The ultimate guide: How to create and issue a certificate
Qualifications, origin, authenticity, quality of materials, food - all of those things have one thing in common: certification. Certifying things is proof that they meet industry-level standards. Schools, universities, HR professionals, quality managers, auditors, and accreditation entities look for certificates that validate the information of a person’s or business’s claims.
Issuing certificates can be a challenging task - especially when there’s no unified system to do so. The process from creating a certificate to delivering can be very fragmented. Often certificates are created in Word, exported to PDF, printed, signed, scanned, sent via email or post and archived… Well - we all know the mess with loads of documents, right? If you want to save time, money, and frustration - this step by step guide to certificate making is for you!
Before we dive in, make sure to get familiarized with our How to Start Certification Process Digitization in My Company? blogpost.
Digital certificates, an overview
In this guide, you will learn how to create professional-looking certificates and easily issue them to your recipients, all while ensuring their authenticity and security. Essentially, there are three steps:
- Pick a certificate template or certificate design.
- Fill out information and recipients.
- Send!
What you aren’t aware of is how the system takes that certificate and secures it with blockchain technology, making it verifiable online and immutable. Nonetheless, we’d like to introduce you to all the features that can even further speed up the process of issuance for you!
How to create a certificate template
- If you already have a certificate template that you use, that's great - simply inform us and our team will implement it in your workspace. You will be able to define the changeable fields that you want to be filled out for each certificate separately.
- If you don’t have a template but would like to start issuing certificates at DoxyChain - we can provide you with sample templates that can be tailored to your business.
- Requesting a new template from the DoxyChain team. Our product team would be happy to help you with designing a perfect certificate template.
- Another pro tip. Would be using Canva or Vista or online free design platforms.
How to issue a certificate quickly and safely
Time spent on issuing certificates can add up. Sometimes, some certifiers spend a couple of hundred hours per month! Not only is this process time-consuming but often inefficient and not secure. DoxyChain solves all of that by offering a one stop shop SaaS solution for certificates. See below how simple is it:
Step1: Sign up for a DoxyChain account
To get started, sign up for a DoxyChain account. You’ll only need to put in your email address.
Simple so far, right? After that, activate your account using the link provided in the email.
We care deeply about the security of your documents, which is why we use a two-factor registration process. After providing a phone number you’ll receive a code that will log you into the platform.
Step 2: Issuing your certificates
To speed up the process we enable issuing multiple certificates at the same time.
There are three ways to do so: you can issue an individual certificate (slowest), you can upload a .csv file (quicker), or ask our team to connect our system to your API (quickest).
You simply add a document to your workspace.
If you are laser-focused on optimizing this process and chose a .csv file or connection to your API - you can skip steps 3 and 4.
Step 3: Fill out all necessary fields and add documentation
Depending on your certificate - you will be asked to fill out the necessary fields. For instance: the name of the recipient, score / reference number / qualification etc. Our simple UI makes it easy for you to see which fields will change after a certificate is issued.
If you want to attach more documents, like reports or photos to the certificate - attach them by simple drag-and-drop or by choosing files from your computer.
Step 4: Pick recipients and roles
Now that you have your certificate ready - the only thing is to share it with the respective users! Type in their email address and that’s it! If you need it to be electronically signed we got you covered! DoxyChain electronic signature is legally binding and will be proof of the certificate's validity.
Don’t forget, you can also add viewers, auditors, and editors to any document - follow the same steps as previously - type email addresses in designated fields and choose roles.
They will receive an email notification once the certificate is issued and stored.
Step 5: Pick certificate attributes like transferability and public or private view
Do you want this certificate to be visible to anyone who checks it? Enable public view by switching on this feature. If the certificate is meant to be transferred from one entity to another, you can simply switch this option on.
Step 6: Issue the certificate
And voila! It is that simple.
BONUS STEP 1: electronically sign your certificate
Just click “Sign this document” to make the certificate valid.
BONUS STEP 2: real-time validity checking
As you can see - your certificate has a QR code. Go ahead and scan it. You will be redirected to the DoxyChain Explorer, where you can see in real-time if a certificate is valid, who issued it, and what actions were performed on the document. DoxyChain also offers white-label explorers.
We love issuing certificates!
Are you convinced that DoxyChain is something that’d make your life easier with a simple, efficient, and secure way to create and issue certificates? With our platform, you can create professional-looking certificates, issue them quickly and easily, and ensure their authenticity and security. So why wait? Sign up for a DoxyChain account today and start creating and issuing certificates like a pro! Need a demo? Have questions? Our sales team would love to help you out. Book a demo!