The problem
LearnDash certificates don’t expire. Once a student finishes a course, the certificate is valid forever. That’s fine for a hobby course. It’s a real problem for anything that has to be renewed: first aid, food hygiene, safety inductions, CPD.
Most training sites we looked at handle it with a spreadsheet. Export the completions, add a year, set calendar reminders, email people one by one. It works until someone leaves, a date slips, or an auditor asks whose certificate is still valid right now.
How it works
- Set how many days the LearnDash certificate stays valid. It’s set on the certificate itself, so every course that awards it uses the same period. Then pick that certificate on each course.
- When a student completes the course, their certification starts that day. Two students who finish a month apart expire a month apart.
- Reminder emails go out 180, 90 and 60 days before the expiry date, then an expired notice when it lapses. You can change the schedule per course (for example “30,7”) and edit the subject and body of every email.
- Each certificate gets its own verification link and QR code. Anyone who opens it sees the holder, the course and whether the certificate is active, expired or revoked.
Free, paid or approved first
Per course, you decide when the certificate is granted: straight away for free (the default), only after payment, or only after an admin approves it.
For paid certificates you link a WooCommerce product to the certificate. The certificate is released when the order reaches the status you choose (Completed by default), and you decide whether offline methods such as bank transfer, cheque or cash on delivery count.
Keeping track
Everything sits on one screen under LearnDash LMS → Certificate Expiry: every student, course, status, expiry date and payment reference. You can filter it, approve or revoke in bulk, grant, extend or revoke one student by hand, and export a CSV for compliance reporting. Admins get a weekly digest email, and an activity log records every grant, renewal, expiry and revocation.
Add the certificate status shortcode or block to a page and students see their own certificates, with a renewal link, so they don’t have to email you to find out where they stand.
What it doesn’t do
- It doesn’t design certificates. It works with the certificates you already build in LearnDash.
- It works at course level only. Lessons, topics and quizzes can’t carry their own expiring certificate.
- It doesn’t track CE or CPD credit hours.
- The QR code isn’t added to the PDF automatically. You place one shortcode in your LearnDash certificate template, once.
- Students who finished a course before you installed it aren’t picked up automatically. Grant them from the Certifications screen.
- Renewing by quiz, or with a signed renewal link, needs the separate Certificate Renewal add-on. Without it, the reminder emails link back to the course.
