Contests FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Contests.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Contests Overview.
Setup
What do I need to configure before launching the first contest?
Enable the app from the Apps Marketplace, then open Settings in the Contests sidebar. The most important setting is Who can create contests — it defaults to Admins only, so managers and employees cannot create contests until you change it. Review the other defaults: real-time rank nudges are on, the weekly digest email is off, contest leaderboards on digital signage are on, and the Contests Agent in Ask AI is on. None of these block launching a contest, but they shape the experience employees get from the start.
Who can create contests, and can I let managers or employees do it?
The Who can create contests setting in Contests Settings has three options: Admins only (the default), Managers and above, and Everyone. Each tier adds constraints:
- Admins can target any audience, award any prize type, and their contests go live without approval.
- Managers can target only their own team or location, choose any prize type (points require a prize budget you granted them), and their contests require admin approval before going live.
- Employees can target only their own team, can only offer bragging-rights prizes, and their contests also require admin approval.
Permissions and access
Why can’t some managers see the Templates tab or the Create button?
The Templates tab appears only for users who can create contests. If the Who can create contests setting is still at the default Admins only, managers and employees see the Contests, Programs, and My Wins tabs but not Templates. Change the setting to Managers and above or Everyone to open creation to those tiers.
What does “Restrict to team contests with cooperative goals” do?
This is the works-council mode. When enabled, every contest in the business must be a team contest with a cooperative goal — nobody is individually ranked. Individual contests, head-to-head duels, and competitive team goals are all blocked at creation time, including through the AI agent. You can also restrict specific locations instead of the whole business using the Locations Restricted to Team Mode setting: any contest whose audience overlaps a restricted location is forced to the same cooperative-team format.
Day-to-day
How are standings calculated — can people game the scores?
Metric contests score automatically from the same verified activity ledger that powers Levels & Badges. The platform records the underlying action (a shift completed, an inspection done, a course finished), and the standings job recomputes every active contest’s leaderboard every five minutes from that ledger. There is no way to enter or inflate a metric score manually. Manual contests score from figures an admin or the contest creator posts — one participant at a time or by CSV import. Submission contests are decided by community votes or a judge panel.
Can I run a contest on numbers the platform doesn’t track, like sales or steps?
Yes. When you create a contest, choose the Manual scoring mode. While the contest is live, an admin or the contest’s creator can post scores for enrolled participants — one at a time or by uploading a CSV of participant and value. Scores are additive: each entry adds to the participant’s running total, so you can post daily or weekly numbers and let the total accumulate. You can also set a display unit (for example “$” or “steps”) so the leaderboard labels the numbers correctly.
What happens when a contest ends — how are winners determined and paid?
When the contest window closes, the final standings snapshot freezes and the payout runs automatically. For points prizes, the prize table pays out by rank and the points land in each winner’s Company Store balance. For badge prizes, the winner’s badge is minted onto their Levels & Badges wall. Winners receive an in-app notification and an email with a shareable win card. Non-winners receive a “results are in” notification with their final rank.
For cooperative goals (everyone reaches the target), every entrant who cleared the bar wins the same prize rather than being ranked. For raffles, winners are drawn from the ticket pool at the end, weighted by participation.
How do I correct a score or disqualify someone from a live contest?
Open the contest, then use the admin override controls. You can adjust a score (append-only — the original is never changed), disqualify an entrant, or reinstate a previously disqualified one. Every override requires a written reason and creates an audit entry. Score adjustments are folded into standings on the next five-minute refresh. Adjustments are only available while the contest is live — after completion, the payout has already ranked and paid the frozen board.
How do prize budgets control what managers can spend?
A prize budget is a points allowance an admin grants to a specific manager. That manager can then fund contest prizes only from what you granted. When the contest is approved, the full prize table is reserved against the budget; only what is actually paid at the end is deducted, and the remainder is released. You can revoke a budget with a reason or set an expiration date. Budgets that pass their expiration are automatically marked expired by the nightly sweep. Admins can create and award prizes without a budget.
Can I end a contest early or cancel it?
Yes. An admin can end a live contest early or cancel it at any stage before completion. Both require a written reason and create an audit entry. Ending early freezes the current standings, runs a final refresh, and pays out the prizes based on rankings at that moment. Cancelling releases any reserved prize-budget hold and no prizes are awarded.
What notifications do employees and admins receive?
In-app notifications fire for: contest started, rank changes (took the lead, into/out of the prize ranks), the final hour before a contest ends, contest completed with results, and prediction-pick lock reminders. Judges get a notification when the judging window opens and a reminder 24 hours before it closes. Admins get approval requests when a non-admin submits a contest.
Email is limited to two messages: the winner award email (with an inline win card image) and an optional weekly digest summarizing active contests and open ones you can join. The weekly digest is off by default — enable it in Settings under Send Weekly Contests Digest.
Real-time rank nudges (took the lead, into/out of prizes) are on by default. You can turn them off in Settings under Send Real-Time Rank Nudges.
When something looks wrong
“I can’t join this contest” — why would the Join button be blocked?
Several things can block joining. The contest is not in your audience (it targets a specific location or department you don’t belong to). The contest is a team contest, which enrolls everyone in the audience automatically — there is no Join button. The contest is a manual-scoring contest, which also auto-enrolls the audience. You are a manager and the contest has the Exclude managers flag on (the default), which prevents managers from competing against their own direct reports. You are the creator and the contest is funded from your own prize budget — creators cannot win their own funded prizes. Or you were previously disqualified by an admin, which is not cleared by trying to rejoin.
“I didn’t get any notification about this contest” — what happened?
Contest-started notifications go only to people already enrolled at the moment the contest goes live. For individual contests (not manual), enrollment is opt-in — a new contest exists but you are not enrolled until you join. An admin or the contest creator can send a one-time “announce to audience” notification to everyone in the audience who hasn’t joined yet, which surfaces the contest and a link to join. Team and manual contests auto-enroll the whole audience at activation, so those participants do get the started notification immediately.
“My score hasn’t changed even though I kept working” — why?
Standings refresh every five minutes, so there is a short delay between doing the work and seeing it on the board. If it has been longer than that, check which scoring actions the contest tracks — only the specific activity types selected when the contest was created count toward the score. Also confirm you are still actively enrolled (not withdrawn or disqualified). For most-improved contests, your score is measured against your own pre-contest baseline, so improvement is relative to your starting point, not an absolute total.
The prediction contest won’t let me set points as the prize — why?
Prediction contests (pick’em pools and brackets) are restricted to badges or bragging rights prizes. Points prizes are not available on pick-the-winner formats. This is a platform-wide rule, not a per-tenant setting — it applies to every prediction contest regardless of who creates it.
The judging window closed and no one was declared a winner — what happened?
If a judge-panel contest completes with zero judge scores submitted, no prizes are awarded. The system holds the contest in judging for 48 hours past the judging deadline as a grace period for the panel to score, sending escalation notifications to the judges and the app admins. After the grace period, it completes with no winners, releases any reserved prize-budget hold, and notifies the creator and admins that the payout was blocked. Entrants still receive participation credit.
Licensing and limits
Does Contests require a licence?
Yes. Contests is a licensed marketplace app. It ships disabled by default — an admin enables it per tenant from the Apps Marketplace.
What are the limits I should know about?
- Templates: 32 out-of-the-box system templates across six categories (engagement, safety, learning, culture, operations, seasonal), plus any custom templates your organization saves.
- Contest name: up to 160 characters.
- Contest duration: up to 365 days.
- Standings refresh: every 5 minutes for active contests.
- Default judging window: 3 days after the contest ends (for submission contests). Judges get a reminder 24 hours before it closes and a 48-hour grace hold if nobody scores.
- Duel duration: up to 30 days. A pending duel invite expires after 14 days if the opponent doesn’t respond.
- Raffle ticket cap: 10 entries per person by default (configurable per contest).
- Score adjustments: each adjustment must be under 10 billion.
- Prize types: Company Store points, a badge, or bragging rights. Prediction contests are limited to badges or bragging rights.
- Scoring modes: metric (automatic from platform activity), manual (external numbers), submission (photo/story with votes or judges), prediction (pick’em and brackets), and site-metric (location teams racing on a business number).
- Goal types: highest score, first to target, everyone reaches the target, most improved, raffle draw, and share-of-team threshold.
More help
- Contests Overview
- Ask AI — the Contests Agent answers questions about running contests, standings, and your rank from these articles.