How to keep track of staff certificate and WWCC expiry dates

Expired paperwork rarely fails loudly. A licence lapses, a first aid certificate quietly runs out, a Working with Children Check expires — and you only find out at the worst possible moment. Here's a simple, repeatable way for a small team to stay ahead of it.

1. Put every document in one place

The first problem is that proof lives everywhere: a filing cabinet, someone's inbox, a photo on a phone, a shared drive nobody updates. You can't track what you can't see. Start by listing every document your business relies on — licences, public liability and workers compensation insurance, Working with Children Checks, police checks, first aid and CPR, trade tickets, qualifications — and who each one belongs to.

2. Record the one date that matters: expiry

For each document, the single most important field is the expiry date. Capture it once, accurately, from the certificate itself. This is the data that lets you answer the only question that counts before work starts: is this still valid?A document without an expiry date is a document you'll forget about.

3. Give yourself a warning window, not a deadline

A reminder on the day something expires is already too late — renewals take time. Set warnings well ahead: 90, 60, 30 and 7 days out. That way a lapsing WWCC or insurance policy becomes a task you plan for, not an emergency you discover. The goal is to never be surprised.

4. Let people bring their own proof

Chasing staff for certificates by email is where most systems break down. It's far easier to send each person a secure link and let them upload their own current certificate from their phone. You get the latest version, tied to the right person, without the back-and-forth — and without documents sitting in an inbox.

5. Keep it shareable

Being ready isn't just knowing your documents are valid — it's being able to prove it quickly. When a customer, builder, council or assessor asks, you want to hand over a clean bundle of current evidence in seconds, not spend an afternoon assembling it. Keep your proof in a form you can share on demand, and revoke when you're done.

A spreadsheet works — until it doesn't

Plenty of small teams start with a spreadsheet, and for a handful of documents that's fine. It falls over when the reminders depend on someone remembering to look, when files live somewhere else, and when you need to prove everything at once. That's the gap Validly is built for: every document and expiry in one place, reminders that chase themselves, staff uploading their own proof, and a share-ready proof pack when someone asks.