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Certificates are the record that a learner finished their training, and the compliance view is where you watch those records age. This article covers how certificates get issued (automatically and by hand), certificate templates, validity and expiry, revoking a certificate, and reading the compliance dashboard.
Where to find it
Sign in to your admin panel at /org-admin. In the left sidebar:
- Certificates > Issued lists every certificate issued in your organization. This stays available on every plan tier; earned certificates are a training record, not a paid feature.
- Certificates > Templates appears only when your plan includes certificate authoring and the custom certificate templates add-on is enabled.
- Compliance is its own sidebar item and requires a plan tier that includes compliance tracking.
How certificates are issued
Most certificates are issued automatically. A course issues a certificate when it has a certificate template attached (or its legacy "generate certificate" setting turned on) and a learner completes it. Each template attached to a course has an award rule:
- On Completion: issued as soon as the learner completes the course.
- Score Based: issued only if the learner's score meets the minimum you set.
- Manual Only: never issued automatically; someone issues it by hand.
You attach templates to your own courses in the course builder's Certificates section. To attach one template to many courses at once, select org-owned courses on the Courses page with the checkboxes and use the Assign Certificate bulk action.
A course can carry more than one certificate (for example a full-size certificate plus a wallet card); completion issues all of them.
Issuing a certificate manually
- Go to Certificates > Issued and click + Issue Certificate.
- Pick the learner and the course. The course must be one your organization owns or has access to.
- Optionally pick a specific template; leaving it blank issues every certificate the course has attached.
- Optionally set an expiry date to override the normal validity.
- Submit. The PDF is generated and the learner is notified with it attached.
Manually issuing also marks the learner's active enrollment in that course as complete, so their progress matches the certificate.
Templates
On Certificates > Templates you can click + Add Template to design your own: upload a background image (and optionally a back side), preview it, and tick Set as default template if it should be the fallback design. Templates from your provider appear in the same list with a Shared badge; you can use them on your courses but not edit them.
Validity and expiry
Where a certificate's expiry comes from, in order:
- A course-level Certificate validity setting, if one is set. This wins for every certificate the course issues.
- Otherwise, the validity set on the individual template assignment.
- Otherwise, the certificate never expires and shows Never in the Expires column.
Validity is captured when the certificate is issued. Changing a course's validity later affects new certificates only, unless you push it: the course builder's Certificates section has a Recalculate expiry action that reapplies the current validity to already-issued certificates, recomputed from each one's original issue date. Revoked certificates are left unchanged. You can also edit a single certificate's issue and expiry dates from the Issued list (Edit); the PDF regenerates so the printed dates stay correct.
The compliance view
Open Compliance in the sidebar to see the compliance dashboard:
- Four counters: Active Certificates, Expiring Soon (30 days), Expired, and Compliance Rate (the share of non-revoked certificates still valid).
- A table of certificate records sorted soonest-to-expire by default, so at-risk people surface first.
- An export button that generates a downloadable certificate log; you are notified when the file is ready.
The Certificate Log and Certification Progress reports under Reports offer related views, depending on your plan tier.
Revoking and reinstating
- On Certificates > Issued, open the row's three-dot menu and choose Revoke.
- Optionally record a reason (it is kept with the record and shown when you hover the status).
- Confirm.
A revoked certificate is not deleted; the record stays for audit. Anyone checking it through its public verification link sees it reported as revoked and not valid, and it stops counting in compliance. If it was revoked in error, the same menu offers Reinstate, which makes it valid again, subject to its expiry date.
Every certificate carries a credential ID and a public verification link (a /verify address printed on the certificate). Anyone can open that link, no sign-in needed, and see whether the certificate is valid, expired, or revoked.
Why did this happen?
A learner finished a course but got no certificate. Why?
Check three things. First, the course must have a certificate template attached (or its generate-certificate setting on); a course with neither issues nothing. Second, the award rule matters: a Score Based certificate is withheld below the minimum score, and Manual Only never issues itself. Third, if the course is part of a blended certification (online course plus event attendance plus practical sign-off), the certificate is deliberately held until every part is done, then released.
Why don't the compliance numbers match my Issued list?
The compliance dashboard excludes revoked certificates from every count; they are no longer valid, so they would distort the active count and the compliance rate. The Issued list shows everything, including revoked records, so its total will usually be higher.
I changed the course's validity, but existing certificates kept their old expiry. Why?
Validity is snapshotted when each certificate is issued. New settings apply to new certificates. To apply the new validity to certificates already out there, use Recalculate expiry in the course builder's Certificates section; each certificate's expiry is recomputed from its original issue date and its PDF refreshes on next download.
What exactly happens when I revoke a certificate?
The record is kept, stamped with when, by whom, and the reason you gave. Public verification of that certificate reports it as revoked and not valid, and it drops out of the compliance counts. Nothing else about the learner's course history changes, and you can reinstate it later.
Why can't I create or edit certificate templates?
The Templates page requires both a plan tier with certificate authoring and the custom certificate templates add-on; without them you will see an upgrade notice, or no Templates menu at all. Your learners' earned certificates are unaffected: courses fall back to your provider's shared or default template designs. See Your plan and features.
Why does a certificate show "Never" in the Expires column?
No validity applied when it was issued: the course had no validity override and the template assignment had none either. If these certificates should expire, set a validity on the course or the assignment and run Recalculate expiry.
Related
Still stuck? Reach out through support and the team will help you sort it out.