VALID, EXPIRED or REVOKED: what a public verification answer should say
If checking a certificate requires phoning the training provider during office hours, the certificate isn't really verifiable. A public portal that answers instantly — with no login — changes who can trust the document.
Verification that needs a phone call is not verification
The moment of truth for a training certificate is rarely convenient: a site gate at 6am, a client audit mid-meeting, a contractor turning up with a PDF nobody has seen before. If the only way to check it is to reach a person, most checks simply don't happen — and forged or expired certificates pass on confidence alone.
The three answers, and what each one means
One scan, one of three words
- VALID — the certificate exists in the issuer's records and is inside its validity window.
- EXPIRED — it was genuine, but its expiry date has passed; the holder needs renewal, not suspicion.
- REVOKED — the issuer has withdrawn it; the document should not be relied on regardless of what the paper says.
Two doors, one record
Every certificate Sentinel issues carries its own serial number and QR code. Scanning the code — or typing the serial into the public portal — reaches the same source record and returns the same instant answer. No account, no login, no waiting for office hours.
Forgery-resistance comes from the source record
A PDF can be edited; the record it points back to cannot. Because verification resolves against the issuer's live register — not against the document itself — a doctored certificate fails the check the moment anyone bothers to scan it. That is what makes the QR code more than decoration.