To track technician license expirations, keep one list with a row for every credential each technician holds: what it is, who issued it, when it expires and what renewal takes. Send a reminder to the technician and office at least 30 days out, and again a week out. Then connect the list to dispatch, so a license that's run out stops getting that technician sent to work that needs it.
The first two parts are easy. The third is where most shops get caught. Here's how to set up all three.
Why it keeps going wrong
You probably already have a list. Maybe it's a spreadsheet, maybe it's a calendar, maybe it's a folder of scanned cards. The trouble isn't that nobody wrote the dates down. It's that:
- Nobody looks at the list when it matters. It gets checked when things are quiet, and licenses don't only expire when things are quiet.
- The reminder goes to one person. If that person is out, or leaves, the reminder goes nowhere.
- The technician doesn't hear about it. The person who has to do the continuing education finds out last.
- Dispatch doesn't know. The board keeps sending the technician to the same work the day after the license runs out.
Step 1: Decide what to record
For every technician, list every credential that matters for the work you send them to. For each one, record:
- The credential, written the way the card says it (Journeyman Electrician, NICET Fire Alarm Systems Level II, NATE core and specialty)
- Who issued it (the state board, NICET, NATE, your state's pesticide agency)
- Where it's valid, for state licenses, if you work across state lines
- The expiry date, taken from the card or board lookup, never from memory
- What renewal takes (a fee, continuing education hours, points, an exam)
Some credentials don't expire. EPA Section 608 certification is the common one: the EPA says 608 credentials do not expire. Record that the technician holds it, and leave the date blank. Our guide to which trade certifications expire covers the usual ones.
Keep license numbers somewhere secure. A shared spreadsheet the whole office can open is not the place for anything you wouldn't put on a whiteboard.
Step 2: Pick one place, and make it the only place
The options, honestly:
A spreadsheet. Free and flexible. Add a "days left" column (the expiry date minus today) and color anything under 60 days. It works as long as someone opens it every week. It doesn't send reminders on its own, and it doesn't know who's on tomorrow's schedule.
A shared calendar. Each expiry becomes an event with a reminder. Better than a spreadsheet for alerts, but the events belong to whoever created them, and they're hard to review as a list.
A document-reminder or HR tool. Good at reminders and at storing copies of certificates. It's one more system to keep up to date, and it doesn't talk to your dispatch board.
Your field service software. If the credential is already a skill on the technician's profile, the expiry date can live on the same record that dispatch uses. That's the only option where a lapsed license changes who gets sent.
Whichever you pick, make it the single source. Two lists will disagree within a month.
Step 3: Set the reminder schedule
A good default is four reminders:
- 30 days out. Enough time for most fee-and-paperwork renewals and short continuing education requirements.
- 7 days out. The "is this done?" check.
- On the day. If it isn't done, the office needs to know today, not next week.
- Once after. Someone confirms the license was renewed, or that the technician is off that work until it is.
For credentials with a big requirement, 30 days is too late to start. NICET asks for 90 points every three years, and NATE asks for 16 hours of continuing education every two years. Add an earlier check for those, six months to a year out.
If you're sticking with a spreadsheet, use these columns: Technician, Credential, Issued by, State (for licenses), Expiry date, Days left, Renewal requirement, Owner of the renewal, Date confirmed renewed. Sort by "Days left" every Monday. Anything under 60 days gets a name next to it and a next step.
Step 4: Remind the right people
Send every reminder to three people:
- The technician. They're the one who has to do the course, pay the fee or book the exam.
- The office manager or dispatcher. They're the one who has to plan around it.
- The owner. When a license lapses, it's the owner's name on the contract.
A reminder that only reaches the office turns into the office chasing the technician. A reminder that only reaches the technician turns into the office finding out afterwards.
Step 5: Close the loop when it's renewed
When the renewal comes through, get the new card or board lookup, and update the expiry date in your one place. Don't mark it "renewed" without the new date. The new date is what starts the next round of reminders.
If your state lets people renew late for an extra fee (Texas does for journeyman electrician licenses, up to a point, per TDLR), don't treat "they'll renew late" as renewed. Until the new date is on your list, treat the license as expired.
Step 6: Connect it to dispatch
This is the step a spreadsheet can't do. When a license runs out, whoever builds tomorrow's schedule has to remember to stop sending that technician to the work that needs it. On a busy Monday at 6:40 AM, with two people out sick, that's the kind of thing that gets missed.
The fix is to make the expiry date part of the rule that decides who's qualified. Then nobody has to remember.
How to set it up in FSM Navigator
FSM Navigator is one app from first booking to renewals: quotes, dispatch, jobs, invoices and service agreements all work from the same records. A technician's certifications are skills on their profile, and auto-assignment already uses skills to decide who's qualified. To add an expiry date:
- Open the technician's profile in the web dashboard.
- Find the skill for the certification or license.
- Select Expiry, pick the date and save. Owners and Managers can do this for anyone except themselves, so nobody can extend their own date.
From then on, a daily check emails reminders 30 days before, 7 days before, on the expiry date, and once more just after it expires. Owners and Managers get one summary for the whole team, and each technician gets a note about their own certifications. The certification still counts on its expiry day. From the next day, in your company's time zone, auto-assignment stops treating that skill as qualifying the technician. When you enter the renewal date, they qualify again and the reminders start over for the new date.
The Certification Expiry Tracker on the Skills tab of the KPI dashboard is the list view: everything that has expired or runs out in the next 90 days, across the whole team. For larger crews, that list is the Monday check. Electrical shops that tag apprentice, journeyman and master levels can see how skill tiers already work on the electrical page.
What it doesn't do: it doesn't store the certificate itself, and it doesn't check with any licensing board. You enter the dates; it helps you keep track of them, and keeps auto-assignment in line with them. If a date does slip, here's what happens when an expired certification takes the job, and what to do about it. The full walkthrough is on the certification tracking page.