Training Expiry & Renewals

How certificate expiry, renewal windows, and re-assignment work after training expires

Overview

Many compliance courses must be retaken periodically — annual GDPR refreshers, fire safety renewals, and similar. TrainMeUK tracks certificate expiry per completion and can automatically open a renewal window before certificates lapse, then re-assign training when they fully expire.

This is separate from due dates (assignment deadlines). Due dates answer "complete this by Friday"; expiry answers "this certificate is valid until next March, then you must recertify." A course can have both.

Concept	What it controls	Guide
Due date / deadline	When an assigned course should be completed (reminders at 7, 3, 1 days)	Course Deadlines & Reminders
Certificate expiry	How long a completion stays valid; renewals and re-assignment	This guide

Note

For deadline reminders and overdue chasing, see Course Deadlines & Reminders.

Enable Expiry on a Course

Turn expiry on when you create or edit a course. You can configure it in either place:

Course Management → Edit Course — expiry settings in the course form under Course Expiry
Course Builder → Course details (publish settings) — same options before you publish to Course Management

Enable course expiry

Check Enable course expiry. Without this, completions never expire and renewals do not run.

Choose expiry type

Pick one of two modes:

Duration-based — certificate expires a set time after each completion (days, weeks, months, or years). Only individual certificates expire; learners can retake the course.
Fixed date — the entire course becomes inactive on a specific calendar date (useful for one-off compliance cut-offs).

Save the course

Save or publish. New completions from that point forward receive an expiresAt date. Existing completions keep their original expiry unless you change rules going forward.

Edit Course form showing the Course Expiry section — Course Expiry — Enable course expiry on Edit Course or Course detailsClick image to enlarge

Tip

Annual compliance is usually configured as duration-based — e.g. 1 year after completion — not a single fixed date for everyone.

Duration vs Fixed Date

Type	How expiry is calculated	Typical use
Duration-based	completedAt + expiry period (e.g. 365 days)	Annual refreshers, rolling recertification per learner
Fixed date	Same calendar date for all completions	Company-wide cut-off ("all staff by 31 March")

Duration-based expiry is what powers the automatic 14-day renewal window described below. Each learner's renewal timing follows their own completion date.

Course Expiry options showing Duration-based and Fixed date — Duration-based vs Fixed date — pick the mode that matches your recertification policyClick image to enlarge

Warning

With fixed-date expiry, the course itself may become inactive on that date. Use duration-based expiry when you need rolling renewals year after year.

The 14-Day Renewal Window

For duration-based expiry, a nightly renewal job finds completions due to expire in about 14 days. For each eligible learner it creates a new progress record:

Status: not_started — the renewal appears on the learner's training dashboard
Original completion stays valid until its existing expiry date — there is no compliance gap while the renewal is in progress
Effective deadline: complete the renewal before the original certificate expires
Next expiry: when the renewal is completed, the new certificate typically extends validity by the same duration (e.g. another year from the previous expiry date)

What learners see

The course reappears in Assigned Training as a fresh not started item. Their completed history still shows the previous pass until it expires. Standard assignment and deadline reminders apply to the renewal like any other assigned course.

Who gets a renewal

The renewal job only creates records when:

The user account is active
The course is still active with expiry enabled
The course is still assigned to the user's groups (or otherwise still mandatory for them)
No duplicate renewal already exists for the same expiry cycle

Tip

Continuous compliance: Starting renewal 14 days early gives learners time to retake training before the old certificate lapses. Complete the renewal before the original expiresAt date to avoid a gap.

Expiring-Soon Notifications (~31 Days)

Separately from the 14-day renewal assignment, TrainMeUK tracks certificates entering an expiring soon state when expiry is within about 31 days.

Learners may receive expiring soon email alerts for courses and external certificates approaching expiry
Dashboard and profile views show yellow "Expires in X days" badges for items within the 31-day window
Alerts within 7 days are treated as urgent in expiry summaries
The system avoids duplicate emails — typically no repeat expiring-soon notification within 7 days of the last one

These notifications remind learners to act; the renewal assignment at 14 days is what actually puts the course back on their required training list.

Course content review / refresh cycle controls on the course form — Content Review / refresh cycle — set periodic content review alongside certificate expiryClick image to enlarge

After Full Expiry: Who Gets Reassigned?

If a certificate fully expires (the learner did not complete renewal in time), a daily expiry job processes the lapsed completion:

The expired completion is archived for audit history
The learner receives an expiry notification email
The system checks current assignment rules — not historical ones from when they first took the course
If they still qualify, a new not_started assignment is created automatically

Reassignment rules

Situation	What happens
Mandatory course	Reassigned automatically if user is active
Default for new starters	Reassigned automatically if user is active
Assigned via group rules	Reassigned if user is still in the assigned group(s)
Optional / catalog-only course	Not auto-reassigned — appears in catalog for self-enrol
User no longer in assigned groups	Not reassigned — may self-enrol from catalog
Inactive / archived user	Skipped entirely — no emails or reassignment

Note

Mandatory courses and group-assigned compliance training use the same assignment engine as initial enrolment. See Mandatory Training and Group Training Assignment.

Certificates and Audit History

When training expires or is renewed, previous completions are not deleted:

Learners can still download certificates for past valid completions from their profile (proof of training at the time)
Expired completions move to an archive table for compliance reporting and audits
Completing a renewal updates the renewal record — the original completed record stays intact until it expires

Tip

For audits, you can show both the historical certificate and the current renewal status in reports and team dashboards.

External Certificates and Session Attendance

External certificates

Assigned external certificate requirements (uploaded evidence such as CSCS cards or first-aid certificates) have their own validTo dates. They appear in the same expiring-soon alerts within ~31 days and receive expiry notifications when they lapse. Renewal is handled by the learner uploading updated evidence — not by the SCORM renewal job. See External Certificates.

Session attendance

Classroom or calendar sessions can optionally carry expiry (e.g. a practical assessment valid for two years). When a session is linked to a course with expiry enabled, attendance may inherit that course's expiry rules. Session-level expiry is configured separately in Calendar Management. See Session Attendance for attendance tracking.

Typical Timeline (Duration-Based)

When	What happens
Completion day	Certificate valid until completedAt + expiry period (e.g. 1 year)
~31 days before expiry	Expiring-soon alerts and dashboard badges may appear
~14 days before expiry	Renewal not_started assignment created if user still qualifies
Before expiry date	Learner completes renewal — no compliance gap
On expiry date (if not renewed)	Certificate expires; reassignment if rules still match

Admin Checklist

☐ Expiry enabled on each course that requires periodic recertification
☐ Duration matches your policy (e.g. 365 days for annual training)
☐ Course assigned via mandatory flag or group rules so renewals reach the right people
☐ Email notifications enabled for learners (and Teams if configured)
☐ Managers monitor team dashboards for expiring-soon and overdue renewals

Troubleshooting

Renewal did not appear 14 days before expiry

Confirm expiry is enabled and duration-based (not past a fixed cut-off)
Check the user is active and still in assigned groups
Verify the original completion status is completed or passed with an expiresAt date
Allow overnight for the renewal job to run

Learner completed renewal but still shows expired

Refresh the dashboard — cache clears within a few minutes
Confirm they completed the renewal assignment, not only viewed the old certificate
Check for multiple progress records in reports

Confusing expiry with due dates

Due dates chase incomplete assignments; expiry governs how long a completed certificate stays valid. See Course Deadlines & Reminders for reminder timelines.

Inactive user still listed as non-compliant

Archived or inactive users are excluded from renewal and reassignment jobs. Reactivate the account or adjust reports to filter inactive users.

Related Guides

Due Dates vs Training Expiry — Choose deadlines vs renewals (or both)
Course Deadlines & Reminders — Due dates (not certificate expiry)
Mandatory Training — Required courses and reassignment rules
Assigning Courses — Initial assignment to groups and individuals
Team Dashboard — Monitor expiring and overdue training
External Certificates — Uploaded evidence expiry