Certifications are the outside qualifications you record against trainees, such as a forklift licence, a first aid certificate, HACCP Level 3 or a PCQI course. Two reports keep them under control. The Certification Expiration Report shows what has lapsed or is about to, and lets you send reminders. The PCQI Register Report lists your Preventive Controls Qualified Individuals across every site, ready to show an FDA inspector or a customer auditor.
Where to find it: Training > Certification Expirations and Training > PCQI Register in the main menu. The Expiring Soon card on the Compliance Dashboard also opens the expiration report. Certifications themselves are recorded on the trainee’s Certifications tab under Training > Trainees.
Concepts
| Status | How it is decided on both reports |
|---|---|
| Expired | The expiration date is before today, or the certification has been marked expired. |
| Expiring / Expiring Soon | It expires within the next 30 days. |
| Active | It expires more than 30 days from now, or has no expiration date at all. |
| Revoked | Left off both reports entirely. |
Status is worked out from the date each time a report loads, so you never have to mark a certification expired by hand for it to show as expired.
Quick start
- Open Training > Certification Expirations.
- Choose a Time Period. The default is Next 90 days.
- Tick the certifications to chase and click Send Reminders (N).
- Click Export to CSV for a copy to work from.
- For an FSMA audit, open Training > PCQI Register, choose a Site if needed, and click Export to PDF.
Certification Expiration Report
This lists the certifications on your current site that have expired or will expire within the chosen period, soonest first.
Summary cards
| Card | Counts |
|---|---|
| Expired | Certifications already expired |
| Next 7 Days, Next 30 Days, Next 60 Days, Next 90 Days | Certifications expiring within that many days plus those already expired. Each card answers “what will have lapsed by then?”. That is why Next 7 Days reads 1 in the example: Emma’s expired First Aid Certificate. |
| Total | Every row loaded for the chosen time period |
Filters
- Time Period: Next 7 days, Next 30 days, Next 60 days, Next 90 days or All. Expired certifications are always included. All lists every certification that has an expiration date.
- Department: the department of the trainee’s first training role on the site. Trainees with no role are Unassigned.
- Status: Expired, Expiring Soon or Active. Active rows only appear when the period is longer than 30 days.
- Search: matches trainee name, email or certification name.
Columns
| Column | Notes |
|---|---|
| Trainee | Name and email |
| Certification | Name, with an External or Internal badge |
| Issuing Body / Expiration | As recorded on the certification |
| Days | Days left, or N days ago once expired. Expired rows are shaded red, and rows within 7 days amber. |
| Status | Expired, Expiring or Active |
| Notifications | How many times reminders have been emailed for this certification, and Last: the date of the most recent. Automatic and manual reminders both count, once per send. |
Export to CSV downloads Certification_Expirations_<date>.csv of the rows your filters show. Its columns are Trainee, Email, Department, Certification, Type, Issuing Body, Expiration Date, Days Remaining and Status.
Reminders: automatic and manual
Automatic reminders
Every morning at 6am QTRACA checks active and expired certifications that have an expiration date within the next 90 days or already past.
- Expiring: the trainee is emailed Certification Expiring Soon: <name>, with a button to open the Training Centre. Their supervisor is emailed Team Member Certification Expiring: <trainee>.
- Expired: the trainee is emailed Certification Expired: <name> and the supervisor Team Member Certification Expired: <trainee>.
- Emails only go to people who have an email address. The supervisor is the user set as the trainee’s Supervisor.
| Warning | Sent when the certification is |
|---|---|
| 90 days | 61 to 90 days from expiry |
| 60 days | 31 to 60 days from expiry |
| 30 days | 8 to 30 days from expiry |
| 7 days | 0 to 7 days from expiry |
| Expired | Past its expiration date |
Each warning goes out once, as the note on the report says: “The system automatically sends expiration alerts at the following intervals: 90 days, 60 days, 30 days, and 7 days before certification expiration, and once when it expires. Each alert is sent once, to the trainee and to their supervisor.” A certification recorded late only gets the warnings still ahead of it. For example, one entered 20 days before expiry gets the 30-day and 7-day warnings. When you renew a certification by giving it a new expiration date, its warnings start again for the new date.
Sending reminders yourself
Tick one or more rows and click Send Reminders (N). The same emails are sent straight away, whatever the date, even for a certification more than 90 days from expiry. Manual reminders can be sent as often as you choose. Each one counts as the warning for the stage the certification is in, so, for example, a manual reminder sent 20 days before expiry means the automatic 30-day warning is not sent as well; the 7-day warning still is. You see Expiration reminders queued for N certification(s). If nothing is selected you see Please select at least one certification to send reminders. If sending fails you see Reminders could not be sent. Please try again.
PCQI Register Report
Under FSMA’s Preventive Controls rules (21 CFR Part 117), a facility needs a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual to oversee its food safety plan. The register is the list you show to prove you have one, and who it is.
- Across sites: unlike the expiration report, the register covers every active site you have access to. Use Site to narrow it to one. Status filters by Active, Expiring Soon or Expired.
- Summary cards: Total PCQIs, Active, Expiring Soon and Expired. They count the rows your filters show.
- Columns: #, Name, Job Title (the trainee’s training roles on that site), Department (those roles’ departments), Site, Certificate # with the issuing body, Issue Date, Expiration (No expiry when none is recorded) and Status. Expired rows are shaded red and expiring ones amber.
- Export to PDF downloads PCQI_Register_<date>.pdf, a landscape register of the rows shown, headed with your company logo. It is greyed out when there are no rows.
An expired PCQI certification stays on the register, marked Expired. The gap is visible rather than silently hidden.
How a PCQI is recognised
There is no PCQI tick box. A certification appears on the register when its name contains any of these, in any capitals:
| Wording in the certification name | Typically from |
|---|---|
| PCQI | The preset PCQI - Preventive Controls Qualified Individual on the Certifications tab |
| Preventive Controls Qualified Individual | The long form |
| Preventive Controls for Human Food or Preventive Controls for Animal Food | The wording printed on FSPCA course certificates |
The issuing body is deliberately ignored. FSPCA also certifies other courses, such as FSVP, intentional adulteration and allergens. A register that listed someone as a PCQI because of an FSPCA allergen course would be worse at an audit than one that missed them. If a genuine PCQI is missing, check the certification name on the trainee’s Certifications tab. See Managing Trainee Certifications.
Availability and permissions
- Both reports need the Training module and open for Administrators and Training Coordinators.
- Send Reminders is available to Administrators, Setup Administrators, Supervisors and Training Coordinators, the same roles that can add and edit certifications.
- The expiration report covers the site you are working in. The PCQI register covers every active site you can access.
Things to know
- No expiration date means no reminders. A certification without an expiry never appears on the expiration report and is never reminded about. FSPCA PCQI certificates carry no expiry, so they show No expiry and Active on the register.
- The Compliance Dashboard’s Expiring Soon card counts differently. It counts certifications expiring in the next 30 days only, not those already expired. That is why it can show 2 while this report shows 3.
- Revoked certifications disappear from both reports. Mark a certification revoked only if it genuinely no longer counts; to keep a lapsed one visible, leave it to expire.
- Certifications are not training courses. Renewing a certification means updating its dates on the trainee’s record; it is not assigned or renewed through courses or Bulk Renewal.
- Responsibilities are not recorded. The register has no field for a PCQI’s duties. Keep that in your food safety plan.