Upload a background you designed in Canva or another application, drop in merge fields, and TradeSchool issues every certificate for you to the students portal; by name, by class, or in bulk, with expiration reminders built in.
Most schools either pay an outside designer for one-off certificates, fight Word mail-merge for hours, or hand out generic templates that look nothing like their brand. The Certificates add-on replaces all of that with a single workflow: upload your background image (PNG, JPG, or PDF; anything you designed in Canva, Illustrator, or Word), drag merge fields onto it visually, and save it as a template. From that moment on, TradeSchool can issue a perfectly placed PDF certificate for any student in seconds.
Issue them one at a time from the student profile, in bulk for an entire class or workshop instance, or fully on autopilot when a student passes a class, completes a program, or finishes a workshop. Every certificate is rendered through TradeSchool's unified PDF engine, assigned a unique serial number, archived to the student's portal, and stored with its issue and expiration dates so staff can manage renewals without touching a spreadsheet.
Version 1.2.x adds configurable certificate validity periods (per-template default plus per-class/program override), automatic 60/30/7-day expiration reminder emails to students, and a daily background job that flags expiring credentials in the admin dashboard. If you also run Reports & Transcripts, the same certificate records become exportable certificate registers and school-wide expiration reports.
One add-on, one yearly price — and every capability below.
Upload any PNG, JPG, or PDF background and drag merge fields exactly where they need to sit. No coding, no PDF software, no print shop.
Set per-program, per-class, or per-workshop rules: when a student hits passing, the certificate generates and lands in their portal automatically.
Graduate a whole cohort in one click. Re-issue an entire prior year if you change your template, while keeping each certificate tied to its original student record.
Every certificate gets a tamper-evident serial. Verify authenticity later from a single field, perfect for employer verification calls.
Set a validity window per template or per class. Students get automatic 60-, 30-, and 7-day renewal reminders; admins see expiring credentials in one list.
Every issued certificate is stored on your server and re-downloadable forever from the student portal. No lost diplomas, no reprint fees.
Issue dates, expiration dates, scope, template, and serial are all stored with each certificate. Add Reports & Transcripts when you want exportable certificate registers and cross-school expiration reporting.
Auto-issue program completion certificates the moment a student passes their final class, they download it before they walk out the door.
Issue CEU certificates for every workshop instance with the workshop date and credit hours pre-filled, and set a renewal window so students are reminded before they lapse.
Award milestone certificates (30-day, 60-day, completion) without anyone having to manually open a designer.
Bring in your existing diploma artwork, drop in name + date fields, and stop paying a print shop $8 per page.
No. Templates, auto-issue, portal downloads, serial numbers, expiration dates, reminder emails, and the built-in expiration dashboard all ship with Certificates.
If you want exportable certificate registers or school-wide audit-style reporting, yes; that lives in Reports & Transcripts. Certificates itself focuses on issuing, storing, and tracking the certificates.
Yes. Upload your existing PNG, JPG, or PDF as the background and place merge fields on top of it. Your branding, your fonts, your design, TradeSchool just fills in the data.
Yes. Workshops have their own auto-issue rules and the {workshop_name}, {workshop_date} merge fields are available out of the box.
Yes. Bulk re-issue from any class or program, while keeping the certificate tied to the student history in TradeSchool.
Only if you want them to. Set a validity window (months) per template or override per class/program. Students get automatic 60/30/7-day renewal reminders.