Credential Automation: Issuance Emails, Expiry Reminders & Auto-Expiry

Time to read: 9 minutes

Overview

CertLister can automate three things for you so you don't have to do them manually:

1. Issuance email — send each recipient their credential the moment it is created
2. Expiry reminder — automatically email recipients a set number of days before their credential expires
3. Auto-expiry — automatically flip a credential's status from Active to Expired when its expiry date passes

All three are configured at the category level, so every new credential in that category inherits the setting. You can then override the email settings on individual credentials where needed.

Plan Availability

Auto-expiry is available on all plans because it affects data integrity — it simply reflects reality when a credential's date has passed.

Email features require Basic or Pro, since email delivery is part of the email notifications feature set.

PDF attachment requires Pro. On Basic, emails contain a link to the verification page where recipients can view and download the PDF.

How Automation Flows

Category settings (defaults)
  → apply to all new credentials in that category

Credential settings (overrides)
  → null  = inherit from category default
  → on    = always send, regardless of category setting
  → off   = never send, regardless of category setting

Organization setting
  → expiry_reminder_days: how many days before expiry to send the reminder

Part 1: Set Automation Defaults on a Category

This is the primary place to configure automation. Settings here apply to every credential created in the category.

Step 1: Open a Category for Editing

1. Log into CertLister at https://app.certlister.com
2. Click Categories in the left navigation
3. Find the category you want to configure
4. Click the Edit (pencil) icon to open the category dialog

Step 2: Configure the Automation Section

The dialog has an Automation section below the name and description fields. It contains three switches:

Switch 1: Send issuance email

What it does: When a new credential is created in this category and the recipient has an email address, CertLister sends them an email with their credential details.

Email the recipient receives:

• Subject: Your "[Credential Title]" is ready
• Content: Recipient name, credential title, issue date, a link to view and verify the credential

When to turn on:

• Training providers who want recipients to receive their credentials immediately
• Compliance programmes where proof of certification needs to be delivered fast
• Any time you want to avoid manually distributing credentials

When to leave off:

• You send credentials through your own system or LMS
• You create credentials in bulk before recipients are ready to receive them
• The recipient email field is often blank in this category

Requires: Basic or Pro plan. The switch is disabled with an upgrade tooltip on Free.

Switch 2: Send expiry reminder email

What it does: CertLister sends the recipient an email a set number of days before their credential expires. The number of days is configured organization-wide in Settings → Notifications (default: 7 days).

Email the recipient receives:

• Subject: Your "[Credential Title]" expires in N days
• Content: Recipient name, credential title, expiry date, a link to the verify page

When to turn on:

• Safety or compliance credentials where renewals are mandatory (CPR, food safety, OSHA)
• Professional licences that must be renewed to remain valid
• Anywhere that an expired credential has real consequences for the recipient

When to leave off:

• Credentials that don't have an expiry date set (the reminder only fires when an expiry date exists)
• You manage renewal reminders through another system
• Recipients do not need to take action on expiry

Requires: Basic or Pro plan.

Switch 3: Auto-expire past expiry date

What it does: Every day at 2 AM UTC, CertLister checks all credentials in this category. Any credential whose Expiry Date is in the past and whose status is still Active is automatically flipped to Expired.

This keeps your verification page accurate without manual intervention. When someone verifies a credential that has auto-expired, they see a clear Expired status rather than an incorrect Active status.

When to turn on:

• Almost always — if you set expiry dates, you almost certainly want them enforced automatically
• Any category where expired credentials must not appear as valid

When to leave off:

• You manage expiry status manually and do not want automatic changes
• Credentials in this category regularly run over their nominal expiry date (e.g., grace periods managed externally)

Available on all plans. No plan gate.

Step 3: Save

Click Save (or Update) to apply the automation settings to the category.

Important: These settings apply to credentials created from this point forward. Credentials that already exist are not retroactively changed, except for auto-expiry — the daily job processes all credentials in the category regardless of when they were created.

Part 2: Sending Emails Manually

Automated issuance emails fire at the moment of credential creation. But sometimes you need to send (or re-send) an email after the fact — for example, when a recipient missed the original email, when you created credentials in bulk before they were ready to be distributed, or when you want to send existing credentials to new email addresses.

Send Email for a Single Credential

1. Go to Credentials in the left navigation
2. Find the credential row in the table
3. Click the envelope icon in the row's action buttons
4. A confirmation dialog appears — review the recipient and click "Send Email"

The recipient receives the same "Your credential is ready" email as the automated issuance email.

Note: The envelope icon only appears on rows where the credential has a Recipient Email filled in. If the field is blank, add the email via Edit first.

Send Emails in Bulk

1. Select the credentials you want to email using the row checkboxes
2. The bulk action bar appears — click "Send Emails"
3. The confirmation dialog shows:
   • How many recipients will receive the email
   • How many will be skipped (no email address on file)
4. Click "Send X Emails" to confirm

Bulk sends are rate-limited at 10 emails per minute to avoid SMTP issues. For large batches (over 10 credentials), the dialog notes that sending will take a few minutes.

Attach the PDF Credential to the Email (Pro)

By default, emails contain a link to the verification page where the recipient can view and download their PDF. On the Pro plan, you can also attach the PDF directly to the email.

How to enable it:

In both the single-credential and bulk send dialogs, check "Attach PDF credential to email" before confirming.

What happens:

• CertLister fetches the credential's PDF from cloud storage and attaches it as a .pdf file to the outgoing email
• The verification link is still included in the email body — the attachment is in addition to it, not a replacement
• If a selected credential has no generated PDF yet, it is sent without an attachment (the email is still delivered)

When to use it:

• Recipients who prefer to save the PDF directly from their email client rather than downloading from the verify page
• Organisations that need the PDF in the recipient's inbox as a formal record
• Situations where recipients may not have reliable access to the public verify URL (e.g., offline environments)

When the link-only approach is better:

• Large batches — attaching PDFs increases email size and sending time
• When you want recipients to always access the live, canonical verification record (the verify page reflects the current status; a PDF attachment is a snapshot)
• When some credentials do not yet have a PDF generated

Requires: Pro plan. The checkbox is visible on Basic but disabled with a "(Pro)" label and tooltip.

Part 3: Override Email Settings Per Credential

When a credential is in a category with email automation enabled, you may sometimes want to send (or suppress) emails for individual credentials regardless of the category default.

Where to Find the Override

The Email Notifications section appears in the Add Credential and Edit dialogs — but only when the credential has a Recipient Email filled in.

The Three States

Each email toggle is a tri-state checkbox:

Click the checkbox to cycle through: Indeterminate → Checked → Unchecked → Indeterminate

Helper text below each checkbox shows the current category default so you know what "inherit" means for this credential. For example: "Category default: on"

Override: Send issuance email

Visible whenever the credential has a Recipient Email value and your plan supports email delivery.

Use cases for checking (always send):

• The category default is off, but this particular recipient should receive their credential immediately

Use cases for unchecking (never send):

• The category default is on, but this credential is a test or draft you're not ready to send

Note: The issuance email only fires at creation time. Editing an existing credential and switching the override to Checked does not trigger a send — the email was already sent (or not) when the credential was first saved.

Override: Send expiry reminder

Visible when the credential has a Recipient Email value, an Expiry Date set, and your plan supports expiry reminders.

Use cases for unchecking (never send):

• The recipient manages their own renewal and does not want automated emails
• You are extending the expiry date but do not want to trigger a reminder for the original date

Part 4: Configure the Expiry Reminder Lead Time (Organization Setting)

The number of days before expiry that the reminder fires is a single organization-level setting. It applies to all credentials across all categories.

Default: 7 days before expiry

Range: 1–90 days

How to Change It

1. Go to Settings → click the Notifications tab
2. Scroll to the Expiry Reminders section
3. Change the number in the Days before expiry field
4. Click Save (Admin only — non-admins see the field disabled)

Requires: Basic or Pro plan. The field is not visible on Free.

Example: If you set this to 30, CertLister emails recipients 30 days before their credential expires — giving them a full month's notice to renew.

Part 5: Weekly Admin Expiry Digest

In addition to the automated recipient emails, CertLister sends a weekly summary to organization admins and managers showing all credentials expiring in the next 30 days.

Email sent every Monday at 9 AM UTC.

Subject: N credentials expiring soon — [Your Organization]

Content: A table of credentials expiring within 30 days — recipient name, credential title, expiry date, and days remaining.

Enabling the Weekly Digest

1. Go to Settings → Notifications tab
2. Find the Weekly expiry digest toggle
3. Turn it on or off per user (each team member controls their own preference)

Requires: Basic or Pro plan. The toggle is disabled on Free.

The weekly digest is independent of the per-credential expiry reminders. Both can be on at the same time: recipients get an individual reminder email, and admins get a Monday summary.

When Do the Automated Jobs Run?

Important for expiry reminders: The reminder fires on the day that is exactly expiry_reminder_days before the expiry date. For example, with a 7-day setting, a credential expiring on March 10 triggers a reminder on March 3 (the morning job on March 3 sends it). There is no second reminder — only one email per credential.

Common Setup Scenarios

Scenario 1: Training provider — immediate delivery

You run CPR training sessions. Participants should receive their credentials right away.

Category settings:

• Send issuance email: On
• Send expiry reminder: On
• Auto-expire: On

Org setting:

• Days before expiry: 30 (give participants a month's notice to renew)

Scenario 2: Compliance tracking — no recipient emails

You manage compliance credentials internally. Recipients are employees who should not receive individual emails.

Category settings:

• Send issuance email: Off
• Send expiry reminder: Off
• Auto-expire: On

Weekly admin digest: On (so HR is alerted every Monday about upcoming renewals)

Scenario 3: One-off exception

Your category default is "no issuance email" but a specific recipient requests to be notified.

1. Open the credential dialog for that person
2. In the Email Notifications section, click the issuance email checkbox to set it to Checked
3. Save the credential — this credential sends an email on creation; others in the category do not

Troubleshooting

No email received after creating a credential

Check in order:

1. Plan — email delivery requires Basic or Pro. Go to https://app.certlister.com/billing to confirm your plan.
2. Category setting — open the category dialog. Is Send issuance email turned on?
3. Recipient email — open the credential. Is the Recipient Email field filled in and correctly formatted?
4. Credential override — in the credential dialog, is the issuance email checkbox explicitly Unchecked (overriding the category on)? Switch it to Indeterminate or Checked.
5. Timing — the email is sent at creation time only. Editing an existing credential does not re-trigger the email.
6. Spam folder — ask the recipient to check spam/junk.

Expiry reminder email not received

Check in order:

1. Plan — expiry reminders require Basic or Pro.
2. Category setting — is Send expiry reminder turned on?
3. Expiry date — the credential must have an expiry date set. Open the credential and confirm.
4. Recipient email — the credential must have a recipient email.
5. Timing — the reminder fires once, on the morning that is exactly expiry_reminder_days before the expiry date. If that date already passed, the reminder will not fire again.
6. Days setting — go to Settings → Notifications and confirm the days setting is what you expect.
7. Credential override — in the credential dialog, is the expiry reminder checkbox explicitly Unchecked?

Credential not auto-expiring

Check:

1. Is Auto-expire past expiry date turned on for the category?
2. Does the credential have an expiry date set?
3. Has 2 AM UTC passed since the expiry date? The job runs once per day — a credential that expired yesterday will be updated during tonight's run.
4. Was the credential already manually set to Expired or Revoked? The job only processes Active credentials.

Weekly digest not arriving

Check:

1. Plan — requires Basic or Pro.
2. Preference — go to Settings → Notifications and confirm Weekly expiry digest is turned on for your user account.
3. Role — only Admins and Managers receive the digest. User role does not receive it.
4. No expiring credentials — the digest is only sent when there are credentials expiring in the next 30 days. If nothing is expiring, no email is sent that week.
5. Timing — the digest is sent every Monday at 9 AM UTC.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I send issuance emails to recipients who don't have an email address on file?

A: No. An email address must be saved on the credential. If the Recipient Email field is blank, no email is sent even if the category has issuance email turned on.

Q: How many expiry reminder emails will a recipient receive?

A: Exactly one — on the day that is expiry_reminder_days before their expiry date. CertLister does not send follow-up reminders. If you want a second reminder closer to the date, you can set the days to a shorter window (e.g., change from 30 days to 7 days), but this changes the timing for all credentials.

Q: What happens if I change the expiry_reminder_days setting mid-cycle?

A: The new setting takes effect from the next daily run onward. Past reminders that have already fired are not re-sent. Reminders that have not yet fired will use the new day count.

Q: Does auto-expiry affect the public verification page?

A: Yes. When auto-expiry flips a credential to Expired, the verification page immediately shows it as Expired — not Active. This is the intended behaviour: the verify page reflects the true current status.

Q: Can I undo an auto-expiry?

A: Yes. Open the credential, change the Status field back to Active, and save. Note that if the expiry date is still in the past and auto-expire is still on for the category, the daily job will flip it back to Expired the next night. To prevent this: either extend the expiry date, turn off auto-expire for the category, or set the credential's expiry date to blank.

Q: Does the issuance email include a copy of the PDF?

A: By default, no. The email contains the credential details and a link to the public verify page where the recipient can view and download the PDF.

On the Pro plan, you can attach the PDF directly when sending emails manually (single or bulk). Check "Attach PDF credential to email" in the send dialog. The automated issuance email (fired at creation time) always uses the link-only format; PDF attachment is only available for manual sends.

See Part 2: Sending Emails Manually for full details.

Q: Are email sends logged anywhere?

A: Yes. Email delivery tracking is available on the Pro plan under Reports → Email Delivery. You can see delivery status, bounces, and a full email log per credential.

Q: Can I customise the email templates?

A: Not currently. Email content is standardised. Custom email templates may be considered for future Pro or enterprise plans.

Q: Does auto-expiry send any notification to the admin?

A: Not directly. The weekly expiry digest on Monday warns admins about credentials about to expire. After they have expired, the digest stops listing them (it only shows upcoming expirations). The admin can filter credentials by status on the Credentials page to see all Expired credentials.