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What are safeguards in Protiv?

The 5 mechanisms that protect your bonus program from runaway risk.

Purpose

Safeguards are the brakes on your bonus program. They make sure you're paying out fairly and protecting the business from situations where a bonus shouldn't pay.

This article walks through all 5 safeguards: disqualifiers, penalties, warranty reserves, retention, and waiting periods. Each one solves a different problem.

When To Use This

Read this when:

  • You're designing your bonus program
  • An owner asks "what if a job pays a big bonus but the work is shoddy?"
  • You want to understand the full set of controls Protiv gives you

The 5 Safeguards

Use them in combination. Most customers use at least 3 of the 5.

1. Disqualifiers — All-or-Nothing Gates

A disqualifier is a yes/no question attached to a ProPay. Failed disqualifier = no bonus.

Use disqualifiers for situations where you have zero tolerance:

  • Safety violations
  • Customer signed off
  • Required paperwork submitted

If the answer is no, the bonus doesn't pay. End of story.

See the dedicated article: "What are disqualifiers and penalties?"

2. Penalties — Reduce the Payout

A penalty subtracts a dollar amount from the bonus. The bonus still pays, just less.

Use penalties for situations that are bad but not bonus-killing:

  • Customer complaint that got resolved
  • Property damage that was paid for
  • Quality issue that was rework, not redo

Penalties can be fixed (set in your config) or set at approval (manager picks the amount).

See: "What are disqualifiers and penalties?"

3. Warranty Reserves — Hold Back for Future Issues

Warranty reserves hold back a portion of bonus money to cover future warranty work.

How it works:

  • A percentage of each bonus is set aside in the warranty reserve
  • If the customer reports an issue and you have to send a crew back, that work pulls from the reserve
  • After the warranty period closes, the unspent reserve releases to the worker

Warranty reserves are tracked in the Warranty Reserves report. Managers can see what's reserved per branch, division, or property.

This is most useful for industries with warranty work: builders, flooring, painting, anything with callbacks.

4. Retention — Tenure-Based Hold

Retention holds back a portion of the bonus per role until a tenure threshold is met.

Configure retention days per role:

  • Crew retention days
  • Manager retention days
  • Crew Lead retention days
  • Other retention days

If a worker leaves before the retention period closes, they forfeit the retained portion.

This solves the classic problem: "Big bonus this week, gone next week." Retention says "stick around to collect."

5. Waiting Periods — Time-Based Hold

A waiting period holds bonus line items in held status before they become payable.

Use cases:

  • Catch quality issues that surface a few weeks later
  • Sync with your pay cycle so bonuses align with paychecks
  • Allow time for customer complaints to come in

Waiting period is configurable on the bonus pool. Held line items appear on the dashboard so the team can release or void them as needed.

How They Stack

A single ProPay can run through all 5:

  1. Disqualifiers check at approval time → if any failed, bonus blocked entirely
  2. Penalties subtract from the calculated bonus → reduces the payout
  3. Warranty reserves hold back a portion → may release later
  4. Retention holds back another portion per role → releases at tenure threshold
  5. Waiting period keeps line items in held status → eventually move to payable

What lands on the worker's statement is the result of all 5 layers.

For a typical Protiv customer starting out:

Adjust based on your industry and culture. Less is usually more.

Common Mistakes & How To Fix Them

  • "Workers don't trust the program because too much is held back" Reduce retention days or warranty reserve %. The point is accountability, not punishment.

  • "Managers are skipping disqualifier review" Train them. Add it to the weekly cadence. Make sure every ProPay has its disqualifiers resolved before approval.

  • "Held line items pile up and never release" Someone needs to own the held queue. Usually the payroll manager.

  • What are disqualifiers and penalties?
  • What is the warranty reserves report and how do I read it?
  • How do bonus pools work?
  • How is a ProPay calculated? (Hours budget type)