# Member qualifications

> Record DBS, PVG, first aid and coaching credentials with award and expiry dates, see what is about to lapse, and use them to control who can book or coach a session.

Canonical: https://www.clubpal.app/docs/membership/member-qualifications
Section: Membership

Qualifications record the certifications, checks and awards your members hold: safeguarding checks such as **DBS Enhanced** or **PVG**, first aid certificates, coaching badges, lifeguard awards, and anything else specific to your sport.

A qualification is a record in its own right, managed at **Admin > Membership > Qualifications**. It carries an award date, an expiry date and a status, which is what lets ClubPal tell you a coach's check has lapsed instead of waiting for somebody to notice.

> **Note**
>
> Qualifications used to be free text typed onto a member's **Edit Profile** page, with no dates attached. They are now records with dates, added from the **Qualifications** card on the member's profile in the Admin area. Members no longer set their own, since a record that carries an expiry date is not something a person should be editing for themselves.

## What qualifications are for

| Use | Where |
|---|---|
| Keep an accurate record of what members are qualified to do | The **Qualifications** card on a member's profile |
| See what is about to lapse across the whole club | The dashboard at **Admin > Membership > Qualifications** |
| Restrict who can book a session | **Required Qualifications** in [Eligibility rules](https://www.clubpal.app/docs/general/eligibility-rules) |
| Restrict who can coach a session | **Coach Eligibility** on the session, see [Coaches](https://www.clubpal.app/docs/sessions/coaches) |

## Defining what your club tracks

Create each qualification once, then assign it to as many members as hold it.

1. Go to **Admin > Membership > Qualifications**.
2. Click **Add Qualification**.
3. Give it a name. The form suggests the common ones, including **DBS Enhanced**, **DBS Basic**, **PVG**, **AccessNI**, **Garda Vetting**, **Working With Children Check** and **SafeSport**, alongside first aid certificates and coaching awards.
4. Set the **warning window**, the number of days before expiry at which this qualification starts warning you.
5. Save.

The warning window is set separately for each qualification, because a safeguarding check and a first aid certificate do not need the same amount of notice.

## Recording a qualification against a member

Open the member at **Admin > Membership > Members** and find the **Qualifications** card on their profile, beside Membership and Payments. Add the qualification, then record its **award date** and its **expiry date**.

Both dates are held against the member rather than against the qualification itself, so two coaches holding the same certificate can have different renewal dates.

If a record arrives without an expiry date, usually from an import, it is kept and shown as **No expiry recorded** rather than being treated as valid.

## Qualification states

ClubPal works out where each record stands from its dates. You do not set the state by hand.

| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Valid** | In date. |
| **Expiring soon** | Inside the warning window you set for that qualification. |
| **Expired** | Past its expiry date. |
| **Renewing** | Expired, with **Renewal in progress** ticked. |
| **No expiry recorded** | No expiry date on the record. |

> **Warning**
>
> **Renewal in progress** is presentation, not permission. Ticking it turns a lapsed certificate amber rather than red so the dashboard stays worth reading, but it does not satisfy an eligibility rule. An expired certificate is expired.

## The qualifications dashboard

**Admin > Membership > Qualifications** opens on everything that is not currently valid, soonest to lapse first, so the thing needing attention is at the top without any filtering.

- Filter by **qualification** to see every holder of one certificate, or by **state** to see only what has expired.
- Export the list to CSV or Excel.

## Renaming and archiving

- **Renaming** a qualification updates every member who holds it at once. Nothing needs re-saving, and eligibility rules that reference it keep working.
- **Archiving** takes a qualification out of the pickers so nothing new is assigned to it, while keeping every existing record intact.

## Using qualifications to restrict booking

Once qualifications are recorded, you can require them of anyone booking a session.

1. Open the session in **Admin > Sessions**.
2. Click **Edit**.
3. Scroll to **Eligibility Rules**.
4. Add a **Required Qualifications** rule.
5. Select one or more qualifications.
6. Save the session.

Members must hold at least one of the selected qualifications, still in date, to book that session.

## Using qualifications to restrict coaching

A session carries a second, separate set of rules covering who may be added to it as a coach. That check runs wherever a coach is added, including a manual add by an administrator, and it is checked against the date of the session rather than today, so a certificate lapsing before a session three months away is refused now while there is still time to renew it.

See [Coaches](https://www.clubpal.app/docs/sessions/coaches) for how to set that up, and for the **Cover** page listing sessions whose coaches are not credentialed.

## See also

- [Coaches](https://www.clubpal.app/docs/sessions/coaches), require credentials of anyone coaching a session and find sessions that lack cover
- [Groups](https://www.clubpal.app/docs/membership/member-groups), organise members into squads and committees, and use them for email targeting, permissions, file sharing and booking restrictions
- [Eligibility rules](https://www.clubpal.app/docs/general/eligibility-rules), restrict who can book or purchase items