Correcting or withdrawing a certificate

A certificate is a signed document. Once it is signed, nothing in it can change without breaking the signature, and that is what makes it worth checking. So there is no edit button for a certificate you issued. Until the learner claims it, you correct it by sending the corrected row; after that, you can revoke it, which withdraws it for good.

Check before you send

Most mistakes are cheapest to catch in the table, before Issue and send codes:

• The Full name is exactly how the learner's name should read on the certificate.
• The E-mail is an address the learner will actually read. They claim with a code sent there.
• The Certificate name matches what you awarded.
• The Expires date, if any, is right.

If you issued one with a mistake

The learner has not claimed it yet. Fix the row in the table and send it again. certo recognises the same learner by the e-mail address on the row (or the name and date of birth, when you gave one) and the same certificate by its Reference, or by its name when there is no reference. The row then shows Corrected:

• the corrected certificate replaces the first one on the same passport, and the first one is withdrawn
• the link in the first e-mail stops working, and the learner gets a new e-mail saying it replaces it
• it costs nothing, as issuing does

The learner has claimed it. The certificate is theirs, so a batch never changes it: the row shows Already claimed and nothing happens. Write to us at support@certo.bio. Say which learner (the e-mail address on the row), which certificate, and what is wrong. We will tell you what can be done.

If a certificate should not exist

Revoke it yourself. On Issuing, under the learner's invitation, choose Revoke certificate and say why. An owner, admin or issuer of your organisation can do it; a recruiter cannot.

Withdrawing a certificate is called revoking it, and revocation is permanent. It cannot be undone, and a revoked certificate is never brought back. Once revoked:

• Its own page says This certificate was revoked, with the date, that you revoked it, and tells the reader not to rely on it. Your reason is never shown there.
• Anyone checking it against certo's status list sees it as revoked.
• The learner is e-mailed your reason, and the certificate reads as Claimed on their passport.
• A copy somebody already downloaded or printed still exists, but it no longer verifies as current.

To replace a certificate with a corrected one, write to us first, as above.

The learner's name changed

That is not a mistake. A certificate keeps the name it was issued under, by design. If the learner later checks their identity under a different name, your certificate still shows the name you gave, and a reader can ask the certificate's page whether a name on a document matches. Nothing needs to be reissued.

When the learner removes or erases

The learner owns their passport. If they remove your certificate from it, the line disappears from their passport, but the certificate itself keeps verifying.

If a learner erases their whole certo account, their certificates are revoked. The certificate's page then says the person erased their passport. certo keeps no copy of it and no name.