Overview
Certifications are only useful if the right people can see who's certified, who's due for renewal, and who has lapsed. This article shows how to build a Certification compliance view for a safety lead, ops manager, or auditor, using the Certifications list, the Competency Overview dashboard widget, the Certification Processes list, and the Mobaro API.
At a glance |
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Who can do this | Super Users, or a Role with Competencies › View (see all Certifications) or Competencies › Administrate (create, edit, and delete; includes View). The Certification Processes list needs Administrate. Without View, a User sees only their own Certifications. |
Where | Competencies › Certifications, Competencies › Certification Processes, and Dashboard (Competency Overview widget) |
Works on | Backend (web), Public API |
Availability | All organizations. Public API: enabled per organization by Mobaro — ask your CSM. |
💡 Why this matters: Certifications nobody reviews don't protect anyone. The point is to say, on demand, who is qualified for a task — and to spot gaps before people show up to work, not after an incident.
Questions a compliance dashboard should answer
Before you build anything, write down the questions and the audience for each. Most operations need some of these:
Who is currently certified for X? — shift planning and audit response.
Who is due for renewal? — renewal date passed, not yet expired. This drives renewals before they become problems.
Who was never certified for a required Competency? — onboarding or transfer gaps.
Who has lapsed? — already expired. The most urgent slice.
How far along is a training programme? — how many Assignees of a Certification Process have completed it.
Audit trail — who was certified, when, and through which Process? Needed for inspections and incident review.
How Certification status is worked out
Every Certification has an expiration date (or Never) and an optional renewal date. Mobaro works out status from those dates, the same way in the Certifications list, a User's Competencies panel, and the Competency Overview widget:
Status | When it applies |
Valid | Never expires, or the expiration date is in the future and any renewal date hasn't passed. |
Due for renewal | The renewal date has passed, but the expiration date hasn't. The User still holds the Competency. |
Expired | The expiration date has passed. The User no longer holds the Competency. |
The renewal date comes from Mark as due for renewal on a manual Certification, or from Mark as due for renewal on the Certification Process that awarded it. A Certification with no renewal date goes straight from Valid to Expired. There's no "expiring in 30 / 60 / 90 days" view — Due for renewal is the early warning, and only Certifications with a renewal date get it.
Where Certification data lives
Certifications list — in the Mobaro Backend, go to Competencies › Certifications. It's the source of truth for records: lookups ("does Dana hold X?"), granting, editing, or deleting manual Certifications, and one User's history. Filter by Competency, User or User Group, or Certification Process. The Expiration column shows each expiry date, with Due for renewal or Expired underneath where that applies, and you can sort by it. Expired Certifications are hidden by default — turn on Include Expired (the clock icon in the filter bar) to see them.
Competency Overview widget — a dashboard widget with Users as rows and Competencies as columns. Cells are green (valid), yellow (due for renewal), red (expired), or grey (no Certification). Hover a cell for status and expiry date; click it to open the matching records in the Certifications list. The widget has two filters, Competencies and Users / User Groups, and shows nothing until you pick at least one User or User Group. It doesn't filter by Location. See Competency Overview Widget.
Certification Processes list — under Competencies › Certification Processes, the Progress column shows how many Assignees of each Process are Completed, hold an Existing certification for the Competency from another source, or are Awaiting completion. Only unexpired Certifications count, so a User whose Certification lapses moves back to Awaiting completion. See Create a Certification Process.
Mobaro API — for exports, BI tools, joining with HR data, and dated snapshots for audit. Each record includes the User, the Competency, when it was awarded, and its expiration and renewal dates. The API also returns expired Certifications. See Getting started with the Mobaro API and the Mobaro API parameter reference.
Report Templates only lay out Checklist result reports; they can't export or schedule Certification data.
Build a compliance dashboard
1. Pick the right widgets
The Competency Overview widget is the workhorse. Every widget you add should answer one of your questions. For basics, see How to use the Dashboard.
2. Scope the filters to an audience
Scope each Competency Overview widget to one audience:
A team lead dashboard shows that team's User Group and only the Competencies their work requires.
A safety leadership dashboard uses one widget per area or department.
A compliance/audit view pairs the widget with the Certifications list, filtered to one Competency.
To build a per-Location view, filter by the User Group that works at that Location.
3. Share with the right audience
Share the dashboard with the team that needs it. For many similar audiences (one per Location, say), use Dashboard Templates — the Competency Overview widget works in templates. See How to set up Dashboard Templates.
⚠️ Heads-up: The Competency Overview widget only shows data to viewers who have Competencies › View (or are Super Users). Its rows are also limited to the Users each viewer is allowed to see.
ℹ️ Note: Dashboards show live data — a Certification that is granted, reaches its renewal date, or expires shows on the next refresh. They keep no history; for point-in-time records, take snapshots through the Mobaro API.
Common reporting patterns
Pre-shift compliance check — for opening managers: is everyone working this area today certified? Filter a Competency Overview widget to the area's User Group and required Competencies, and check it before opening.
Weekly renewal review — for training managers: who needs to retrain? Look for yellow cells in the widget, or sort the Certifications list by Expiration and look for Due for renewal. For a full routine, see Staying ahead of certification expiry.
Hire-cohort tracking — for onboarding leads: which Users hired in the last 30 days hold which required Certifications? Mobaro doesn't segment Users by hire date, so join an API export with HR start dates, or put new starters in their own User Group and filter the widget to it.
⚠️ Heads-up: Mobaro doesn't send expiry or renewal reminders. Give a named person a fixed weekly slot to review Due for renewal and Expired Certifications.
Best practices
Build for questions, not data. Define the questions first, then design the view.
One audience per dashboard. One view for Location leads, leadership, and compliance officers serves none of them well.
Make renewal a leading indicator. Give recurring Certifications a renewal date that leaves time to retrain — without one, the first sign of trouble is Expired.
Give every dashboard an owner. The owner keeps filters current and acts on what it shows.
Avoid the "everything dashboard" — every Competency for every User on one screen is a wall of data nobody acts on.
Pair visibility with action. A dashboard on a break-room TV isn't compliance reporting without a person and a process behind it.
Keep an audit trail. An inspector may ask whether an operator was certified on a past date. Keep periodic API snapshots; the live dashboard can't answer that.
Frequently asked questions
How do I export all users and their competencies to Excel?
There's no export button for Certifications or the Competency Overview widget. Pull the data through the Mobaro API's Certifications endpoint; the API is enabled per organization, so ask your CSM. If HR only needs to look, give them a Role with Competencies › View.
Where do I find the competency matrix or qualification overview?
It's the Competency Overview widget, which you add to a dashboard. Pick at least one User or User Group in its filters, or it shows nothing. See Competency Overview Widget.
Can each manager see only their own team in the Competency Overview?
Yes. Filter each widget's Users / User Groups to that manager's team, and use a separate dashboard per manager, or Dashboard Templates for many similar teams. The widget can't filter by Location, so use the User Group that works there.