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SAP Litmos has a native certificate feature, but it produces a static PDF with no automated delivery, no verification layer, and no way for anyone to confirm the credential is authentic.
Workarounds like Google Slides with Autocrat, Microsoft Power Automate, and Zapier can automate delivery, but none of them solve the core problem: every method still produces a flat, unverifiable file.
Litmos supports an achievement.earned webhook that fires on course completion, giving you a reliable, real-time trigger to connect external credentialing tools without any manual admin work.
Wauld integrates directly with Litmos via webhooks or CSV upload, turning every course completion into a branded, verifiable digital credential that learners can share and employers can trust.

How SAP Litmos Teams Can Automate Certification

Your SAP Litmos course just wrapped. The learner passed. Now your L&D admin is manually downloading a PDF, opening an email, and doing this 200 more times before lunch.

That is not automation. That is digital paperwork with extra steps.

SAP Litmos is a powerful, enterprise-grade learning management system trusted by over 4,000 companies worldwide. The Litmos LMS handles compliance training, onboarding, sales enablement, and everything in between. But when it comes to issuing workforce certifications, the platform has real gaps that most training teams only discover after they are already scaling.

This blog breaks down 5 available methods to automate certificate issuance from Litmos. We start with the platform's built-in tools, move through workarounds like Google Slides and Zapier, and close with what a modern, verifiable credential workflow actually looks like using Wauld.

Why Workforce Certification Matters More Than You Think

A certificate of completion is not just a formality. For compliance teams, it is a legal record. For a learner, it is proof they showed up and finished something real. For HR systems, it is data that needs to flow into training dashboards and personnel files.

When certification is manual, it breaks. Files go missing. Notifications get delayed. Learners follow up asking where their certificate is. Admins spend hours every week on tasks a system should handle in seconds.

At scale, that adds up fast. Manual certificate issuance takes between 12 and 30 minutes per recipient when you factor in design, mail merge, email composition, and sending. Multiply that by a 300-person compliance training cohort and you have lost an entire working week.

The good news is that Litmos gives you multiple paths to automate this workflow. Some are cleaner than others. Here is what each one actually looks like in practice.

Method 1: Use Litmos's Built-In Certificate Template System

Litmos has a native certificate feature. It is the most obvious starting point and worth understanding fully before reaching for third-party tools.

How It Works

You create a certificate template in Microsoft Word or a similar program. Litmos accepts .doc, .docx, or .rtf files as the supported upload format. Inside that template, you use placeholder text that Litmos replaces dynamically when the certificate is downloaded.

The supported placeholders include:

[FIRST_NAME] and [LAST_NAME] for the learner's name
[COURSE_TITLE] or [LEARNING_PATH_TITLE] for the course name
[COMPLETION_DATE] for when the learner finished the course
[TEAM_NAME] for the learner's team assignment
[SCORE] for quiz results
Custom date format overrides like [COMPLETION_DATE]:[YYYY-MM-dd]

Once your template is ready, you upload it directly inside the Course Settings or Learning Path Settings in Litmos. When a learner completes the course, they can navigate to their Achievements tab and download a personalized PDF certificate.

Team Admins and Team Leaders can also download certificates on behalf of team members. They go to the People tab, open the user profile, click the Achievement tab, and hit "Download Certificate" next to the relevant course.

Steps

Design your certificate template in Microsoft Word using the placeholder fields above.
Save it as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file.
In Litmos admin view, navigate to the Course or Learning Path settings.
Scroll down to the certificate template section and upload your file.
Click "Show me a preview" to confirm the placeholders are rendering correctly.
Publish the course. Learners can download their certificate from the Achievements tab after completing.

Cost: Free. The certificate feature is included in all Litmos plans.

What It Does Well

The built-in system costs nothing extra. It requires no third-party integrations, no code, and no additional setup. For small teams with simple compliance requirements and low completion volumes, it handles the basics without friction.

Where It Falls Short

The certificate is a static PDF with no verification layer, no unique credential ID, and no way for anyone outside your organization to confirm it is authentic.
Delivery is not automated. The learner has to know where to look. There is no notification email that says "Your certificate is ready" and no shareable link for LinkedIn.
Course-level placeholders like [SCORE] and module-level fields do not carry over to learning path certificates. If you use them on a learning path template, the learner sees raw placeholder text with no values populated.
Updating an old template is painful. If you change your branding, you replace the file, but certificates already issued under the old template remain in the system unchanged.
For large organizations running hundreds of completions a week, this process does not scale. The manual download workflow becomes a bottleneck very quickly.

Method 2: Use Google Slides and Google Forms with Autocrat

This is the most popular free workaround among budget-conscious L&D teams. It works by moving certificate generation outside Litmos entirely and routing it through Google Workspace tools.

How It Works

You design a certificate template in Google Slides. You add placeholder merge fields like {{Name}}, {{CourseName}}, and {{Date}} in the positions where you want dynamic data to appear.

You then build a Google Form to collect the learner's name and email. Autocrat, a free add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace, connects the form responses to your Slides template. When a learner submits the form, Autocrat merges their data into the certificate, converts it to a PDF, and emails it to them automatically.

The final step is embedding the Google Form link at the end of your Litmos course, on a completion screen or inside the final module.

Steps

Design your certificate in Google Slides using {{placeholder}} merge fields.
Build a Google Form to collect the learner's name, email, and course name.
Install Autocrat from the Google Workspace Marketplace.
Create an Autocrat merge job pointing at your Slides template.
Configure Autocrat to email the merged PDF to the respondent's email address.
Copy the Google Form URL and embed it in the final module of your Litmos course.
Test the full workflow before publishing.

Cost: Free with a personal Google account. Google Workspace Business Starter plans for organizations start at $7 per user per month.

What It Does Well

It costs nothing to try. Google Slides gives you full layout control over the certificate design. Autocrat has a straightforward setup and has been stable for years. Certificates land directly in the learner's inbox as PDF attachments without any admin involvement after the initial configuration.

Where It Falls Short

There is no actual completion verification. Anyone who has the form URL can submit it and receive a certificate, regardless of whether they completed the course. You are fully reliant on the honor system.
The workflow chains three separate platforms together. Litmos, Google Forms, and Google Slides via Autocrat each represent a potential failure point. If any one of them has an issue, the entire flow breaks silently.
Generated PDFs have no credential ID, no verification link, and no tamper protection. The certificate format is a flat file. Anyone can open it in Acrobat and change the name or date without leaving a trace.

Method 3: Use Microsoft Power Automate with a Word Template

For organizations already inside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, Power Automate is a natural step up from the Google approach. The principle is the same: collect learner data through a form, populate a certificate template, and email the result. The difference is that everything stays within Microsoft's infrastructure.

How It Works

You create a Word document certificate template with merge fields. A Microsoft Form at the end of your Litmos course collects the learner's name, email, and any other details you need on the certificate.

You then build a Power Automate workflow triggered by a new form submission. The flow populates the Word template, converts it to a PDF, emails it to the learner, and deletes the temporary file from OneDrive. Inside Litmos, you embed the Microsoft Form as an iframe in the final module of your course.

Steps

Create a certificate template in Word with dynamic merge fields.
Build a Microsoft Form to collect learner details.
In Power Automate, create a flow triggered by "When a new response is submitted" in Microsoft Forms.
Add steps to populate the Word template, convert to PDF, send the email, and clean up temporary files from OneDrive.
In your Litmos course, add an Embed module and paste the form URL as a plain iframe tag.
Gate the form behind a quiz or content block so it only appears after the course content is complete.

Cost: Included with most Microsoft 365 Business plans. Standalone plans start at around $6 per user per month for organizations without an existing subscription.

What It Does Well

Power Automate logs every form submission, giving you a basic audit trail. The certificate is emailed automatically with zero admin input after setup. The entire workflow stays within Microsoft's security boundary, which matters for regulated industries that need data residency controls.

Where It Falls Short

Power Automate has a real learning curve. Multi-step flows with file conversions, conditions, and error handling take time to build and maintain correctly. Flows can also break silently when Microsoft updates one of the underlying connectors.
The iframe embed inside Litmos can be finicky. Microsoft's auto-generated embed code often conflicts with Litmos's module sizing. You need to write a plain iframe tag manually to make it render correctly across devices.
Completion verification still does not exist here. Anyone with the form link can claim a certificate. You are adding infrastructure cost and complexity without solving the core integrity problem.

Method 4: Use Zapier to Connect Litmos to a Certificate Platform

Zapier is the most scalable path for Litmos certificate automation without writing code. Litmos natively supports webhooks, and the achievement.earned event fires every time a learner completes a course and earns a credential. Zapier can listen for that event and route the learner's data to any action platform you choose.

How It Works

The Litmos webhook achievement.earned payload includes the learner's user ID, username, first name, last name, course ID, course title, completion date, result (Completed or Failed), and an achievement ID. Email is not included directly in the webhook payload. To get the learner's email address, you make a separate API call to the Litmos Users endpoint using the userId from the payload. This is a straightforward extra step in any Zapier or Pabbly workflow.

You set Litmos as the trigger (via the webhook) and your certificate platform as the action. The learner completes the course, the webhook fires, Zapier receives the data, and the action platform generates and delivers the certificate. Because the trigger comes from a real completion event inside Litmos, there is no way for a learner to game this by submitting a form early.

Steps

In your Litmos Account Settings, navigate to Litmos Features and configure a webhook endpoint. Note: you need to contact your Litmos account manager first to have the Webhooks feature enabled for your account.
Log into Zapier and create a new Zap.
Set Webhooks by Zapier as the trigger (Catch Hook) and copy the URL Zapier provides.
Paste that URL as your webhook endpoint URL in the Litmos webhook configuration.
Complete a test course in Litmos to confirm Zapier receives the payload correctly.
Set your certificate platform as the action app. Map the learner's name, email, course title, and completion date to the certificate template fields.
Test the full workflow and activate the Zap.

Cost: Zapier's free plan is capped at 100 tasks per month and only supports two-step Zaps. Real automation workflows require a paid plan. The Zapier Professional plan starts at $19.99 per month billed annually.

What It Does Well

This is the most reliable automated path Litmos supports natively through its API and webhook infrastructure. The trigger is tied to a real LMS completion event, not a self-reported form. The data is complete and accurate. Once configured, the workflow runs silently for every subsequent completion with zero admin input.

Where It Falls Short

The quality of the certificate depends entirely on which platform you connect Zapier to. If you connect to a basic PDF generator, you still end up with a static, unverifiable file. The automation solves the delivery problem but not the credential quality problem.
Zapier itself adds a recurring cost and a third-party dependency. If Zapier has downtime, the trigger may be delayed or missed. Multi-step Zaps and access to premium connectors require higher-tier paid plans.

What All These Methods Have in Common

Every method above, including Litmos's own built-in system, produces the same end result: a static PDF certificate.

That PDF carries no credential ID. It has no verification link. There is no way for an employer, a regulator, or a compliance officer to confirm whether it is legitimate. There is no public record that the credential was ever issued. There is no way to revoke it if a certification expires or gets disputed.

Static PDFs are easy to copy, edit, and fabricate. They do not tell you whether the recipient ever opened their certificate. They give you zero analytics on engagement, sharing, or LinkedIn profile additions.

For organizations running compliance training in finance, healthcare, manufacturing, or construction, this is a real problem. A certificate that cannot be independently verified is not much better than no certificate at all.

There is also a recognition gap. Learners who complete meaningful training want credentials they can actually show off. A PDF sitting in a downloads folder does nothing for their professional visibility. A verifiable digital credential with a public page and a one-click LinkedIn share creates genuine career value.

None of the methods above address that gap. That is where Wauld comes in.

Method 5: Issue Verifiable Digital Credentials with Wauld

Wauld is a digital credential platform built to manage the full lifecycle of certificates and badges: design, issue, track, and verify. It integrates directly with SAP Litmos through the same achievement.earned webhook used in the Zapier method. The difference is what happens once that event reaches Wauld.

What Wauld Does Differently

When the Litmos completion event fires and reaches Wauld, it does not generate a static PDF. It creates a branded, verifiable digital credential that lives at a permanent, public URL.

Every certificate issued through Wauld includes a unique credential ID, a public verification page, and a QR code. Anyone who receives the certificate can share the verification link. Anyone who views it can confirm the credential is legitimate, check the issuing organization, see the course name, and verify the completion date, all in real time.

This transforms a Litmos course completion from a file in a downloads folder into a trusted, portable professional credential.

How the Integration Works

Wauld connects to Litmos through three paths depending on your setup and technical preference.

Path 1: Direct via Litmos Webhooks. Litmos fires the achievement.earned event when a learner completes a course. The JSON payload includes the learner's first name, last name, user ID, course title, completion date, and result. The learner's email is retrieved via a follow-up API call to the Litmos Users endpoint using the userId field in the payload. Wauld receives this data, matches it to the correct certificate template, generates a personalized credential, and delivers it to the learner by email within seconds. No admin input is required after the initial setup.

Path 2: Via Zapier. If you prefer a fully no-code setup, you can use Zapier as the middleware between Litmos and Wauld. Litmos fires the achievement.earned webhook, Zapier receives the payload, and a Zap routes the learner data directly to Wauld as the action platform. Zapier also handles the extra step of looking up the learner's email via the Litmos Users API before passing the complete data to Wauld. This path requires no custom code and is the most accessible option for teams without developer resources.

Path 3: Via CSV Upload. For a backlog of completions that predate your automation setup, Wauld supports bulk issuance by CSV. Export your completion records from the Litmos analytics and reporting dashboard, format the CSV with learner name, email, course title, and completion date, and upload it to Wauld. The platform generates and delivers personalized certificates to every learner in the batch in one operation.

What Wauld Certificates Look Like

Wauld's certificate designer gives you full control over the credential design. You can start from one of 900+ professional templates or build from scratch. Customization includes backgrounds, layouts, typography, colors, logos, signatures, and brand assets.

Every credential Wauld issues is:

Printable - Clean, professional PDF quality, ready for printing or saving locally.
Verifiable - A unique credential ID and public verification URL is embedded in every certificate. Employers and compliance officers can check authenticity in seconds by clicking the link or scanning the QR code.
Branded - Your logo, your colors, your brand on the certificate and the email. Delivery comes from your organization's identity, not a generic platform name.
Shareable - One-click LinkedIn sharing, a public credential link, and a downloadable PDF version. When learners share their Wauld credentials, they promote your training program to their professional network at no extra cost.
Auditable - Wauld's admin dashboard logs every certificate issued, including who received it, when it was delivered, whether it was opened, downloaded, or shared, and how many times it was verified.
Revocable - If a certification expires or needs to be voided, you can revoke it from the dashboard. The verification page updates instantly to reflect the new status. This is critical for compliance training where re-certification is required annually.

What Your Learners Experience

A learner completes a compliance training course in Litmos at 2:47 PM. Litmos fires the completion event. Wauld receives the payload and generates their certificate. By 2:48 PM, the learner has a branded credential notification in their inbox.

The email contains a link to their personal credential page, a download button for the PDF version, and a one-click option to add the certificate directly to their LinkedIn profile. The credential page shows their name, the course title, the issuing organization, the completion date, and a live verification status.

Their manager can click the verification link from anywhere and confirm the credential is legitimate in under three seconds. No login required. No account needed.

Pricing

Wauld offers a free plan that covers up to 300 credentials. The free plan includes verifiable credentials, bulk issuance, LinkedIn sharing, QR verification, and access to the full 900+ template library. If you want to start with Wauld before committing to a paid plan, a free trial is a no-risk way to test the full workflow with your Litmos setup.

The Growth plan uses volume-based pricing scaled to your issuance needs. It adds unlimited admin users, unlimited workspaces, role-based access control, QR code verification logs, expiry management and reminders, and a verified blue badge for your organization. Enterprise pricing is available for organizations that need portal white-labeling, API access, custom data residency, or on-premise hosting options.

Comparing the Methods

Method	Automated Delivery	Verifiable	Branded Email	Cost
Litmos Built-In Certificates	No (learner downloads manually)	No	No	Free (included in plan)
Google Forms + Slides + Autocrat	Yes (email PDF)	No	No	Free
Microsoft Power Automate + Word	Yes (email PDF)	No	No	Free with Microsoft 365
Zapier + Basic Certificate Tool	Yes	No	Depends	From $19.99/month
Wauld via Litmos Webhooks or CSV	Yes (instant, branded email)	Yes	Yes	Free plan available

Final Thoughts

SAP Litmos is a mature, capable cloud-based LMS. It is excellent at delivering and tracking training at enterprise scale. Litmos provides powerful compliance training tools, automates re-certification reminders, and generates audit-ready reports with ease. Litmos offers a broad content library, a built-in AI content authoring tool, Salesforce and SCORM integrations, and e-commerce capabilities through Shopify. It is a complete enterprise training platform.

But issuing workforce certifications that are actually worth sharing is a different problem from running a training program. And the tools that solve each problem are not the same.

The native Litmos certificate system covers the basics. Google Slides and Power Automate get you automation at low cost. Zapier and Pabbly scale that automation reliably.

But none of these methods give your learners a credential they can genuinely own, share, and have verified by others. None of them give your compliance team a real audit trail tied to a public, tamper-evident record.

Wauld closes that gap. It plugs directly into your existing Litmos workflow, requires no changes to how you build or deliver your courses, and adds the credential layer that turns every completion into something a learner is proud to show off and an employer can trust.

If you are running workforce training in Litmos and want your certificates to do more than sit in a downloads folder, Wauld is the fastest path to getting there.