This guide is for course providers. It explains how to make a course issue certificates automatically when learners complete it, which certificate design it uses, who receives the certificate email, and how to run a course with no certificate. A Registration is one person’s place on a course or course date; certificates are issued to Registrations.
To design your own certificate, see Design a Custom Certificate Template. To issue, resend or revoke certificates yourself, including for everyone on a course at once, see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk.
Course certificate settings need a System Admin or Course Owner. If a control is missing, check your role and course assignment with a System Admin.
Default and Custom Certificates
Cademy Default Certificate
The default certificate is available on every plan. It uses a standard A4 horizontal design and can include the participant’s full name, course name, certificate issue date, your name and logo, and the course’s certificate Dynamic Value.
Custom Certificate Templates
With Custom Certificates, you can create your own templates with custom backgrounds, text, images, learner fields and up to 10 pages, on A4, Letter or Legal paper. The Pro and Teams plans include it; on an Enterprise plan it depends on the features set up for your account. Check under Settings > Billing & Usage. See Design a Custom Certificate Template.
Turn On Automatic Certificates for a Course
Open Courses, select the course, select Edit Course, then Settings > Certificates & CPD. Changes in the course editor can save when you switch sections, so check that you have the right course first. The settings are:
Automatically issue certificate: issues a certificate when a learner completes the course. The text under it says what completion means for this course type.
Email student when certificate is issued: emails the learner their certificate. It is available only when Automatically issue certificate is on. It does not stop the primary-contact copy to the Order Contact or, for a Registration without an Order, the date’s Key Contact; see Who Receives Automatic Certificate Emails.
Template: the certificate design. Leave it empty to use the Cademy default. It is unavailable without Custom Certificates.
Dynamic Value: wording for this course only; see Set Up the Certificate Dynamic Value.
Date on certificate: choose When the certificate is issued or When the learner completes the course. This sets the printed issue date and the start of the expiry period; see Choose the Date Printed on Course Certificates.
Set Certificates to Expire and Duration certificate is valid for: the number of days after the certificate date that a certificate expires. The starting value is 365 and the minimum is 1.
Award CPD: awards continuing professional development (CPD) points or hours, when the feature is available.
Example of the Certificates & CPD section in a course’s Settings.
Certificates and CPD are separate: a course can use certificates, CPD, both or neither. Turning on Automatically issue certificate does not turn on Award CPD, and turning on Award CPD does not issue a certificate. For CPD, see Set Up and Award CPD Points or Hours.
Select Save, then reopen Certificates & CPD and check the saved template, Dynamic Value, expiry and email choices. Changing the settings does not change certificates already issued.
Who Receives Automatic Certificate Emails
Why Learners or Bookers Receive Automatic Certificate Emails
If learners or bookers ask you about certificate emails they did not expect, these are the automatic emails below: the learner’s certificate email and a primary-contact copy. The booker can receive a copy for each learner on their Order; a private date’s Key Contact can receive copies for learners added without an Order. To stop them, see the options below.
When a certificate is issued automatically, two emails can go out:
The learner gets their certificate when Email student when certificate is issued is on and they have a saved email address.
The Order Contact gets a notification for a Registration from an Order, when the Order and that Contact still exist and the Contact has an email address. The Order Contact is often the person who booked, so they may receive emails for several learners.
The date’s Key Contact gets the copy for a Registration added directly or imported without an Order, if the date has a Key Contact with a saved email address. If a session has no Key Contact of its own, Cademy uses its parent block’s Key Contact. An Order-linked Registration continues to use its Order Contact; a missing Order Contact or email does not switch it to the Key Contact.
Turning off the learner email does not turn off the primary-contact copy, including when the learner is also that contact. If both emails would go to the same address, only the learner’s is sent. Each automatic notification concerns one certificate; it is not a bulk ZIP email. A certificate reissued automatically after it was revoked sends no emails. To stop all automatic certificate emails, turn off Automatically issue certificate.
Set the contact on the private course date, separately from any Key Contact role on its linked company. See Choose a Private Date’s Key Contact for Certificates. Selecting a Key Contact does not give them access to every learner’s course account or other bookers’ certificates.
If emailing is disabled for your account, certificates are still issued but no email is sent; see Why Is Emailing Disabled or Blocked on My Account?.
Check Certificate Email Recipients and Delivery Status
Open the learner’s Contact (this needs a System Admin) and look in Activity for the certificate email and its delivery status. The email goes to the email address saved on the Contact.
For an Order-linked Registration, open its Order and find Order Contact. For a Registration added without an Order, open the course date’s Date actions > Edit and check Key Contact; check the parent block if the session has no contact of its own. Then check that person’s Contact Activity the same way.
If the learner’s address was wrong, correct it on their Contact, then use Resend in the certificate’s Issued menu.
For more, see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk and Find Sent Emails and Check Delivery Status.
Choose the Date Printed on Course Certificates
The certificate date is the issue date printed on the certificate. It can be different from the day Cademy creates or emails it. The course’s expiry duration is counted from the certificate date.
Open Courses, select the course, select Edit Course, then Settings > Certificates & CPD.
Under Date on certificate, choose a rule from the options below.
Select Save, then reopen the settings and check the saved choice.
When the certificate is issued: use the day the certificate is created. Courses without a saved date rule use this option.
When the learner completes the course: use the learner’s saved completion date. New courses start with this option; a duplicated course keeps the source course’s choice.
For a scheduled course, attendance recorded after a session ends uses that session’s end date when calculating a new completion. On-demand courses use lesson completion; blended courses use attendance and any published lessons required for that learner. Completion dates already recorded stay as they are. See Check Whether a Learner Has Completed a Course.
If no completion date has been recorded, the completion rule uses the booked course date’s end once it has finished. If there is no finished booked date, it uses today. The suggested date is never later than today.
For example, if a Friday session is marked attended on Monday and this records the learner’s first completion, the completion rule dates the certificate Friday. The issue-day rule dates it Monday.
This course setting applies to automatic and manual issuing. You can choose a different date when issuing one certificate or issuing in bulk; see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk. Changing the setting does not change certificates already issued. To correct one of those, use Change a Certificate’s Issue Date or Expiry Date.
When an Automatic Certificate Is Issued (Completion Rules)
Automatic issuing follows the Registration’s Completion:
On an on-demand course, the learner reaches 100% progress on the published lessons required for them. If no lessons count, the course does not complete automatically.
Courses on set dates and on-request courses: the learner is marked Attended on all required sessions.
On a blended course, the learner needs attendance and 100% progress on the published lessons required for them. If none count, attendance alone can complete the course.
Lesson progress is a rounded percentage. On a course with 200 or more lessons that count for the learner, it can reach 100% while one lesson is still unfinished, meeting the lesson-progress requirement; blended courses still require full attendance. If a lesson has a required Form block, the learner must submit the form before completing the lesson, but only while that form remains available to fill in; see Add Forms to Lessons. For the full rules, see Check Whether a Learner Has Completed a Course.
Each Registration gets one automatic certificate: if it already has an active certificate, no other is created. Order, manually added and imported Registrations are supported; older booking records can behave differently. Turning the setting on is not proof that learners who completed earlier have a certificate, so check their Registrations.
If a certificate is missing for a second attendee whose details were not given at booking, that place is an unnamed space on the order. It has no Registration, so it cannot get a certificate. Add the attendee to the space, as described in Change an Existing Order. Their new Registration then gets an automatic certificate once it meets the completion rules above, for example when you mark their attendance, or you can issue one by hand.
Stop Automatic Certificates When Attendance Is Marked
Automatic issuing is set for the whole course, including all its dates and sessions. While it is on, the certificate is issued when all completion requirements are met. On a blended course, full attendance is required. If lessons count for the learner, they also need 100% lesson progress. To stop that:
Open Courses, select the course, select Edit Course, then Settings > Certificates & CPD.
Turn off Automatically issue certificate. This also turns off Email student when certificate is issued.
Select Save, then reopen the section and check that both are off.
From then on, marking attendance or finishing lessons no longer issues a certificate. You can still issue certificates by hand. Certificates already issued stay in place; to cancel them, see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk.
Run a Course or Selected Dates Without Certificates
Leaving Template blank does not stop certificates: the course then uses the Cademy default certificate. To have no certificate, turn off Automatically issue certificate as described above. Nobody on the course then gets a certificate unless you issue one by hand. With automatic issuing off and no certificate issued, the course’s Content tab has no certificate action. Any certificates you have already issued, including ones issued by hand, remain listed there.
The setting covers every date of the course. If only some dates should have no certificate, leave automatic issuing off and issue certificates by hand for the other dates; see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk.
Add Course-Specific Wording to Certificates (Dynamic Value)
The Dynamic Value field in Certificates & CPD holds wording for this course only, such as a result, credit value, qualification or course code. In Cademy it is described as the value that appears in the certificate’s “Course-Specific Dynamic Value” block.
Open Courses, select the course, select Edit Course, then Settings > Certificates & CPD.
Type the wording in Dynamic Value.
Select Save, then view an issued certificate to check it.
The Cademy default certificate shows the Dynamic Value. In a custom template, add it with Add > Course Dynamic Value, or with Course specific value inside a Text block; see Design a Custom Certificate Template. The value is the same for every learner and date. If the field is empty, that part of the certificate is blank.
Course Not Issuing Certificates With Your Template
If certificates come out in the default design or not at all, check these in the course’s Certificates & CPD settings and on the learner’s Registration:
Template is empty: the course uses the Cademy default. Choose your template and save. If Template cannot be selected, your account does not have Custom Certificates, or it has no templates yet; create one under Settings > Certificate Templates.
Automatically issue certificate is off: nothing is issued automatically. Turn it on, or issue certificates by hand.
The learner has not completed: see When an Automatic Certificate Is Issued.
The learner already has a certificate: automatic issuing does not add a second one, so learners who got the default design before you chose your template keep it. Issue your template with Issue Another or bulk Issue Certificates, then revoke the old one if needed; see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk.
Certificates with a recorded template keep it when you change the course’s template. Some older certificates without one follow the course’s current template.
Learner Can't Get a Certificate After Completing the E-Learning
When a learner says they finished the online lessons but have no certificate, and you cannot see one either, check these in order:
Open the learner’s Registration from the course’s Registrants tab and expand Certificate or Certificate & CPD. If a certificate is listed, it exists: send it with Resend or Copy, as in Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk.
Check that Automatically issue certificate is on for the course. If it is off, issue the certificate by hand.
Check the learner’s lesson progress. They need 100% progress on the published lessons required for them, including any work required to finish those lessons. A blended course also needs attendance. To fix wrong progress, see Reset or Correct a Learner's Lesson Progress. Check whether a required lesson is locked until full payment, earlier work or attendance. Optional and hidden lessons do not count. See Set Lesson Access and Completion Rules.
Learner Completed Online Training but Cannot Download the Certificate
On the course’s Content tab, Get Certificate stays disabled while no certificate has been issued, even at 100% progress. With automatic issuing on, the Certificate line reads Not issued yet once progress reaches 100%. A participant booked by somebody else also sees a disabled Get Certificate on the Overview tab before a certificate is issued. Once certificates exist, the learner selects one from Your Certificate or Your Certificates.
Do not change accurate lesson progress to make a download work. Check the learner’s Registration, issue a certificate if needed, or use Resend or Copy for the certificate already listed. If an issued certificate still fails to open, give Cademy Support the course, learner and certificate link. For the learner’s own steps, see Find or Download Your Course Certificate.
How Learners Download Their Certificate
Learners can open a certificate from its email, a link you send, or their signed-in course page. Open My Account > My Courses & Bookings > My Courses and select the course.
Overview tab: the side panel shows Your Certificate for one certificate or Your Certificates with a count for several. The learner selects the certificate’s name to open its PDF in a new tab.
Content tab: a course with online lessons shows the same list when certificates have been issued, including certificates issued by hand while automatic issuing is off. The list does not require 100% lesson progress. The progress card shows Available for one or the number available for several.
Example of named certificates in the side panel of the Overview tab, as the learner sees them.
Each certificate has its own row, with the latest certificate date first. Custom certificates use the template name; the built-in certificate uses the course name. The row shows Valid until and the expiry date, Expired and the past expiry date, or Issued and the certificate date if it has no expiry. An expired certificate stays available; a revoked certificate is not listed.
The Congratulations window on an on-demand course still has a single Get Certificate action when automatic certificates are enabled. That link opens the active certificate with the latest certificate date. Historical certificate links and the Certificate Link Mail Merge value also select one certificate. To share a particular one, use its Issued > Copy link in the Registration.
After a learner’s access to an on-demand course ends, the course shows Access Expired with no certificate action, but an emailed or copied certificate link still works unless that certificate is revoked. The booker can select each participant’s certificates from their participant menu; see Manage the People on a Course You Booked. For the learner’s full steps, see Find or Download Your Course Certificate.
Can I Preview a Certificate Without Issuing It?
There is no separate preview with real learner details. To check a design, issue a certificate to a test Registration with email addresses you control, clear the email box, then open its Issued menu and select View. Check every page. A test issue is a real certificate, so revoke it afterwards. If the test Registration has completed the course and automatic issuing is on, a later completion check can restore it. For the steps, see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk.
Upgrade for Custom Certificates
Go to Settings > Billing & Usage to review plans that include Custom Certificates. The Cademy default certificate stays available on every plan.
Certificate Template and Manual Issuing Guides
Use the guides below for certificate design and manual issuing.
Create and Manage Custom Certificate Templates
Add Content to a Certificate Template
Insert Certificate Variables and Choose Their Format
Format and Position Certificate Content
Add and Manage Certificate Pages
Issue One Certificate Manually
Issue More Than One Certificate for the Same Registration
Issue Another Certificate for One Participant
Issue an Additional Certificate in Bulk
Issue Certificates in Bulk
View Certificate Activity on a Contact
Send or Copy a Certificate Link
Use the Certificate Link Mail Merge Value
Copy a Link to a Specific Certificate
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I issue certificates without a custom template?
Yes. The Cademy default certificate is available on every plan.
What happens if I change the course’s certificate template?
Future certificates use the new template. Certificates with a recorded template keep it, while some older certificates without one follow the course’s current template, so check those first. Learners who already have an active certificate do not get a second one automatically.
Can I turn off the email but still issue certificates automatically?
Yes, for the learner: turn off Email student when certificate is issued and leave Automatically issue certificate on. The primary-contact copy still goes out to the Order Contact or, for a Registration without an Order, the date’s Key Contact, when that contact has an email address.
Certificate Template and Design Questions
Certificate Issuing and Emailing Questions
Certificate Viewing, Expiry and Revocation Questions
For revoking, see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk. For viewing and expiry, see Issue a Certificate Manually or in Bulk.