Staff Profile & Credential Management

Every person whose compliance you track in Attestation Core has a compliance profile. The profile is the anchor for everything else: their credentials, documents on file, evidence submissions and signed attestations all hang off it. A profile can also be linked to a WordPress user account, which is what lets that person sign in and use the staff portal.

This guide is for compliance managers and site administrators. Staff members themselves never see the admin screens described here; they see their own record through the portal pages (see Frontend staff portal).

Overview

• Who uses it: anyone with the Manage compliance profiles permission. On a standard install that is the WordPress Administrator role, which the plugin grants all of its management permissions on activation.
• Where it lives: Attestation Core → Compliance Profiles in wp-admin.
• What it holds: name, email, phone, linked WordPress user, workforce categories, status, supervision arrangements, and four detail tabs: Credentials, Documents, Evidence and Attestations.
• Free vs Pro: profiles, credentials, workforce categories and CSV import are all in the free plugin. The Pro RTO module adds the ASQA Credential Policy categories (1A–1E, 2A–2C), a Credential Policy category field on the profile, and a Units tab.

The plugin uses your organisation’s wording. By default people are called “Staff Member” / “Staff”. When the Pro RTO module is active, the wording changes to “Trainer/Assessor” / “Trainers”.

Compliance profiles

The profile list

Go to Attestation Core → Compliance Profiles. The list shows 20 profiles per page with these columns: Name, Email, Workforce categories, Credential category, Status and Under direction.

At the top of the list you’ll find:

• Add profile, which opens a blank profile form.
• Import profiles, which opens the CSV importer (see Bulk import staff from CSV).
• Search compliance profiles, which finds people by name or email. If someone doesn’t come up, try typing the start of their surname.
• Filter by status (All statuses, Active, Inactive, Archived) and Filter by workforce type, then Apply.
• Bulk actions: Set Active, Set Inactive and Archive selected. Tick the profiles, choose the action and click Apply.

A profile with no linked WordPress user shows a No portal user badge. Hover over it for the explanation: that person can’t sign in to the portal until you link a user.

Adding or editing a profile

1. Go to Attestation Core → Compliance Profiles and click Add profile. To change an existing profile, click its name.
2. Complete the form:

Field	What it does	Default / rules
First name, Last name	The person’s name as it appears across the plugin and in emails.	Both required.
Email	Contact email. It is also the matching key for CSV import and for automatic linking (see below).	Must be a valid address.
Phone	Optional contact number.	Blank.
Linked WordPress user	Connects the profile to a WordPress login so the person can use the portal.	— Not linked —. Users already linked to another profile are not offered. The list shows up to 500 users in name order. On larger sites, use automatic linking by email (below).
Credential Policy category	ASQA category for the trainer.	Shown only when the Pro RTO module is active.
Workforce categories	Which kinds of worker this person is. Tick Apply for each one that fits and mark one as Primary.	No category selected.
Under direction	Records that the person works under the supervision of a more senior staff member.	Unticked. Hidden when every ticked category is administrative.
Supervisor	The supervising staff member.	Required when Under direction is ticked.
Status	Active, Inactive or Archived.	Active.

1. Click Create Profile (new) or Save Changes (existing). You’ll see “Profile created.” or “Profile updated.” and land on the full profile.

If something is wrong the form comes back with your entries kept and an error message, for example “First name is required.”, “Email address is not valid.”, “Profiles marked under direction must nominate a supervisor.” or “That WordPress user is already linked to another profile.”

Note: Creating a profile does not create a WordPress user or send login details. Create the user under Users → Add New as you normally would, then link it here (or let it link automatically; see below).

Linking a WordPress user

Any WordPress user can be linked, whatever their existing role. Attestation Core does not change their role. Users who already have the “Trainer / Assessor” role are marked — Trainer role in the dropdown so you can spot them.

Once a profile is saved with a linked user, a Portal access panel appears on the profile:

• Portal access granted: the profile is active or inactive and has a linked user. Expand Capabilities granted to see the portal permissions. They are applied when the user signs in, not stored on their role, so they keep any other role they have (for example an LMS instructor or a shop customer).
• Portal access revoked: the profile is archived. Portal permissions are withheld automatically. Set the status back to Active to restore them.
• Portal access not available: no WordPress user is linked yet.

The portal pages only show content to people whose profile is Active. A signed-in person whose profile is Inactive or Archived sees “No compliance profile on file”.

What happens when a new WordPress user is registered

Whenever a WordPress user account is created by any method (Users → Add New, a registration form, WP-CLI or another plugin), Attestation Core checks it:

1. If the user is already linked to a profile, nothing happens.
2. If an unlinked profile has the same email address, the profile is linked to the new user automatically. The user’s role doesn’t matter. This is the quickest way to give portal access to people you imported by CSV: create their WordPress accounts with the same email addresses.
3. If a profile with that email is already linked to a different user, nothing changes. Profiles are never taken over and no duplicate is created.
4. If no profile matches and the new user was given the Trainer / Assessor role, a new active profile is created from the user’s first name, last name and email.
5. Any other new user, such as a subscriber or customer, is left alone.

Workforce categories

Workforce categories describe the kind of worker someone is. They control which document types apply to that person (see Document management) and drive the list filter. The built-in categories are:

• Employee (full-time / part-time), Contractor, Casual employee, Volunteer
• Support staff, Administrative staff, Compliance staff, Leadership / manager (these four count as administrative categories)

A person can hold several categories. For example, a practice manager who also delivers training might have Leadership / manager and Employee ticked. The Primary category is the one shown first in lists and headings. Picking a primary ticks its Apply box automatically.

You can rename, hide or add categories under Attestation Core → Settings → Library → Workforce types:

• Built-in workforce types: enter a Custom label to rename a type, or tick Hidden to remove it from pickers. A profile that already uses a hidden type keeps it, shown with “(hidden)”, until you change it.
• Custom workforce types: under Add a workforce type, type a New type label (for example “Clinical Supervisor”) and click Save workforce types. The internal slug is created from the label and can’t be changed later, though you can still edit the label. A custom type can’t be deleted while staff are assigned to it (“reassign before deleting”).

🔒 Pro feature — requires the Pro plugin.

When the Pro RTO module is active (licensed Pro, with Settings → General → Industry set to RTO), the four base categories are relabelled Trainer / assessor employee, Trainer / assessor contractor, Casual trainer / assessor and Volunteer trainer / assessor.

The profile detail tabs

After the profile is saved, four tabs appear below the form: Credentials, Documents, Evidence and Attestations. The Pro RTO module adds a Units tab. The tabs work with the keyboard (arrow keys move between them).

• Credentials: see Credentials below.
• Documents: upload, verify and delete this person’s compliance documents. See Document management.
• Evidence: this person’s evidence submissions with a Review link to each, plus + Record evidence to submit evidence on their behalf. See Compliance evidence.
• Attestations: the history of their signed currency attestations.

Archiving a profile

At the bottom of the profile, the Danger zone has an Archive profile button. Archiving removes the person from the active roster and withdraws their portal access. Their data and audit records are kept, and you can restore the profile at any time by setting Status back to Active. Profiles are never deleted from this screen. To permanently remove someone’s personal data, use WordPress’s erasure tool (see Privacy, security and data).

Credentials

Credentials are the qualifications, licences and registrations a person holds, such as a nursing registration, a trade licence, or a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Record them on the profile’s Credentials tab.

1. Open the profile and select the Credentials tab.
2. Click + Add credential.
3. Fill in:
   • Credential name (required), for example “Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care”
   • Qualification code, for example CHC30121
   • Category: choose from the configured credential categories. On the free plugin the list is empty, so leave it as — Not assigned —.
   • Issuing body
   • Date attained
   • Working towards: tick this if the person is still completing the credential, then enter the Working-towards start date
4. Click Save credential.

The credential table shows Credential, Category, Issuing body, Attained, Verified and Actions. Click Verify after you’ve sighted the original. The record’s badge changes from Unverified to Verified. Unverify reverses this, and Delete removes the record after you confirm. Deleting a credential is recorded in the Admin Action Log.

To keep a scanned copy of the certificate, upload it on the Documents tab. A credential record holds the details, and a document holds the file.

🔒 Pro feature — requires the Pro plugin.

ASQA Credential Policy categories (RTO module)

With the Pro RTO module active, the Credentials tab is headed Teaching credentials (ASQA Credential Policy), and the Category list contains the eight Credential Policy categories:

Code	Label
1A	TAE40122 + vocational competencies
1B	Higher-level teaching qualification
1C	TAE Assessor Skill Set
1D	Overseas qualification equivalence
1E	Higher education teaching role
2A	Working towards TAE40122
2B	Industry expert co-delivery
2C	Student skills support

The profile form also gains a Credential Policy category field. The Supervisor list for a person marked Under direction offers only active profiles whose category is 1A–1E (Tier 1). The Pro plugin can also email warnings as a working towards credential approaches its two-year limit (see Automated email notifications).

On a free install, or when the Pro licence is inactive, the Credential Policy category field is hidden, the tab is headed simply Credentials, and the category list is empty. Because the Supervisor list only includes Tier 1 profiles, free users should normally leave Under direction unticked.

Bulk import staff from CSV

When you’re moving from a spreadsheet, the CSV importer creates or updates many profiles in one go. It’s part of the free plugin.

Steps

1. Go to Attestation Core → Compliance Profiles and click Import profiles.
2. Click the CSV template link to download trainers-import-template.csv. It contains the column headers and two example rows (Jane Smith and Bob Jones). Delete the example rows before importing.
3. Fill in one row per person. Save the file as CSV (UTF-8 is safest).
4. Under CSV file, choose your file and click Upload and import.
5. The page reloads with a summary message and a Last import result panel showing Inserted, Updated, Rows with errors and an Errors table that lists problems by row number.

There is no preview step. Valid rows are saved straight away, and rows with errors are skipped. Fix the skipped rows and upload the file again. Because the import matches on email, re-importing doesn’t create duplicates.

Columns

Column headers are not case-sensitive, and their order doesn’t matter.

Column	Required?	Accepted values
first_name	Yes	Any text
last_name	Yes	Any text
email	Yes	A valid email address. This is the matching key.
phone	No	Any text
credential_category	No	Free: any value is accepted. Pro RTO module: must be one of 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 2A, 2B, 2C.
employment_type	No	employee, contractor, casual or volunteer (sets the primary workforce category)
status	No	active or inactive. Blank means active. archived can’t be set by import.

How rows are matched

• If a row’s email matches an existing profile, that profile is updated with the values in the row.
• If the email is new, a new profile is created. It isn’t linked to a WordPress user yet. It links automatically when a WordPress user with the same email is created, or you can link it by hand on the profile.
• The import does not set the linked user, supervisor, additional workforce categories, credentials or documents. Manage those on each profile. The administrative workforce categories (Support staff, Administrative staff, Compliance staff, Leadership / manager) and custom categories also have to be set on the profile.

Limits and validation

• Only .csv files are accepted. The maximum file size is your server’s upload limit, which is shown under the file field.
• A single import handles up to 500 people. Rows after the 500th are skipped with “Too many rows. Maximum is 500 staff members per import. Remaining rows skipped.” Split larger lists into several files.
• Blank rows are ignored.
• Each email can appear only once in a file. A repeat is rejected with “Duplicate email … within this file”.

Troubleshooting the import

Message	Cause and fix
CSV must include “email”, “first_name”, and “last_name” columns.	The header row is missing or renamed. Start from the downloaded template.
Only .csv files are accepted.	The file was saved as .xlsx or .numbers. Use Save As → CSV.
Invalid employment_type “fulltime”.	Use one of employee, contractor, casual or volunteer.
Invalid credential_category “Cat 1A”.	With the RTO module active, use the bare code, for example 1A.
Import failed. No profiles were created or updated.	Every row had an error. Read the Errors table, fix the rows and upload again.

Permissions

Action	Who
View and edit profiles, credentials, CSV import	Users with Manage compliance profiles (Administrators by default)
Upload or verify documents on a profile	Users with Manage documents
Review evidence from the profile	Users with Validate evidence
See their own profile, credentials and documents	The linked staff member, through the My Profile portal page (read-only)

🔒 Pro feature — requires the Pro plugin.

Department coordinators (Pro) see only the profiles in the departments assigned to them and can’t create new profiles. See the Department coordinator guide.

Worked example

Riverbend Childcare has 34 educators and four office staff.

1. The compliance officer downloads the CSV template, pastes in the 38 people from their HR spreadsheet with employment_type set to employee or casual, and uploads it. The result shows 37 inserted and 1 row with errors, because one email was missing an “@”. They fix it and upload again: 1 inserted, 37 updated.
2. They add each educator’s WordPress account under Users → Add New using the same email address. Each profile links automatically and shows Portal access granted.
3. For the four office staff, they open each profile and tick Administrative staff as the primary category. The Under direction row disappears, because supervision doesn’t apply to purely administrative profiles.
4. On each educator’s Credentials tab, they record the Certificate III or Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care with its qualification code, and click Verify after sighting the original testamur.
5. When an educator leaves, the officer clicks Archive profile. Portal access stops straight away, and the educator’s records stay available for audit.

Related

• Document management
• Compliance evidence
• User roles and permissions
• Privacy, security and data