---
title: How to Set Up Competency Templates
description: Timecloud HR's Competency Templates allow admins to standardise and track employee qualifications, licenses, and permits. The feature automates expiry alerts, supports bulk certificate uploads, restricts sensitive compliance data, and tracks real-time employee compliance across the company.
---

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# How to Set Up Competency Templates

## Competency Templates let you define reusable competency items — like licences, certifications, or permits — that can be assigned to employees. Group related items together and set up expiry tracking with automatic alerts.

Where to Find It

- Go to **Employees** in the main menu.
- Switch to the **Organisation** view.
- Click **Competency Templates** in the left-hand navigation.

---

How to Create a Competency Group

1. Click **+ New Group** in the page header.
2. Fill in: 
     - **Group Name** (required).
     - **Warning Threshold** — number of days before expiry to trigger a warning (e.g. 30 days). This is the default alert lead-time for all items in the group.
     - **Users to Notify** — search and select employees who should receive alerts.
     - Optional **icon** (shown inline beside the name).
3. Click **Create Template**.

---

How to Add Competency Items

1. Expand a group and click **+ New Competency Template**.
2. Enter the **item name** and optional **description**.
3. Choose an **icon** from the picker inline beside the name field.
4. Configure default properties using the **toggle cards**: 
     - **Issue** — whether this item tracks when it was issued.
     - **Expiry** — whether this item expires.
     - **Alerts** — enable automatic expiry notifications.
5. Optionally enable the **Sensitive** toggle beside the name field (see Sensitive Templates below).
6. When **Expiry** is enabled, the **Expires after** setting appears below the toggles: 
     - Enter a number and choose **Days**, **Months**, or **Years** (e.g. "365 Days" or "2 Years").
     - This tells Timecloud to automatically calculate the expiry date from the issue date when an employee's record is created.
     - Limits: up to 3,650 days, 120 months, or 10 years.
7. When **Alerts** is enabled (requires Expiry to be on), the **Alert before expiry** setting appears: 
     - Enter the number of **days** before expiry that an alert should trigger for this specific item.
     - If left blank, the item inherits the group's **Warning Threshold** (shown as the placeholder).
     - Use this to give high-priority items (e.g. practising certificates) more lead-time than the group default.
     - Range: 1–365 days.
8. Optionally add **Additional Properties** by clicking **+ Add Field** — choose from Text, Number, Date, True/False, File, or Dropdown types.
9. Click **Create Template**.

---

Sensitive Templates

A competency template can be marked as **sensitive** to restrict who can see and manage it.

### What It Does

- **Hides the template** and all employee records created from it from admins who do not have **Manage Sensitive Properties \> View** permission.
- **Requires Manage Sensitive Properties \> Edit** to modify any content on the template or its employee records.
- **Requires Manage Sensitive Properties \> Delete** to remove the template or its employee records.
- **Filters alert notifications** — only managers with sensitive property view access receive expiry alerts for sensitive items.
- Company Admins always have full access to sensitive templates.

### How to Mark a Template as Sensitive

1. When creating or editing a template, find the **Sensitive** toggle in the icon-and-name row at the top of the form.
2. Switch it **on** to make the template sensitive.
3. Click **Create Template** or **Save**.

### Who Can Toggle It

Only admins with **Manage Sensitive Properties \> Edit** permission (or Company Admins) can turn the sensitive flag on or off. If you don't have this permission, the toggle is disabled.

---

Template Item Table

Each expanded group shows a table of its competency items with these columns:

- **Name** — the item template name. Archived templates display an **Archived** badge beside the name.
- **Description** — a short description of the item.
- **Issue** — whether issue date tracking is enabled.
- **Expiry** — whether expiry tracking is enabled.
- **Alerts** — whether expiry alerts are active.
- **File** — a tick/check if the item has a file property configured.

Group headers show employee avatars, the default expiry duration (e.g. "365 days"), a settings cog, and a collapse/expand chevron.

### Viewing Assigned Employees (Inline Employee List)

Click any template row to expand it and reveal an **inline employee list** showing every employee assigned that competency. The expanded panel includes a full set of filters and a sortable, paginated table.

#### Filtering the Employee List

The filter bar at the top of the expanded panel offers:

- **Search** — type a name to find a specific employee.
- **Employees** — filter by employee status. Defaults to **Active Employees**. Choose **All Employees** or **Archived Employees** to widen or narrow the list.
- **Department** — filter by user group / department.
- **Status** — filter by competency status (Valid, Warning, Expired, Draft).
- **Days Remaining** — filter by how soon the item expires.
- **Show archived** toggle — turn this on to include archived competency records in the list. Archived records appear dimmed with an **Archived** badge. Use the **Unarchive** button on any archived row to restore it.
- **Clear filters** — click the filter-off icon to reset all filters at once.

#### Table Columns

- **User** — employee name and avatar.
- **Files** — number of attached files, with a preview link.
- **Issue Date** and **Expiry Date** — tracked dates for each employee's record.
- **Status** — current competency status (Valid, Warning, Expired, or Draft). Archived employees and archived competency records display an **Archived** badge next to the status when the **Show archived** toggle is on.

Use the pagination controls at the bottom of the expanded list to navigate through large numbers of employee records. Click the same template row again to collapse the employee list.

---

Managing Items

Use the **three-dot menu** on each item row to:

- **Edit** — opens the **Edit Template** modal where you can update all settings (requires Edit permission). Hidden for archived templates.
- **Upload** — opens a bulk upload modal to add certificates for multiple employees at once (requires Edit permission; see below). Hidden for archived templates.
- **Duplicate** — creates a copy you can rename (requires Add permission). Hidden for archived templates.
- **Archive** — moves the template to the archived list (requires Delete permission). See Archiving Templates below.
- **Unarchive** — restores an archived template back to the active list (requires Edit permission). Only appears on archived templates.
- **Delete** — removes the item template permanently (requires Delete permission).

The three-dot menu is hidden if you have no actionable permissions (view-only access).

For **sensitive templates**, the **Edit**, **Upload**, and **Delete** actions additionally require the corresponding **Manage Sensitive Properties** permission. If you lack sensitive edit access, the template opens in read-only mode and the **Save** button is hidden.

### Editing a Template

The **Edit Template** modal lets you:

- Update the name, description, and icon.
- Toggle **Issue**, **Expiry**, and **Alerts** using compact toggle cards.
- When **Expiry** is on, set a default **Expires after** duration (Days, Months, or Years).
- When **Alerts** is on, optionally set a per-item **Alert before expiry** threshold in days — otherwise the group's warning threshold is used.
- Add, edit, or remove **Additional Properties** using the **+ Add Field** button.
- **Drag and drop** additional properties to reorder them — the new order is saved when you click **Save**.

The modal can be dragged by its header to reposition it on screen.

---

Bulk Uploading Certificates

To add the same competency item to multiple employees at once:

1. Click the **three-dot menu** on a competency item row.
2. Select **Upload**.
3. The **Add \[Item Name\] Certificates** modal opens with a spreadsheet-style table.

### Filling In Each Row

Each row represents one employee's certificate. The available columns depend on the template's settings:

- **User** (required) — select the employee from the dropdown.
- **Issue Date** — when the certificate was issued (shown if the template tracks issue dates).
- **Expiry Date** — when the certificate expires (shown if the template tracks expiry dates).
- **Duration** — the time span between issue and expiry, in Days, Months, or Years (shown when the template tracks both issue and expiry dates). Duration and dates stay in sync — editing one recalculates the other.
- **Alerts** — toggle on to enable expiry notifications for this certificate (shown if the template tracks expiry dates). Can only be enabled when a valid expiry date is set.
- **Custom properties** — any additional fields defined on the template (text, numbers, dates, checkboxes, dropdowns, or file uploads) appear as extra columns.

### Adding and Removing Rows

- Click **+ Add User** to add another row. New rows automatically inherit the issue date, expiry date, duration, and alert settings from the first row.
- Click the **delete icon** on a row to remove it, or to clear it if it is the only row.

### Date Validation

If an issue date is on or after the expiry date, a validation error appears below the table identifying the affected row.

### Saving

- Click **Save** when all rows are complete and valid.
- After saving, a **Results** modal shows the outcome for each row — a green tick for successfully created certificates and a red cross for any that failed, along with a message.

---

Archiving and Unarchiving

### Archiving Groups

To archive a competency group (hiding it from active use), click the **settings** icon on the group header, then click **Archive**. Archived groups are greyed out.

To restore, click settings again and choose **Unarchive**.

### Archiving Templates

Individual competency templates can be archived without archiving the entire group:

1. Click the **three-dot menu** on the template row.
2. Select **Archive**.
3. The template moves to the archived view and an **Archived** badge appears beside its name.

Archived templates cannot be edited, bulk uploaded against, or duplicated until they are unarchived. Employees who already hold that competency keep their records — archiving only hides the template from the active list.

To restore an archived template, switch to the **Archived** view, find the template, open its three-dot menu, and select **Unarchive**.

### Archiving Employee Competency Records

Individual competency records on an employee can also be archived:

1. In the inline employee list, click the **archive icon** on the row.
2. Confirm in the dialog. The record is hidden from the default view.
3. Turn on the **Show archived** toggle to see archived records — they appear dimmed with an **Archived** badge.
4. Click the **Unarchive** button on any archived row to restore it.

Archiving a competency record does not delete it — the record and its files are preserved and can be brought back at any time.

### Switching Between Active and Archived Views

Use the **Archived** toggle in the page header to switch between active and archived content:

- **Toggle off** (default) — shows active groups and their active templates.
- **Toggle on** — shows archived groups and any active groups that contain archived templates.

The **Archived** toggle only appears when at least one group or template has been archived. The **+ New Group** button is hidden while viewing archived content.

---

Page Header Controls

The Competency Templates page header contains:

- **Search** — filter groups and templates by name. Results are highlighted and non-matching groups are hidden.
- **Archived toggle** — switch between active and archived views (appears only when archived content exists).
- **+ New Group** — create a new competency group (hidden in archived view).

---

Permissions

What you can see and do on this page depends on the **Manage Competencies** operations permission (configured under **Settings** \> **Feature Access**):

- **View only** — you can browse groups and templates but cannot add, edit, duplicate, archive, or delete anything. The three-dot action menu, **+ New Group** button, **+ New Competency Template** button, group settings cog, and row click-to-edit are all hidden.
- **View + Add** — you can create new groups, add new templates, and duplicate existing templates.
- **View + Edit** — you can edit templates, use the Upload feature, unarchive templates, and access group settings.
- **View + Delete** — you can delete templates and groups, and archive templates.

Company Admins always have full access. If your company does not use Feature Access, all admins have full access by default.

### Sensitive Template Permissions

Sensitive templates add an extra layer of permission checks on top of the standard Manage Competencies permissions:

- Admins without **Manage Sensitive Properties \> View** will not see sensitive templates or their group counts at all.
- Admins without **Manage Sensitive Properties \> Edit** can view sensitive templates in read-only mode but cannot modify them, bulk upload against them, or toggle the sensitive flag.
- Admins without **Manage Sensitive Properties \> Delete** cannot delete sensitive templates or employee records created from them.

Company Admins are exempt from all sensitive property restrictions.

---

Good to Know

- Archiving a template requires **Delete** permission because it removes the template from active use. Unarchiving requires **Edit** permission.
- When you expand a template row to see its employees, the inline table supports sorting, filtering, and pagination independently of the main template list.
- The **Show archived** toggle in the inline employee list reveals archived competency records. These rows appear dimmed and show an **Archived** badge. Use the **Unarchive** button on any archived row to restore it to the active list.
- Archived employees are labelled with a red **Archived** badge in the inline list so you can quickly distinguish them from active employees.
- Archived templates still count toward group totals in the archived view — the group header chip shows the archived template count.

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