If you have specific certificate requirements that aren't covered by our built in Thinkific Certificates, you can also install our Accredible app to issue certificates upon course completion.
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In this article:
Sign up for an Accredible Account
Connect Your Accredible Account
Create and Manage Certificate Designs
IMPORTANT: If you have used Accredible with Thinkific before July 31, 2020 and currently see an email/password listed in your Thinkific integrations page, please contact Support for special instructions.
Sign up for an Accredible Account
To get started, you'll need to sign up for an Accredible account. You can check out their pricing plans and sign up here: Accredible Pricing.
Copy Accredible API Key
Once you have signed up for Accredible, you can copy your Accredible API key:
- In Accredible, open the account menu on the top right and go to Settings
- Select API & Integrations
- Expand the </> API section
- Make sure Automatically publish Credentials created via the API is turned on. If you see the green checkmark, it is currently on. If you don't see a green checkmark, simply click the checkbox until you see a checkmark and click Save.
- Click copy text to copy your Accredible API Key (This is a secret key, make sure to never share this publicly)
Install the App in Thinkific
Once you have your Accredible API key, you need to install the app in Thinkific:
- Locate Accredible in the Thinkific App Store
- Click to Install the app
- This will return you to your Thinkific Apps page — locate Accredible and click Configure
- Under Your Accredible credentials, paste your Accredible API key in the API key field
- Click Save
And that's it! Your Accredible account is now connected and you can start setting up your certificates.
Create and Manage Certificate Designs
All of your certificates will be designed within Accredible. To create a new certificate design, click on the Designs button on the main Accredible dashboard, then select Create Certificate Design.
For more tips on creating your certificate design, check out Accredible's in-depth help page.
Available Attributes
When you're designing your certificate in Accredible, you can use Attributes to dynamically pull in information from Thinkific onto your certificate. Provided below is a list of the Attributes that you can use through our app and what they correspond with on your Thinkific site or Accredible account. Any attributes not listed below will not pull in any information.
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Attribute
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Thinkific
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Accredible
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issuer.name
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By default, it is set as your Thinkific Site Name.
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To change this, go to:
Settings > Branding > Organization Name
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group.course_name
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By default, this field corresponds to the Award Name set in the Group Settings on Accredible.
To enable this attribute to dynamically pull course names from Thinkific, ensure you have API enabled for your Group (see below).
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Group Settings > Information and Appearance > Award Name
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group.course_description
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This attribute is no longer available with our Accredible integration and should not be used on your certificate design unless you have manually filled out the Award Description in the Group Settings on Accredible.
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Group Settings > Information and Appearance > Award Description
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credential.id or credential.license_id
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N/A
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Assigned automatically by Accredible for each new credential issued
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credential.expired_on
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Course Builder > Settings > Completion Certificates > Add Certificate Expiry
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N/A
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credential.url
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N/A
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Direct URL from Accredible to access the issued certificate
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recipient.id
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N/A
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Assigned automatically by Accredible for each new recipient on your account
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recipient.name
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Student Name
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N/A
Student's can submit a request to update their name on a certificate that has already been issued by following the instructions here.
For Site Owners, you can read more about managing name change requests here or manually update the certificate for your student by following the instructions here.
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recipient.email
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Student Email
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N/A
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Custom Attributes
If you're issuing completion certificates to students who require additional information on the certificate, like their phone number or a license number, you can do this with our built-in Accredible integration.
What you'll need to do is make sure you've set up a custom sign up field for when your students register to indicate the information you want to include on the certificate.
Afterward, if you'd like to use the custom attribute, click on the Attribute button and select Managing Attributes, and then Add Custom Attribute.
Make sure you input the Attribute Name exactly as how you've named your custom sign-up field in Thinkific and that the Attribute Type is left as "Text" and press Save. Once you've saved the attribute, if you go into your certificate designs, you'll be able to select your newly created custom attribute from the dropdown list of attributes available and add it to your completion certificates now! 
Create and Manage Certificate Groups
Once you've created your certificate design, you'll need to set up a new Group in Accredible to connect the certificate with your courses in Thinkific. To do so, click on the Groups button to see the current Groups you have on your Accredible account.
From there, click on the Create Group button.
Fill out the required fields in the Add a Credential Group section. Take a look at the Certificate Design section for more details on what each of these fields corresponds with.
- Award Name
- Group Identifier
- Award Description
- Award Website
The Group Identifier field is what will show up on your Thinkific site when you add a certificate to a course, so make sure to name your group clearly so that you can easily identify it!
The Group Name and Group Identifier must be unique and do not use accented characters/letters or your students will receive an error when trying to generate a certificate.
Afterward, select a certificate design for the new Group that you have created. You can either Create a Certificate if you want to make a new certificate design, or you can Select a different Template which will allow you to select a certificate design that you have already made and then Save your changes.
Next, in the Group Settings, scroll down to the API Settings section and toggle on the Create Credentials in this Group using the Accredible API option.
Using the Same Certificate Design for Multiple Courses
If you would like to use the same certificate design for multiple courses, you can easily do this by using Accredible's API. In the Group Settings under Advanced Settings, scroll down to the API Settings section and toggle on the Create these credentials via API option.
If you had previously filled in the Award Name and Award Description field, you'll also see an option to Reset Group Course Name And Description. You'll want to click this button and then Save your changes. This will set the Award Name and Award Description fields to blank.
Once you have the API enabled, you can use the group.course_name attribute on your certificate design to pull in the corresponding course name from Thinkific to the certificate.
Enabling the API setting will not pull in information for the Award Description in your Group so you will want to ensure if you have API enabled in the Group, to not use the group.course_description attribute.
Afterward, make sure you also enable in the Group settings, the option Allow Duplicates:
Enable Certificates for a Course
- Go to Products
- Select Courses
- Click on the course you want to edit
- Select the Settings tab
- Select Progress and completion on the left menu
- Under Course completion, make sure Completion certificates is checked off
- Select Accredible
- Under Certificate, choose your certificate template using the drop-down menu. The names populated in the list will correspond with the names of the Groups (Group identifier) you created in Accredible.
- Optional: Check off Certificate expiration and adjust settings as desired (see details below)
- Click Save settings
Certificate Expiry
You can also choose to set an expiry date for your certificates. This option is great if you're running training where the student needs to retake the course after a particular date or period of time.
After the expiry date, certificates will still be available to students for viewing or downloading, but there will be a notice to say that the credential has expired.
If you would like the expiry date to appear directly on each certificate, you may add the [credential.expired_on] Attribute to the Certificate Design in your Accredible account (more info on accessing your Accredible account below).
Custom Completion Pages/ Custom Completion Emails
- {% certificate_available %} — text inside this variable will only appear if there is a certificate available for this course.*
- {{certificate_link}} — will supply user with link to completion certificate.
{% if certificate_available %} Here's your certificate! {{certificate_link}} {% endif %}
More on Course Completion Emails.
How Certificates are Issued
After a student completes the course, the certificate is automatically generated and your student can click Get Your Certificate to view it. They can also access it by going to My Account > Credentials when they are logged in.
More on downloading and printing certificates.
Frequently Asked Questions
I am currently using Accredible's emails to send out emails, but I'd like to use Thinkific email instead. What should I do?
You can disable Accredible's email notifications. This would mean that students do not receive an email from Accredible upon earning the certificate.
Generally speaking, we would recommend you deploy the certificates through Thinkific so that you can customize the email template with your branding.
Why are my students receiving reminder emails from Accredible to download their certificate?
Accredible can send reminder emails to students who have not downloaded their certificates. This email is not customizable at this time.
If you would prefer for students to stop receiving these emails, you can disable the reminder email. This would mean that students do not receive a reminder email from Accredible if they have not engaged with their published certificate.
My student received the error "IssueCertificate: Unable to issue certificate for ########. Errors: #
This error will look something like this when a student attempts to access their certificate:
This error can occur for 3 different reasons:
- It can occur when duplicate certificates are not enabled within your Accredible Group. Make sure that duplicates are allowed. You can see how to update that setting here: Can I Allow Duplicate Credentials in a Group?
- If the Group Name and Group Identifier are the same name. Make sure these are unique if your students are seeing this error.
- It can also occur if the original certificate was removed or if certificates were turned off for the course.
What happens if I delete a certificate in Accredible?
It is possible to delete issued certificates directly from Accredible from the Credentials page:
If you delete a certificate, your student will see a 404 error when attempting to access it. They will no longer be able to view or download the certificate:
Please note that you cannot reissue a certificate from the same course after it has been deleted. If the certificate was originally generated by mistake and you would like to issue a new certificate at a later date for the same student, you have 2 options:
- You can manually create a certificate in Accredible
- Create a "Certificate course" for this particular student to complete. For example, you can create a Private course with a single lesson that is linked to a certificate. You can then enroll your student into this "Certificate course" in order for them to complete the lesson and generate their certificate.
Can I use the same Accredible API key for multiple Thinkific sites?
Yes, you can use the same Accredible API key for multiple Thinkific sites.
What happens if the Group Identifier is updated in my Accredible account?
If your Group Identifier has been updated within Accredible, you will need to go to the course that is linked to the original group, then link the course to the updated Group Identifier.
Are there any alternatives to Accredible?
If you are interested in exploring your certificate options beyond Accredible, check out Sertifier in the Thinkific App Store. Sertifier allows you to send custom, personalized certificates, and badges to your students on autopilot.