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 email to the Order Contact; see Who Gets the Automated 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.
Set Certificates to Expire and Duration certificate is valid for: the number of days a certificate is valid. 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.
When an Automatic Certificate Is Issued (Completion Rules)
Automatic issuing follows the Registration’s Completion:
On-demand courses: the learner reaches 100% progress on the course’s published online lessons.
Courses on set dates and on-request courses: the learner is marked Attended on all required sessions.
Blended courses: both attendance and the lesson progress. If there are no valid published online lessons, attendance can be enough.
Lesson progress is a rounded percentage. On a course with 200 or more published lessons, 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.
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. Blended courses with published lessons need both full attendance and 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.
Add a Course or Session With No Certificate at All
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, and learners see no certificate action on the course’s Content tab.
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.
Set Up the Certificate Dynamic Value in Certificates & CPD Settings
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. It must reach 100% of the published lessons, including any required forms. A blended course also needs attendance. To fix wrong progress, see Reset or Correct a Learner's Lesson Progress.
Learner Completed Online Training but Cannot Download the Certificate
When the course issues certificates automatically, a learner can see Get Certificate on the course’s Content tab once their progress reaches 100%, even before a certificate exists. It then opens a page headed Certificate not found. A participant booked by somebody else sees Get Certificate on the Overview tab before a certificate exists, but cannot select it until one is issued. Do not change accurate lesson progress just to make the action work: issue the certificate or send its link. For the learner’s own steps, see Find or Download Your Course Certificate.
Who Gets the Automated Certificate Emails (Learner and Order Contact)
Why People Email You About Automated Certificate Issuing Messages
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 the Order Contact notification, which can arrive for every learner the booker booked. 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.
Turning off the learner email does not turn off the Order Contact notification, including when the learner is the Order Contact. If both emails would go to the same address, only the learner’s is sent. A Registration added directly or imported without an Order has no Order Contact. A certificate reissued automatically after it was revoked sends no emails. To stop all automatic certificate emails, turn off Automatically issue certificate.
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 Whether the Certificate Email Went to the Right Person
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.
To find the Order Contact, open the learner’s Registration and its Order, which shows the Order Contact. 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.
How Learners Download Their Certificate
A learner opens their certificate from the link in the certificate email, a link you send, or their course page: My Account > My Courses & Bookings > My Courses > the course.
Overview tab: the side panel’s Get Certificate opens the learner’s most recently issued certificate that is not revoked, whether issued automatically or by hand.
Content tab: for a course with online lessons, a Certificate line and its own Get Certificate appear only when Automatically issue certificate is on. It can be selected once progress reaches 100%, even before a certificate exists. On an on-demand course, the Congratulations window that opens when a lesson takes progress to 100% has the same Get Certificate, under the same rule. An on-demand course opens on this tab, so tell the learner to select Course Overview or the Overview tab.
Example of Get Certificate in the side panel of the Overview tab, as the learner sees it.
An expired certificate stays viewable and downloadable. After a learner’s access to an on-demand course ends, the course shows Access Expired with no certificate action, but the emailed or copied link still works. The person who booked can also open a participant’s certificate; see Manage the People on a Course You Booked. For the learner’s own steps, see Find or Download Your Course Certificate.
Preview a Certificate
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.
Template Design and Issuing Sections Have Moved
These sections are now in their own guides.
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 Order Contact notification still goes out.
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.