Date: October 7, 2026
What a certification tracking template holds
A certification tracking template starts as a spreadsheet. It holds the names, the dates, and a link to the file. That is the useful part. The time goes into the work around the sheet: finding an old version, noticing an expiry, counting who is qualified for a project, and showing who approved a record.
If the sheet is what you have, keep one row per certificate. An employee with a safety card and a trade license needs two rows. One row per person runs out of columns as soon as someone earns a second credential. Store a link to the file. Do not paste the file into the workbook.
What belongs in Excel, and what ProKnack does instead
These are the same jobs, side by side. The Excel column is what a careful sheet can hold. The ProKnack column is what the product does with that job. A past-date lookup is the clearest difference: days in a file, minutes in ProKnack.
| The job | In Excel | In ProKnack |
|---|---|---|
| Keep the certificate | Employee name and ID, certification, issuer, certificate number, issue date, expiry date, department or site, and a link to the file. Note who last updated the row. | One register. The file sits on the record with the dates, the issuer, and the person who holds it. |
| Prove a date six months ago | Days, if an old copy of the file still exists. The sheet shows what it says today. A corrected cell replaces the old value. | Minutes. A point-in-time snapshot shows who was certified on the date you were asked about. |
| Hear about an expiry in time | Someone opens the file and filters. The holder and their manager hear about it only if that person writes to them. | Reminders go to the holder and their manager before the date. |
| See if four people are qualified | Ask the managers, or check the sheet by hand. The gap often shows up when the work is about to start. | Coverage for the project is in one place: who holds the certification, and who does not. |
| Show who approved it | A note in a cell, or a search through old email. A later edit can replace the note. | The approval and every later change stay on the record, with who made each one. |
Where the days go
A tidy sheet is still a file someone has to open. Asking for proof from six months ago is the clearest example. In Excel that is a search through old copies, shared drives, and inboxes, and it often takes days. In ProKnack the same question is a snapshot, and it takes minutes.
The other jobs have the same shape. An expiry stays invisible until someone looks. A project that needs four certified people turns into a round of messages. Who approved a certificate becomes a hunt through mail. None of that is a missing column. It is work the sheet does not do on its own.
See where your hours go
The Certification Tracking Scorecard asks five questions about how you track certifications today. The score runs from 0 to 15. If a lookup takes days, that answer says so, and it names what the same lookup takes in ProKnack.
Take the Certification Tracking Scorecard. It shows where the current setup costs days, and the walkthrough starts from those answers.
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