---
title: Manual Adjustments
description: How to manually credit or debit a customer's loyalty points from the admin.
---

Automatic rules can't cover every situation  sometimes you need to reward a customer for something that happened outside the store, or fix a balance that an automated rule got wrong. Manual Adjustments let you credit or debit any customer's points by hand from **WooCommerce → Points History**, and every adjustment is recorded exactly like an automatic one, so you always have a full audit trail.

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## Walkthrough: Adjust a Customer's Points

1. Go to **WooCommerce → Points History** and click **Adjust Points** at the top of the page.
   ![Points History page header with the Adjust Points button](/pointbay/assets/screenshots/manual-adjustment-button.png)
2. In the **Adjust Points** dialog that opens, fill in each field:
   - **User**  search for the customer by name or email and select them from the dropdown.
   - **Type**  choose **Credit (+)** to add points or **Debit (-)** to remove them.
   - **Amount**  the number of points to adjust (at least 1).
   - **Reason**  why you're making the adjustment. This field is required, and it's visible to the customer on their own dashboard, so write it the way you'd want a customer to read it.
   <img src="/pointbay/assets/screenshots/manual-adjustment-form-filled.png" alt="Adjust Points dialog with User, Type, Amount, and Reason fields filled in" data-lightbox="true" />
3. Click **Submit**.
4. **Verify it worked:** the dialog closes and a new row appears at the top of the Points History table with Reference **Manual Adjustment**, showing your entered amount and reason.
   ![Points History table with the new Manual Adjustment row](/pointbay/assets/screenshots/manual-adjustment-confirmed-row.png)

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## Common Uses

- **Goodwill**  award points to make up for a shipping delay or a product issue, without waiting on a refund process.
- **Offline campaigns**  credit points for activity outside the store, like following a social account or attending an event.
- **Corrections**  fix a balance if a customer was mistakenly missed by an automated rule (for example, an order was manually marked Completed outside the normal workflow and points were never triggered).
- **Enforcement**  debit points if a customer abused the review or referral programs.

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## Worked Example

A customer's order shipped a week late. Rather than issue a refund, you decide to credit them 200 goodwill points:

1. Open **Adjust Points**, search for the customer, select **Credit (+)**, enter `200` as the Amount, and write "Goodwill credit for a delayed delivery" as the Reason.
2. Submit. The customer's balance increases by 200 points immediately, and they'll see "Goodwill credit for a delayed delivery" the next time they check their [Customer Dashboard](/pointbay/features/customer-dashboard/).

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## Audit Trail

Every manual adjustment appears in [Points History](/pointbay/admin/points-history/) with Reference **Manual Adjustment** and the Reason you entered, permanently. Because that reason is also shown to the customer, keep it clear and customer-friendly rather than an internal shorthand note.

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## Who Can Make Adjustments

Only users who can manage PointBay  administrators by default  can view Points History and make adjustments. To give other roles (such as shop managers) access, grant them the PointBay management permission with a WordPress user-role plugin.

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## Troubleshooting

- **Submit does nothing**  confirm **Reason** isn't blank; it's a required field and the form won't submit without it.
- **You can't find the customer in the User search**  search by their exact registered name or email; the search doesn't match on partial order numbers or usernames.

See [Troubleshooting](/pointbay/resources/troubleshooting/) for more general issues.

## Related

- [Points History](/pointbay/admin/points-history/)
- [Earning Points](/pointbay/features/earning-points/)