Configure reward letter settings
This page controls whether planners can distribute reward letters (also called compensation letters) to employees and configures every aspect of the letter experience, from eligibility to template design. Changes take effect only after clicking Save in the top right.
An Audit log button (also top right) opens a drawer showing a full history of changes to these settings, including who made each change and when.
Enable reward letter sharing
Allows planners to view and release reward letters for employees in their worksheet.
This toggle is only active when the cycle status is Finalized. If the cycle is not yet finalized, the toggle is disabled and shows the message: "Reward letter sharing is disabled for non-finalized cycles." This gate is intentional. Letters cannot go out before comp decisions are locked.
If reward letters are currently being generated and sent, the toggle is temporarily locked with the message: "Reward letters are currently being generated and sent. You cannot adjust this setting until the process is complete."
Disabling or pulling back letters
To turn off reward letter sharing for the entire cycle, turn this toggle off. No confirmation dialog appears. Employees who had access will see an empty state in the Total Rewards portal ("You have not received any reward letters yet") and can no longer view or download their letters.
To pull back a letter for a specific employee without disabling sharing for everyone, open the planner worksheet, select the employee's row, and use the per-employee disable action from the row menu or toolbar. This removes the employee's access immediately and resets their view and confirmation status. You can re-enable access using the same action.
Employee confirmation
When enabled, employees are prompted to confirm receipt of their reward letter in the Total Rewards portal. Confirmation status then appears in the Reward Letter column of the worksheet, giving planners and admins visibility into who has acknowledged their letter without manual follow-up.
This toggle is not gated by cycle status and can be configured at any time.
What employees see in the Total Rewards portal
The following applies when employee confirmation is enabled.
When an employee opens their reward letter:
- Their letter is marked as viewed automatically. No action is needed.
- A bar appears at the bottom of the letter with a Confirm Receipt button. The bar stays visible until the employee confirms.
- The employee clicks Confirm Receipt. The bar disappears.
After the employee confirms, the timestamp appears in the Reward Letter column in the worksheet. If an admin impersonates the employee to preview their letter, the Confirm Receipt button is visible but disabled. Only the letter owner can confirm.
Download reward letters
Both employees and planners can download reward letters as PDFs.
Employees: A Download PDF button appears in the header of the Total Rewards portal when viewing a reward letter. Clicking it queues a generation request. The PDF is not downloaded immediately — a link is emailed to the employee once the file is ready.
Planners and admins: Select one or more employees in the planner worksheet and choose Download reward letters from the toolbar. A download link for all selected letters is emailed to you once the files are ready. This action is only available for employees whose letters are currently enabled.
Workday writebacks
Sends a copy of all employee reward letters to Workday via your Workday integration. This row only appears when two conditions are both true: your account has an active Workday integration, and the cycle status is Finalized.
The button reads Set up on first configuration or Resend if letters have been sent previously.
Before the button is active, write-enabled Workday credentials must be configured. If they are missing, the button is disabled and a tooltip directs you to: Settings, Connections, Advanced Settings, Reward Letters via your Workday integration.
After letters are sent, the row displays status inline:
- Upload in progress... while the upload is running
- Your upload is taking longer than usual, please reach out to our support team for help. if jobs remain unfinished after the listener completes
- A success message showing the number of letters sent and the timestamp
- An error message showing how many letters succeeded and how many failed, with a link to download a CSV error log
Upload images
(Visible only to users with code editor access)
Lets you upload images to use inside reward letter templates. Click Upload image to select a file. After a successful upload, a success toast appears with a Copy image code button that copies the image's embed snippet to your clipboard in the format:
<img src="{{ images.<filename> }}" />
Click View images to open a modal showing all uploaded images in a table, with columns for the image preview, date updated, and a copy button for each image's embed code.
Reward letter eligibility
Specifies which worksheet columns determine whether an employee is eligible to receive a reward letter. Only employees with a value in at least one of the selected columns will have a letter generated and made available for release.
Use the tag-input selector to add or remove columns. The list of available columns is drawn from the cycle's configured columns and includes all custom columns, the Promotion column group, and these standard columns: Salary Raise, Promotion Cash Raise, Variable Raise, Market Cash Raise, One-Time Bonus Cash, Equity Refresher Shares, Equity Performance Shares, Equity Promotion Shares, all OTE columns (Pay Mix, Raise, Market Cash Raise, Promotion Cash Raise, Salary Raise, Variable Raise), New Annual Bonus Cash, Annual Bonus Raise, New Annual Bonus Percent, Reward Letter Job Title, Is Promotion, New Job Code, New Job Title, New Job Family, and New Job Level.
Columns not in this list are not available for eligibility selection regardless of how your cycle is configured.
Letter preview and template editor
(Visible only to users with code editor access)
The Letter preview section renders a live preview of the current reward letter template at the bottom of the page.
Open editor
Click Open editor to open the full-screen Code Editor drawer. To edit your reward letter template:
- In the title field on the left, enter or edit the letter's title.
- In the body editor on the left, write or paste your template content using Handlebars syntax. Variables pull in data from the cycle when the letter renders.
- Select any eligible employee from the dropdown in the right panel to preview how the letter looks for that person.
- Any image references in the template must use the format
<img src="{{ images.<id> }}" />. Other image formats trigger a syntax error in the preview. - Resolve any syntax errors before saving. Syntax errors disable the Save button.
- Click Save in the footer when your changes are ready. The Save button is only active when you have unsaved changes and no syntax errors.
- To exit without saving, click Close. If you have unsaved changes, a confirmation modal appears before the drawer closes.