This article explains how to set up automatic rewards for employee work anniversaries, including different budgets or gifts for different years of service. You need admin access to configure automations.
How do work anniversary automations work?
Work anniversary automations run on PerkUp's rules engine, which checks each person's start date every hour between 9am and 6pm ET. When a person's anniversary matches a rule you've configured, PerkUp automatically sends the reward — no manual action needed each year.
Can I set a different reward for each year of service?
Yes. Work anniversary rules can be configured two ways:
Every year: one rule applies the same budget and reward to every anniversary.
Specific years: create separate rules for individual years (for example, year 1, year 3, year 5) each with its own budget and reward, so a 5-year anniversary can be worth more than a 1-year anniversary.
To update anniversaries to a flat amount for every year — for example, $100 for every anniversary — edit the "every year" rule's Budget field rather than creating a new rule.
How do I choose who receives a work anniversary reward?
Each rule has a Recipients section where you filter by labels (such as department or location). Multiple label groups must all match; values within the same group are either/or. Leave recipients empty to include everyone in the organization.
What else can I configure on a work anniversary rule?
For each rule you can set:
Enable/disable — turn the rule on or off without deleting it.
Year — every year or a specific year.
Budget — the dollar amount sent.
Reward — the gift type (PerkUp dollars, swag, catalog item, gift card, or Amazon).
Send mode — email or direct mail, depending on the reward chosen. See "Email vs direct mail: automation send modes" for details.
Image, title, message, and from name — the content shown in the reward email.
Recipient expiry — how many days recipients have to claim the reward, up to 365 days.
Funding account — which org balance the reward draws from.
Work anniversary rules always fire on the anniversary date itself — there's no before/after timing option for this rule type. If you need send timing controls, see "Choosing when automations send (timing & offsets)."
What happens when a rule matches someone?
PerkUp creates a single-member program for that person, funded and configured exactly as the rule specifies, and sends the reward. Each match is deduplicated for 180 days, so a person won't receive the same anniversary reward twice in that window.
How do I edit an anniversary rule that's already running?
Open the rule and update any field — budget, reward, recipients, send mode, expiry, or funding account. Changes apply to future matches; they don't affect rewards already sent. See "Editing a running automation or program" for more detail.
Calendar tips
You can override the gift for a specific person from the anniversary calendar before their send date — including swapping the suggested gift for anything else up to the same budget.
The "Missing anniversaries" tab lists teammates who have no start date on file, so you can fill the gaps before their date passes.
If you create the automation after someone's anniversary has already passed this year, they're scheduled for next year's date.