Certificate preview and withdrawal
September 2026 · Training courses
A course completion certificate is frozen the moment it is issued — that is the point of it, and it is not changing. What has changed is everything around that moment: you can now see the document before it counts, correct one that went out wrong, and withdraw one entirely without destroying the record.
Why we built it
A school issued two certificates on the same course, a day apart, with consecutive numbers. The first was signed by one account with the position printed blank; the second by a different account, as Head of Training. Nothing about the course or the students had changed between them — the signer setting had been corrected in the meantime, and the first certificate had already frozen the old value.
The first download was the issue. There was no way to look first, and no way to fix it afterwards. A document certifying completion of an approved course, carrying the wrong signatory and a blank position, was permanent in that school's register.
Preview before the number counts
On a completed enrollment, open Manage enrollment and choose Preview certificate.
You get the real document — signer, position, date of birth, licence, hours, regulatory basis, the whole organisation block — watermarked, with no date of issue and a line saying it has no validity.
The student never sees a preview. It does not appear on their training page, and the download is refused to them outright — not merely hidden.
When it is right, press Issue certificate. It keeps the number the preview already reserved, so issuing renumbers nothing.
Distance courses that finish on their own are unaffected. A student who completes without anyone in the office involved still downloads a normal certificate, exactly as before. A preview only exists because a manager asked for one.
A status on every certificate
Trainings → Certificates now shows what state each document is in, with a filter to match.
Preview is waiting to be issued. Live is issued and untouched. Modified was issued and then corrected — it behaves exactly like Live for the student, and the label is there for your staff. Revoked has been withdrawn.
Correcting a certificate that went out wrong
The pencil on a row opens every field the document prints: the student's name, date of birth and licence; the course name, regulatory basis, hours and the three dates; the signer's name and position; the organisation block; and the certificate language.
The number, the sequence and the date of issue stay put — a certificate already in a student's file has to keep them. The certificate becomes Modified, and who changed it and when is on the record. Students download it the same way, under the same number.
Withdrawing, without erasing
Withdrawing asks for a reason and records it with the date and your account. It never deletes the record or the frozen document: the register has to keep showing that the number existed and was withdrawn.
The student loses the download. Your staff keep it, printed like this:
A withdrawn certificate is a closed record, so it can no longer be edited — opening it shows the details read-only, with the reason it was withdrawn.
The QR code tells the truth now
The verification page behind the certificate's QR code used to confirm the number and the completion status and nothing else — so a withdrawn certificate would have gone on verifying as genuine, permanently. It now states the certificate's status, without a login.
A certificate still in Preview shows no number here at all — it has not been issued, so there is nothing to confirm.
Who can do what
Issuing, correcting and withdrawing are company managers only. The register stays readable by instructors (Flight Instructor and above), who can search and download, but see no pencil and no Issue button.
Full detail in Student management, and the endpoints in the Trainings API.
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