applies to individual users. Each user’s points balance cannot exceed the specified threshold.
Tenant: The cap applies across all users within the tenant. The combined points balance of all users cannot exceed the specified threshold.
Set the Threshold: Enter the maximum number of points that a user or the tenant can hold.
Save the rule
For example, if you set a balance cap of 20,000 points applicable to users, no individual user’s wallet balance can exceed 20,000 points at any time. If the cap is tenant-wide, the combined balance of all users in your loyalty program cannot surpass 20,000 points.
Manual points adjustments and caps
When adjusting points manually via the Loyalty Console, admins can choose how the adjustment impacts liability and cap tracking. This ensures your manual updates behave correctly within your program rules.
Adding points manually
You can choose one of three liability options when adding points:
Mimic user earn (default)
This adjustment behaves like a standard user earn:
Counts towards any configured earn caps
Does not affect spend caps
Use for normal earn-like behavior
Points refund
Adds points and removes the same amount from the user’s spend cap:
Use when restoring points previously deducted due to an error or unfulfilled reward
Does not count towards earn caps
Points awarded with no liability impact
Adds points without affecting earn or spend caps:
Use when awarding points outside your standard program (e.g. goodwill gestures, competitions)
Deducting points manually
You can choose one of three liability options when deducting points:
Mimic user spend (default)
This deduction behaves like a standard user redemption:
Counts towards any configured spend caps
Does not affect earn caps
Use for redemption-like behavior
Correct unintended points earn
Removes points and subtracts the amount from the user’s earn cap, allowing them to re-earn:
Use when reversing points that were earned in error
Does not count towards spend caps
Points removal with no liability impact
Deducts points without affecting earn or spend caps:
Niche use case; available for edge scenarios requiring clean balance correction with no cap impact
FAQs
How does a balance cap differ from a spending cap?
A balance cap limits the maximum number of points a user can hold at one time, whereas a spending cap restricts the amount of points a user can redeem within a set period or total.
Can multiple points caps apply to the same user?
Yes, you can configure multiple points caps (e.g., daily and monthly earning caps) to run concurrently for more granular control over user point activity.
Does a balance cap prevent users from earning points on eligible actions?
Yes, if a user’s point balance is already at the balance cap, they won’t be able to earn more points until they redeem points and their balance falls below the cap.
If a user has points rolled over, will this reduce the number of points they can earn in the following year?
No, points do not 'roll over' but points carried across time periods do not reduce the points a user can earn in the new time period. For example, if a user has a 35,000-point per calendar year earning cap, they can earn up to that amount in 2025 regardless of any existing balance carried over from 2024.
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