Free staff training and certification record template
This free staff training and certification record template — printable PDF or editable Excel — keeps one line per person per certificate, with the date completed, the expiry date and who verified it, so nothing lapses without you noticing.
Free. No email address, no sign-up — the staff training & certification record downloads straight away.
Expired certificates are found at the worst possible time: during an inspection, or after an incident. The fix is unglamorous — one sheet listing every person, every certificate, and its expiry date, reviewed monthly. This template is that sheet.
Record the expiry date even when the certificate does not technically expire. Refresher intervals for food safety and first aid vary by country and by awarding body, and "never expires" is rarely what your own policy or insurer actually accepts. Put a review date in the column so the row still gets checked.
The verified-by column exists because a certificate number typed from a photo in a group chat is not a check. Someone should have seen the certificate — original or a scan of the original — and initialled that they did. That single column is what makes the record trustworthy.
Keep in-house training on the same sheet as external certificates. Section sign-offs, allergen procedure, manual handling, cellar training and till training are all things you will need to prove someone had before they were left alone with the job, and splitting them across two systems means one of them stops being maintained.
What's on the sheet
Log sheet — blank rows to fill in · Landscape A4 · PDF, Excel and CSV
Header fields
Venue / site · Reviewed on · Reviewed by
Columns
- Employee name
- Role
- Training / certificate — e.g. food safety level 2, first aid, allergen, licence
- Internal or external — In-house / provider name
- Date completed
- Expiry or review date
- Certificate ref
- Verified by — Initials of whoever saw the certificate
Extra columns in the Excel version
- Renewal booked — Date booked
- Cost
- Notes
These are left off the printable version so the columns stay wide enough to write in by hand.
18 blank rows per sheet.
What you get
- ✓Printable PDF, landscape A4, 18 rows per sheet
- ✓Excel (.xlsx) version with renewal booked, cost and notes columns
- ✓CSV version for import
- ✓Separate columns for completion date and expiry or review date
- ✓Verified-by column so certificates are checked, not assumed
- ✓Works for both external certificates and in-house sign-offs
How to use it
- 1
List every member of staff, with one row per certificate or training item they hold.
- 2
Record whether it was in-house or from an external provider, and name the provider.
- 3
Enter the completion date and the expiry or review date for every row.
- 4
Initial the verified-by column only once you have seen the certificate itself.
- 5
Review the sheet on the same date each month and highlight anything expiring within eight weeks.
- 6
Book the renewal, write the booked date in the spreadsheet column, and update the row when it is completed.
Questions
What training records should a restaurant keep?
Food safety training appropriate to each role, allergen awareness, first aid for your trained first aiders, fire safety awareness, manual handling and chemical safety, plus any licence required for your operation and role-specific in-house sign-offs.
How often does food safety training need refreshing?
Refresher intervals are set by your national requirements, your awarding body and often your own policy or insurer, and they differ between countries. Record a review date on every row and follow whichever interval applies to you.
Do in-house sign-offs count as training records?
Yes, provided they say what was covered, when, by whom, and are signed by the employee. In-house records are what you rely on to show someone was trained on your equipment and your procedures before working alone.
What happens if a certificate expires?
Treat it as expired from the date on the certificate. Depending on the qualification, that may mean the person cannot carry out a specific duty — such as being the named first aider — until it is renewed. Reviewing this sheet monthly is what prevents the surprise.
Or stop printing it altogether
Rotahr does this check on a phone — timestamped, with the person who did it attached, reminders when one is due, and a PDF export when somebody asks for a month of records. Same job, no folder to search through.
Templates that go with it
New staff induction checklist
This free new staff induction checklist template — printable PDF or editable Excel — splits induction into day one, week one and month one, with a signature from both the new starter and the manager against each stage.
Probation review form
This free probation review form template — printable PDF or editable Excel — scores a new starter against the things that actually matter on a hospitality floor, records agreed objectives, and captures a clear pass, extend or end decision with both signatures.
Corrective action log
This free HACCP corrective action log template — printable PDF or editable Excel — records every failed check in one place: what went wrong, what you did immediately, what you changed so it does not recur, and who signed it off.
Free to print, copy and use in your venue — no attribution required. Written for an international audience: where a threshold is a widely used figure it is printed as one, but food safety and employment rules differ by country and change. Check yours before relying on this sheet.
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