How to save time issuing certificates: B2B Trainers edition

Let us clarify something first: This article is not for everyone. This reading will only make sense to you (and save you a lot of time!) if you fit the following criteria:  

-  You train the employees of your clients.
-  Getting the list of people who take part in your course is a painful process.  
-  You are issuing certificates with Virtualbadge.io

Ok, you do not need to be using Virtualbadge.io right now, but you will see how that plays into the solution that we prepared for you.  

If your case fits those criteria, here is our suggestion for you:  

Empower your client to upload the list of participants directly into your Virtualbadge.io account.  

By doing this, you do not have to manage any personal information from your course participants, and you can skip all the exhausting email exchange to get all the participant names.

In practice, it means that your clients will be responsible for giving Virtualbadge.io the correct information of the recipients. This will automatically trigger the creation and the sending of their certificates. And of course, you can revoke this access at any time!  

This is done by building an integration between your Virtualbadge.io account and another app that your client can manage (we will use a spreadsheet from Google Sheets for this example).

Getting Started:

What you will need is:

- A Virtualbadge.io account
- A Google Drive account (for the creation of the Google Sheets)
- A Zapier account to build the automation.

Part 1: Create the certificate that you want to issue for this client

This first step is quite simple, and you can easily skip it if you already have an Active certificate inside your account that you would like to use.  

If this is your first time, no worries: You can start 7-day free trial here: https://www.virtualbadge.io/signup

Note: You will need a Pro (or Expert) subscription to access the integration possibilities.

If you need help getting started with your certificate, you can always schedule a chat with our support team here.

When you are creating your certificate, you might find custom fields useful. These are text fields that behave like placeholders. Popular custom fields are {Date_of_Completion} and {Name_of_Course}.

If you choose to add custom fields to your certificate, note that you will need to also map this information from a column in your Google Sheets file when building the automation.

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Part 2: Prepare your Google Sheets file

This is the file that will feed information in each of the certificates that you will issue.  

Since you will share access to this file with your client, you should keep it organized and simple to understand.  

To get started, you can go to your Google Drive account, and create a new Google Sheets file.

Now, just add the headers to your Google Sheets File. You will always need to provide the name of the recipient and the email of the recipient. Besides that, you will also need a separate column for any custom fields that you added to the design of the certificate.

For our example, I will add a column called “Date of Completion” since I have a custom field for {Date_of_completion} inside this certificate.

Smart tip: Add yourself as the first recipient, so you can use your own email to test the automation afterwards.  

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After you created the structure, the Sheet is ready to be used as a trigger in the Zapier automation.  

Part 3: Prepare your Zapier automation!

Now that you have your certificate set to Active, and your list of recipients created in Google Sheets, you are ready to connect those two apps using a Zapier integration!

And the best part: You do not need to be a developer nor have any IT background to set this up.

Just create a free Zapier account and get started!  

Once you have your account, you will create a new Zap using the following instructions:  

Trigger: Choose “Google Sheets” and connect to your Google account.

Simply follow the steps inside Zapier and add the Google Sheet that you previously created as the trigger.  

As event, my personal favorite is “New Spreadsheet Row”. This translates to: As soon as the recipient information is added to a new row in that spreadsheet, the certificate for that recipient will be created and sent from your Virtualbadge.io account.

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Action: Choose the app Virtualbadge.io in Zapier and select your certificate.

Just follow the steps inside Zapier and activate your Zap!

If you want more details on how to get the Zapier integration working, just check out this step-by-step guide!

Attention points:  

Once the connection between your Virtualbadge.io account and the Google Sheet that you created for your client is active, certificates will be created and sent out automatically as soon as new recipients are added to that sheet.  

This also means that your clients will have the possibility to consume certificate credits from your Virtualbadge.io account.  

Because of that, it is essential that you lead a transparent communication with your client before sharing access to the Google Sheets that you created.  

You can also easily track how many recipients were added from this Google Sheets and set a limit to your client (or charge them extra in case they issue more certificates than the amount agreed 😊).

Have fun automating your workflows!

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