How certificate data gets into Certly, and how status comes out
Certificates reach Certly as documents with dates on them: uploaded by your QA team against a supplier and a certificate type, or uploaded by the supplier through a single-use link that expires. Status comes back out as one screen showing every required certificate as current, expiring soon, expired or missing, plus a PDF export built for an auditor to read.
The path a certificate takes
Certificate data reaches Certly as documents with dates, not as a feed from another system. There are two routes in: your QA team uploads a file against a supplier and a certificate type, or the supplier uploads it themselves through a single-use link that expires, with no account to create at their end. The supplier list those documents hang off is built in Certly, one supplier at a time, with contact details and the certificate types you require from that supplier, such as an allergen declaration, a CoA or an audit certificate. Nothing reads your vendor master, so Certly holds only the suppliers whose certificates you actually track rather than every purchase ledger account.
What comes back out is status. From the issue and expiry dates recorded on each document, Certly works out whether every required certificate is current, expiring soon, expired or missing, raises alerts at 90, 60 and 30 days before expiry, and emails the supplier contact a chase with a one-click upload link when a certificate is approaching expiry or already lapsed. Every send is logged. The whole picture sits on one screen for the plant and exports as a PDF.
Certly tracks and reminds on certificate expiry. It does not verify that a certificate is authentic and it does not guarantee regulatory compliance, and that boundary has a page of its own in this section.
From a supplier record to an audit PDF
- Add the supplier and the types you require
Supplier name, the contact who sends you documents, and the certificate types you require from them. The required types are what create the empty slots Certly then tracks, so a supplier you need three documents from reads as three rows.
- Load the certificates you already hold
Your QA team uploads each document against a supplier and a certificate type, with its issue and expiry dates. That is how a back catalogue sitting in a shared mailbox becomes a set of dated records with a status attached.
- Let the supplier send the next one
Certly emails the supplier contact a single-use link that expires, so there is no account for them to create and no password for them to forget. How those links are issued and when they stop working is covered on its own page.
- Watch the dates instead of the inbox
Alert thresholds are configured at 90, 60 and 30 days before expiry, per certificate type or as a plant-wide default, and the chase sequence follows them. Each chase is logged with its delivery result rather than assumed delivered.
- Hand the auditor one file
The single-screen status view exports as a PDF covering each supplier and each required certificate type, with the same status labels and badges as the screen, and the two-sentence note that Certly tracks and reminds rather than verifies.
Questions
Where does Certly's supplier list come from?
You build it in Certly: add each supplier with its contact details and the certificate types you require from it, and edit or list them from there. It does not read an approved supplier list out of a vendor master, so a supplier approved elsewhere appears in Certly once someone adds it. In practice the list is set up once and then maintained as suppliers come and go, and it only needs the suppliers whose certificates you hold.
How does a certificate document actually get in?
Two ways. Your QA team uploads a file and ties it to a supplier and a certificate type, with its issue and expiry dates, which is the route for the documents you already hold. Or the supplier uploads it themselves through a single-use, expiring signed link sent by email, with no login to create on their side. Which file types are accepted, and what happens to a large scan, is set out on its own page in this section.
What happens once an expiry date is recorded?
The date is what drives everything afterwards. Certly compares it against your alert thresholds, which are configurable at 90, 60 and 30 days before expiry per certificate type or as a plant-wide default, and moves the certificate between current, expiring soon, expired and missing. When a certificate is approaching expiry or has lapsed, an automated chase email goes to the supplier contact with a one-click upload link. Each send is written to the chase log so you can see what went out and when.
How does status come back out for an auditor?
Through the PDF export of the status dashboard: one file covering every supplier and every required certificate type, each row reading current, expiring soon, expired or missing. The badges, labels and colours in the PDF match the ones on screen, so the auditor and the QA manager are reading the same thing. The export carries the two-sentence note that Certly tracks and reminds on certificate expiry and does not verify authenticity or guarantee compliance. Filing that export in your document control system is a manual step you take when you want a dated record of the check.
Can I chase a supplier straight away instead of waiting for a threshold?
Yes. Each supplier row on the dashboard and each certificate on the supplier's own page carries a chase-now action that sends a one-off chase email immediately, using the same template as the automated sequence and logged as a manual send. The chase log then shows that entry with its delivery result, sent, failed or opened, rather than assuming it arrived. A failed send shows a distinct badge and a resend action next to it.
What happens to the certificate a renewal replaces?
It is kept. Certly stores certificate documents with their issue and expiry dates, including the versions a renewal supersedes, because an auditor can ask which declaration was valid on a date months ago. Expired certificates and the chase history are kept too while the account is open. Archiving a supplier keeps its records and stops its reminders.
Which outside services are involved in moving this data?
Three, and they are declared. Amazon Web Services hosts the application and its Postgres database, and uploaded certificate documents sit in that database rather than in a shared file store. Stripe takes card payments and manages subscriptions, with subscription status mirrored back so the product knows which plan a site is on; card numbers never reach Certly's servers. Resend delivers the chase and upload-link emails to supplier contacts and reports delivery and opens back, which is what lets the chase log show what was actually sent. Where all of it is stored is covered on the data storage page in this section.
Who can see the data once it is in?
Certly is scoped to a single plant per tenant, and every supplier and certificate query filters by the signed-in user's plant, so one plant's suppliers, documents and chase history are not readable from another. People sign in with an email address and a password. How that isolation is enforced has its own page in this section, as does sign-in.