Issue credentials automatically with Zapier

Connect Certify to Zapier and your learning platform can issue badges and certificates for you. When a learner completes a course, Zapier tells Certify, and Certify issues their credential and emails it to them. No spreadsheets and no manual uploads.

The Certify app on Zapier is included on the Advanced and Premium plans.

What you need

• A Certify account on the Advanced or Premium plan, with at least one credential (badge or certificate) set up.
• A Zapier account. The free plan is enough for a simple "course completed, issue credential" Zap.
• An account on your learning platform that works with Zapier.

Start from a template

The quickest way to start is a ready-made template. Each one issues a Certify credential when a learner completes a course:

• Thinkific
• Teachable
• TalentLMS
• LearnWorlds

Each article links to its template and covers that platform's details. You can see every template on Certify's page on Zapier.

Using another platform? Any platform on Zapier with a course-completion trigger can issue Certify credentials, such as LearnDash, Skilljar or Kajabi. Follow the steps below and choose your platform as the trigger.

Using LearnUpon? You don't need Zapier: Certify is a LearnUpon partner with a direct integration. See Certify's LearnUpon integration.

Step 1: Create a Certify access token

1. Sign in to Certify as an issuer.
2. Go to Settings > API.
3. Create an access token and copy it.

Keep the token private. Anyone with it can issue and manage credentials for your organisation. If it is ever shared by mistake, delete it in Certify and create a new one.

Step 2: Connect Certify to Zapier

1. In Zapier, open a template or create a new Zap, or go to Connections and choose Create connection.
2. Search for Certify and choose Sign in.
3. Paste your access token into Access Token and continue.

Zapier shows the connection under your organisation's name in Certify. If it says the token is invalid, check you copied all of it, or create a new one.

Step 3: Set up the Issue Credential step

Choose your learning platform's course-completion trigger, then add Certify's Issue Credential action and fill in its fields:

| Certify field | What to enter | |---|---| | Credential | Choose the badge or certificate from the list. You don't need any IDs. | | Recipient Email | The learner's email address from the trigger step. | | Full Name, or First Name and Last Name | The learner's name from the trigger step. Use Full Name if your platform sends the whole name, or First Name and Last Name if it sends two parts. Certify joins them with a space. | | Completion Date | The completion date from the trigger step. It must be today or earlier. | | Expiry Date | Leave blank to use the expiry rule set on the credential in Certify. | | Send Notification Email | Yes, so the learner gets an email with their credential. |

Each Zap issues one credential. If you have one credential per course, create one Zap per course, or use Zapier's paths to choose the credential by course name (paths need a paid Zapier plan).

Step 4: Test and switch it on

Test the step. Certify issues the credential to the sample learner from the trigger, so test with yourself or a test learner, not a real one. Check the credential arrives and looks right, then publish the Zap.

From then on, every learner who completes the course receives their credential automatically.

Good to know

Learners never get duplicates

If a learner completes a course twice, or your platform sends the same completion more than once, Certify doesn't issue a second credential and doesn't send a second email. The Zap still succeeds, and the Already Issued field in its output is set to true.

If you add steps after Certify that should only happen once per learner, such as a welcome email or a CRM update, add a Filter: Already Issued is false.

Expiry dates

• Leave Expiry Date blank to use the credential's own validity rule from Certify, for example "valid for 2 years".
• Fill in Expiry Date to set a specific date for this learner.
• Set No Expiry Date to Yes to issue a credential that never expires, whatever the credential's rule.

Completion dates

The completion date must be today or earlier. Certify works in UTC.

Custom fields

If you've set up custom fields in Certify, such as a score or a department, they appear in the Issue Credential step under Recipient custom fields and Credential custom fields. Map them from your learning platform like any other field. Number fields must contain a number, and date fields a date.

Updating a credential that's already issued

You have two options:

• Turn on Update If Already Issued in Issue Credential, for example so a refresher course moves the dates on. Fields you leave blank keep their current values. The name you send also replaces the learner's name in Certify.
• Use the Update Issued Credential action to change the completion date, expiry date, certificate PDF or custom fields.

Changing or removing the expiry date of an existing credential uses a credit.

Other actions and searches

| Action or search | What it does | |---|---| | Revoke Credential | Expires a learner's credential today. Its verification page then shows it as expired. Nothing is deleted. If the learner holds several copies, all active copies are revoked. | | Update Recipient | Changes a learner's name, which is updated on all their credentials, or their email address. After changing an email address, always issue to the new one: issuing to the old one creates a separate recipient and uses a credit. | | Find Issued Credential | Checks whether a learner holds a credential, and returns its verification link. | | Find Recipient | Looks up a learner and lists their credentials. |

Searches, filters, paths and Zaps with more than two steps need a paid Zapier plan.

Troubleshooting

| Message in Zapier | What to do | |---|---| | Your Certify access token is invalid or has been revoked | Create a new token in Certify (Settings > API) and reconnect Certify in Zapier. | | Your Certify account has used all of its credentials | You've reached your plan's limit. Upgrade or contact us, then replay the Zap run from Zap History. | | Certify can't issue credentials right now because your account is on hold for an outstanding payment | Settle the open invoice in Certify, then replay the Zap run from Zap History. | | Your Certify contract has ended, so new credentials can't be issued | Contact us to start a new contract. Credentials already issued stay valid. | | Certify couldn't find the credential you selected | The credential may have been deleted in Certify. Choose another in the Zap. | | Completion Date can't be in the future | Check the date your platform sends. Certify uses today's date in UTC. | | Certify is receiving too many requests | Certify allows 60 requests per minute. Zapier retries automatically, so you don't need to do anything. |

Need help? Contact Certify support and tell us the Zap's name and the time of the run.