Credential expiry register template (free spreadsheet)

A credential expiry register is a spreadsheet that lists every worker, every credential they are required to hold, and the date each one expires. It gives you one place to look instead of a folder of card photos and a memory of who said their forklift ticket was fine. The file is below, along with what each column is for and how to run the sheet each week.

What is a credential expiry register for?

A credential expiry register is for catching an expiry before it becomes a lapse. Most employers already know which credentials their people need. What they lack is a single view of when each one runs out, so the first warning is a site supervisor asking why a worker's card is out of date.

The register exists to answer, on demand, who is current, who is inside their lead time, who has already lapsed, and who has a gap with no document behind it. If you can answer that in under a minute on any given day, the register is doing its job.

It does not tell you whether you are compliant. That determination belongs to the regulator and to you as the employer. The register tells you what documents you hold and when they expire, which is the information you need to make that call.

What columns does the template include, and why?

The template has sixteen columns, which is more than most people expect. Each one is there because leaving it out causes a specific failure, and only one (credential number) is optional.

• Worker ID and Worker name. Two workers with the same name is common on larger crews. The ID keeps rows distinct.
• Role. Tells you which requirements apply. A CDL medical card matters for a driver, not for the office.
• Location or crew. Lets you filter the register for one site or one supervisor.
• Credential type. The specific credential, written the same way every time. "OSHA 30" and "OSHA 30-hour" should not both appear.
• Issuing body. Who issued it, so you know where a renewal comes from.
• Credential number. Optional, but useful when two cards for the same worker look alike.
• Issue date and Expiry date. The expiry date is the whole point. The issue date lets you sanity-check a renewal period that looks wrong.
• Days until expiry. A formula: expiry date minus today. Sort on this column every week.
• Reminder lead days. How far ahead you want to start acting on this credential. A CPR renewal might need 30 days; an OSHA 30 refresher might need 90.
• Status. Current, Expiring soon, Expired, or Missing. Set by the lead days, not by feel.
• Document on file. Yes or No. If the answer is No, the date in that row came from someone's memory or a text message, and you should treat it as unconfirmed.
• Owner. The person responsible for chasing this renewal. In practice a row with nobody's name on it sits until something goes wrong.
• Last checked. When someone last confirmed this row against the actual document.
• Notes. Renewal booked, course date, worker on leave, anything the next reader needs.

How do you use the register each week?

Pick one day, open the register, sort by days until expiry, and work down the list until the days-until-expiry value is larger than the lead days. Every row above that line needs an action, a note, or both.

For each row inside its lead time, do one of three things. Confirm a renewal is booked and write the date in Notes. Contact the worker and ask for the new document. Or escalate to the worker's supervisor if you have already asked twice. Update Last checked on every row you touched.

Once a month, do a second pass on the rows marked Missing or with Document on file set to No. Those are the rows where the register is guessing.

Where does a spreadsheet stop working?

A spreadsheet stops working at the point where you can no longer trust the dates in it. That usually happens for one of four reasons: too many workers to check by hand each week, several people editing the sheet with no record of who changed what, documents that live in an inbox rather than next to the row they belong to, or renewals that are not one document at all but a sequence of training stages or a running total of hours.

If that is where you are, CertFleet is the software version of this register. Workers upload documents through a one-time magic link with no login, OCR pre-fills the expiry date for an admin to review, reminders go out by email and SMS on lead times you set, and every change is in an audit log. CertFleet tracks compliance status from the documents you collect; it does not guarantee compliance. There is a 14-day free trial with no card required if you want to compare it with the sheet.

Related reading: the employee certification tracking pillar covers the broader routine, and the certification tracking spreadsheet guide goes deeper on running this kind of sheet before you outgrow it.