Rule Engine Overview on How Points Are Earned

The Rule Engine is the core of your loyalty program’s incentive structure. It lets you create conditions-based rules — “if a transaction meets these criteria, apply this reward” — without any code. Rules support simple flat-rate earning, tiered multipliers, milestone bonuses, birthday cashback, and time-targeted promotions.

How it works

When a transaction arrives (via API or file upload), Loyalife evaluates all active rule groups whose linked segment includes the transacting member. Matching rules determine how many points, what cashback percentage, or what bonus applies. Results are posted to the member’s account immediately. Example — retail loyalty program:

Earn 2 points per ₹1 spent at any time
Earn an additional 1% cashback on transactions above ₹5,000
Earn 500 bonus points on the member’s birthday month
Earn a 25% cashback on every 20th order in a calendar month

Each is a separate rule inside the same rule group. All evaluate simultaneously for each transaction.

Rule Engine screen with rule groups shown as tabs at the top and individual rules listed in sequence order within the selected group, with toggle controls to activate or deactivate each rule

Core components

Attributes

Data variables that carry information about transactions and members. Attributes are the inputs that rules evaluate.

Rule Groups

Named containers that hold related rules. Can be linked to a specific segment so rules only apply to a targeted audience.

Earning Rules

IF/THEN logic statements: if conditions are met, award the defined reward. Each rule has conditions, a reward type, and optional limits.

Building an earning rule

IF conditions

Each condition has three parts:

Part	Description
Attribute	The data point to check (e.g., Transaction Amount, MCC, Transaction Date)
Operator	How to compare (equals, greater than, contains, between, is multiple of)
Value	A static threshold, or another member attribute for dynamic comparisons

Multiple conditions combine with AND (all must be true) or OR (any must be true). Every rule condition evaluates a combination of transaction attributes and member attributes — what happened in the transaction, and who the member is. This is what makes the Rule Engine powerful: a single rule can simultaneously check “was the transaction amount above ₹5,000?” (transaction attribute) and “is the member in the Gold tier?” (member attribute) and “has the member transacted more than 10 times this month?” (aggregate attribute). Supported attribute categories:

Category	Source	Examples
Transaction attributes	Submitted with each transaction via API or TXN file	Transaction Amount, Transaction Date, Product Code, Sub Product Code, Transaction Type, Relation Reference, Transaction Id
Custom transaction attributes	Defined by you in Rule Engine → Attributes	Merchant Name, MCC Code, Channel, Store ID, any program-specific transaction field
Member (global) attributes	Built-in member profile fields	Date of Birth, Gender, Status, Preferred Language
Member (custom) attributes	Defined by you in Members → Attributes	Occupation, region, card type, any program-specific member field
Aggregate attributes	Computed from transaction history	Monthly Spend Sum, Transaction Count (MTD/YTD), Average Transaction Value

Operators

Operator	Applies to	Description
Equals / Not Equals	All types	Exact match or exclusion
Greater Than / Less Than	Numbers, Dates	Threshold comparison
Between	Numbers, Dates	Inclusive range check
Contains	Text	Substring match (e.g., merchant name contains “Fuel”)
Is Multiple Of	Numbers	Matches every Nth value — used for milestone rewards

Date and time conditions

The Transaction Date attribute supports combined date and time values. The date picker opens with a calendar plus an embedded time selector (HH:MM, 24-hour format) below the grid.

Picker element	Behavior
Calendar	Select the date as usual
Time selector (HH:MM)	Hour range 00–23, minute range 00–59
Default time	00:00 (midnight)
Today button	Sets current date + current time
Apply button	Confirms and closes the picker
Combined display	Shows as `MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM` in the condition field

For the between operator, both start and end pickers include their own time selectors. Existing rules with date-only values continue to work as-is — they are treated as 00:00 by default. Example use cases:

Rule condition	Value entered	Meaning
Transaction Date >	04/22/2026 18:00	Only transactions after 6 PM on April 22
Transaction Date between	04/01/2026 00:00 → 04/30/2026 23:59	All of April
Transaction Date =	04/22/2026 14:30	Exactly at 2:30 PM on April 22

Dynamic attribute comparisons — birthday and anniversary rules

Instead of comparing an attribute to a fixed value, you can compare it to another member attribute. This enables rules like birthday cashback or card anniversary bonuses. Birthday cashback example:

Condition 1: Transaction Date [Date of Month]   Equals   Date of Birth [Date of Month]
Condition 2: Transaction Date [Month of Year]   Equals   Date of Birth [Month of Year]
THEN: 35% cashback

Constraints for dynamic comparisons:

Constraint	Rule
No self-comparison	An attribute cannot compare to itself
Type compatibility	Left and right must be the same data type (Date ↔ Date, Number ↔ Number)
Date type lock	If the left side uses `[Date of Month]`, the right side auto-locks to `[Date of Month]`
Operator restrictions	`Contains` and `Is Multiple Of` are not available for attribute-to-attribute comparisons

Edge cases for birthday rules:

Scenario	Behavior
Date of Birth not set in member profile	Condition evaluates to false — no birthday reward
Member born on Feb 29	No birthday reward in non-leap years
Profile DOB updated mid-month (reward already issued)	Next reward on the new date, following year
Supplementary card transaction	Uses the DOB of the primary account linked to that card

Milestone rewards (Is Multiple Of)

The Is Multiple Of operator fires a rule every time an aggregate count or sum hits a multiple of your configured value. The current transaction is included in the aggregate before evaluation. Reversals and refunds adjust the aggregate automatically. Example — reward every 20th order per month:

Attribute: Monthly Order Count
Operator:  Is Multiple Of
Value:     20
Reward:    25% cashback (capped at ₹500 per transaction)

This fires on the 20th, 40th, 60th order, and so on.

An implicit Count > 0 guard is added automatically when you use Is Multiple Of to prevent zero from incorrectly matching (since 0 is technically a multiple of any number).

THEN reward

Reward type	Internal name	Description
Flat Points	`flat`	A fixed number of points regardless of transaction amount
Multiplier	`mutiple`	Multiplies the transaction amount (or base earning) by the configured factor to calculate points
For Every	`attributeValue`	Awards a fixed number of points for every N units of an attribute value (e.g., 1 point for every ₹10 spent)

Value type for the THEN condition:

Value type	Description
Static value	A fixed number configured in the rule
Match attribute	The value is drawn from a member attribute at the time of transaction evaluation

Restrictions

Each earning rule can carry one or more restrictions that limit when and how much the rule fires. Add restrictions from the Restrictions section of the rule builder.

Restriction type	What it does
Point Limit (MaximumPoints)	Sets a hard cap on the maximum points a single transaction can earn from this rule
Date Range	Restricts the rule to only fire within a specific start–end date window
Calculation Timing	Controls when points are posted after a qualifying transaction (e.g., immediately vs. after a holding period)
Product Codes	Restricts the rule to only fire for transactions with specific product codes
Sub Product Codes	Further narrows to specific sub-product codes within a product category

Combining restrictions: Multiple restrictions are evaluated together with AND logic — a transaction must satisfy all active restrictions for the rule to fire. For example, a rule restricted to a date range AND specific product codes will only fire for qualifying products within that time window.

Restrictions layer on top of IF conditions, not instead of them. A transaction must first pass all IF conditions, then pass all active restrictions, before the THEN reward is applied.

Limits and caps

Level	Limit type	Description
Rule	Per transaction	Maximum earning per single transaction
Rule	Velocity	Maximum qualifying transactions per period
Group	Daily	Maximum group earning per member per day
Group	Monthly	Maximum group earning per member per month
Group	Lifetime	Maximum group earning per member ever

Activating and deactivating rules

Changes to rule status (active/inactive) take effect immediately for new transactions. They do not retroactively apply or reverse points already awarded.

Troubleshooting

A rule is not firing on expected transactions.

Confirm the rule group is set to Active.
Check whether the group has a linked segment — the transacting member must be in that segment.
Review all condition operators and values carefully, especially date formats and time values.
Check whether a group-level cap for this member has already been reached.

A member is earning on transactions that should be excluded.

Identify all active rule groups with no segment restriction — they apply to every member.
Look for overlapping conditions that inadvertently match.

Birthday rule is not firing.

Confirm the member’s Date of Birth is populated in their profile.
Members born on February 29 receive no birthday reward in non-leap years.
If the DOB was updated mid-month after the reward was already issued, the new date takes effect the following year.

Getting Started

Platform

Partners & Promotions

Campaign Management

Access Control

Governance

Reports & Analytics

Loyalty Features

Rule Engine overview

How it works

Core components

Attributes

Rule Groups

Earning Rules

Building an earning rule

IF conditions

Operators

Date and time conditions

Dynamic attribute comparisons — birthday and anniversary rules

Milestone rewards (Is Multiple Of)

THEN reward

Restrictions

Limits and caps

Activating and deactivating rules

Troubleshooting

​How it works

​Core components

Attributes

Rule Groups

Earning Rules

​Building an earning rule

​IF conditions

​Operators

​Date and time conditions

​Dynamic attribute comparisons — birthday and anniversary rules

​Milestone rewards (Is Multiple Of)

​THEN reward

​Restrictions

​Limits and caps

​Activating and deactivating rules

​Troubleshooting

How it works

Core components

Building an earning rule

IF conditions

Operators

Date and time conditions

Dynamic attribute comparisons — birthday and anniversary rules

Milestone rewards (Is Multiple Of)

THEN reward

Restrictions

Limits and caps

Activating and deactivating rules

Troubleshooting