Available for the following plans: Premium, Platinum
Available for the following User Access levels: Admin
The Automated Certification Workflows feature allows you to manage compliance benchmarks proactively by creating automated actions before or after an employee qualification lapses. This system-driven milestone tracking removes the risk of compliance gaps, reduces manual tracking overheads, and keeps records audit-ready without manual chasing. By leveraging contextual variables, you can automatically inject specific milestone dates directly into notifications sent to both employees and management teams.
This article shows you how to manage the following:
- Set up a workflow that triggers before a certification expires
- Insert certification expiry dates into workflow messages
- Set up a workflow that triggers after a certification expires
- Review pre-configured certification lifecycle templates
Set up a workflow that triggers before a certification expires
Administrators can configure automated workflows that begin a set number of days or weeks before an employee certification reaches its milestone deadline. When creating a new workflow within the platform builder layout, choose the Certification is expiring trigger option from the available configuration panel.
Configure the trigger settings by entering your preferred lead time, defining how many days or weeks ahead of the deadline the workflow must start. Once defined, you can add automated steps to send out targeted renewal reminders, notify specific managers, or assign compliance tasks. The process initialises automatically for any employee whose certification matches the configured advance timeframe.
Helpful Hint
The workflow schedule automatically responds to changes made to employee records according to three distinct system behaviours:
- Expiry date extended: If you extend an existing expiry date, the workflow schedule automatically shifts forward to match the new deadline.
- Expiry date set for the first time: If you add an expiry date to an entry that previously had no deadline, relevant workflows schedule themselves from that point forward.
- Renewed certification recorded: Recording a qualification renewal causes the system to automatically recalculate and reschedule the workflow relative to the new date.
If an employee holds a certification with no expiry parameters recorded, the system skips scheduling completely and no automated workflow will trigger.
Insert certification expiry dates into workflow messages
To provide relevant and clear information to employees and management teams, you can embed qualification dates dynamically within your automated message workflows. When editing a notification step inside any workflow utilising a certification-based trigger, two system variables are available to insert into the message layout:
- Certification Expiry Date
- Certification Due Date
When the workflow initialises and dispatches the alert, the platform automatically populates the text fields with the actual calendar dates stored on the individual employee compliance profile.
Set up a workflow that triggers after a certification expires
You can establish reactive compliance pathways to manage lapsed qualifications across your business. When building workflows, you can combine or isolate your tracking mechanisms. The platform separates pre-lapse warnings and post-lapse workflows into unique, independent triggers:
- Certification is expiring: Fires automatically ahead of the recorded milestone date.
- Certification expired: Fires automatically and immediately the moment an employee record lapses and the system marks the status as expired.
When configuring remediation actions within an expired certification workflow, you can insert the Certification Expiry Date variable into your notification templates. This includes the clear contextual lapse date within messages sent to employees or relevant primary managers immediately upon expiry.
Review pre-configured certification lifecycle templates
Pre-built configuration models are available inside the template builder to deploy common tracking pathways rapidly. These configurations cover standard warning intervals and specialised task creation rules for mandatory compliance records.
| Template Name | Trigger | Timing | Action | Condition |
| Certification renewal reminder | Certification is expiring | 30 days before expiry | Send notification to employee (includes expiry date) | None |
| Certification renewal - urgent reminder | Certification is expiring | 7 days before expiry | Send notification to employee and their manager (includes expiry date) | None |
| Expired certification - notify manager | Certification expired | Immediately | Send notification to primary manager (includes certification name and expiry date) | None |
| Mandatory certification lapsed - HR task | Certification expired | Immediately | Create task for HR Admin to follow up | Certification is mandatory = Yes |
Important
These compliance workflows manage records entirely separately from system onboarding automations. The pre-existing certificationAutomationFlow template operates exclusively to assign qualifications when a new employee first joins your organisation.