Google Workspace APP

IssueBadge for Google Workspace is a free Google Sheets & Google Forms add-on that turns recipient data into professionally designed PDF certificates and emails them automatically. No signup, no credit card, no per-cert fees — it runs entirely inside your own Google account.

This guide walks you through both flows: Bulk Mode (send a stack of certificates from a Google Sheet) and Auto Mode (auto-send a certificate whenever someone submits — or passes — a Google Form).

What IssueBadge does

• Bulk Mode (Sheets): Take a spreadsheet of recipients, pick a template, map your columns to placeholders, and IssueBadge generates one PDF per row and emails each recipient.
• Auto Mode (Forms): Watch any Google Form. The moment someone submits — or passes your quiz threshold — IssueBadge generates a personalized PDF certificate and emails it. Zero manual work.

What you get: 15 starter templates sized for printing (11 × 8.5 inches landscape), full customization in Google Slides, quiz scoring built-in, a tamper-resistant audit log, and resume-on-interruption batching for large sends.

How to install

1. Open the Google Workspace Marketplace and search for IssueBadge.
2. Click Install and accept the OAuth permissions. (You can review every permission before consenting — we explain what each one is used for in our Privacy Policy.)
3. The add-on now appears in both Google Sheets (Extensions → IssueBadge) and Google Forms (⋮ menu → Add-ons → IssueBadge).

Quotas: The Gmail send quota is the only ceiling — 100 emails/day on personal Gmail, 1,500/day on Google Workspace. IssueBadge itself charges nothing.

Bulk Mode — send certificates from a Google Sheet

Best for: course completion lists, training rosters, employee recognition, event attendance — anywhere you already have recipients in a spreadsheet.

1. Prepare your sheet

Put recipient data in a single sheet. Row 1 must contain column headers (these become the placeholder names you'll map). At minimum you need a column for the recipient's email address.

Example:

2. Open the sidebar

In your Sheet: Extensions → IssueBadge → Open IssueBadge. A four-step wizard opens on the right side of the sheet.

3. Step 1 — Pick a template

Browse the gallery (15 starter designs covering education, training, sports, employee awards, and kids). Click Use this template and IssueBadge copies the template into your own Drive folder named IssueBadge Templates. Want to customize the design (logo, fonts, colors)? Click ✏️ Edit Template in the sidebar to open the copy in Google Slides — every change applies to all future certificates from that template.

4. Step 2 — Map columns to placeholders

Each template uses {{placeholder}} syntax. For example, Course Completion — Modern uses {{name}}, {{course}}, {{date}}, {{instructor}}. The sidebar reads your column headers and lets you connect each placeholder to a column. Also pick which column holds the recipient email — that's where each PDF gets sent.

5. Step 3 — Email body

Customize the email subject and body. You can reference any column or placeholder in the body, e.g.:

Subject:  Your certificate, {{name}}! Body:     Hi {{name}}, Congratulations on completing {{course}}. Your certificate is attached as a PDF. — The {{instructor}} team

6. Step 4 — Send

Click Send certificates. IssueBadge batches the work (50 certs per batch) and shows a live progress bar. If you're sending 500+ and the script time limit is reached, IssueBadge installs a trigger to continue in the background — you can close the tab and the work continues.

What you'll see after sending

• One PDF per row in your Drive's IssueBadge Certificates folder.
• One email per recipient with the PDF attached.
• A new sheet tab called IssueBadge Log with timestamp, recipient, email, status, PDF link, and a tamper-resistant hash for each cert sent.

Auto Mode — auto-send certificates from a Google Form

Best for: online quizzes, registration confirmations, workshop sign-ups, training compliance — anywhere a Form submission should trigger an automatic certificate.

1. Open the sidebar inside your Form

Open any Google Form, then click ⋮ (More) → Add-ons → IssueBadge → Configure & auto-send. The sidebar opens on the right.

2. Pick a template

Same 15-template gallery as Sheets. Click Change Template to open a full-screen picker with thumbnail previews, then click any card to select. Customize it later via ✏️ Edit Template.

3. Map form fields

The sidebar auto-detects fields named "Name" and "Email" and pre-selects them. If your form uses different names, expand the Advanced panel and pick the correct fields from the dropdowns. Map each {{placeholder}} in your template to a form question.

4. (Optional) Quiz scoring

If your Form is set up as a quiz (⚙ Settings → Quizzes → Make this a quiz), IssueBadge will:

• Read each respondent's score automatically.
• Send the certificate only if their percentage meets your Passing threshold (set in the sidebar — 0% to 100% in 10% steps).
• Optionally send a friendly "you didn't pass this time" email to people below the threshold (toggle Send fail email in Advanced).
• Make the score available as placeholders in the template and email body: {{score}}, {{max_score}}, {{percentage}}, {{grade}}.

Not running a quiz? IssueBadge still works — every submission gets a certificate.

5. (Optional) Submission limit

In Advanced you can cap the form at a fixed number of entries (e.g., first 100 sign-ups). When the limit is reached, IssueBadge auto-closes the form so no further submissions come through. Reopen anytime via your Form's Settings → Responses → Accepting responses toggle.

6. Turn on Auto-send

Click the Turn ON link at the top of the sidebar. IssueBadge installs a submission trigger and confirms with a green Automatic Certification is ON indicator. That's it — you're done.

7. Test it

Before going live, use the Email Me Sample link in the Template row. It generates a sample certificate using [sample name] values and emails it to your own address so you can preview the design and the email copy.

Then submit the form yourself via the eye-icon preview using your real email — within ~30 seconds you should get the live certificate by email.

Customizing templates

Every template is a Google Slides file you own. Click ✏️ Edit Template in either sidebar and the file opens in Slides. You can:

• Replace the title, headings, or any static text
• Change fonts, colors, and decorations
• Add your organization's logo, a signature image, a QR code, etc.
• Move or resize placeholder text boxes
• Add new placeholders using {{your_field_name}} syntax — they'll appear in the mapping UI next time you open the sidebar

Every change you save applies to all future certificates generated from that template. Already-sent PDFs are not modified.

The audit log

Every certificate IssueBadge sends creates an entry in a private IssueBadge Log:

• In Sheets, the log is a new tab inside your active spreadsheet.
• In Forms, the log is a dedicated IssueBadge Log spreadsheet in your Drive (created the first time a certificate is sent).

Each row records: Cert ID, Recipient name, Email, Sent timestamp, Status, PDF link in Drive, and a tamper-resistant SHA-256 hash of (certId + email + recipient). The hash lets you verify a certificate later without exposing personal data.

Troubleshooting

The IssueBadge menu doesn't appear

Reload the Sheet or Form (F5). The onOpen trigger only fires on load. If the menu is still missing after a reload, check that the add-on is installed at myaccount.google.com/permissions and that you accepted all OAuth scopes during install.

"Auto-send is OFF" and the toggle is greyed out

The toggle requires two prerequisites: (a) a template is picked and (b) a Recipient email field is selected. Both are visible in the sidebar — fill them in and the toggle becomes active.

Certificates aren't being emailed

Most common cause: you've hit Gmail's daily quota. Personal Gmail caps you at 100 emails/day; Workspace is 1,500/day. The quota resets at midnight Pacific time. You can also check the IssueBadge Log — failed rows include the error message in the Status column.

Placeholders aren't being replaced

Make sure the placeholder in your template matches the mapped column name exactly, including casing. {{name}} and {{Name}} are different. Also check that the placeholder is plain text (not inside a textbox style that mangles braces).

The form auto-closed unexpectedly

You likely hit your Max submissions limit (set in Advanced). Open the IssueBadge sidebar to see your current usage, raise the limit or set it to 0 (unlimited), then re-open the form via the Form's Settings → Responses → Accepting responses toggle.

Wrong-sized certificates

All 15 starter templates ship at 11 × 8.5 inches (US Letter landscape). If you copied a template before, customized it, and the page now looks distorted, open the template in Slides → File → Page setup → Custom → 11 × 8.5 inches → Apply.

How to uninstall

From the Google Workspace Marketplace listing, click Uninstall. Or revoke access at myaccount.google.com/permissions. Templates, generated PDFs, and the audit log already saved in your own Drive remain yours and are unaffected.

FAQ

Is IssueBadge really free? Yes — fully free, no per-certificate fees, no subscription. The Gmail send quota (Google's limit, not ours) is the only ceiling.

Where is my data stored? Entirely in your own Google account. Templates copy into your Drive. PDFs save to your Drive. Emails send from your Gmail. IssueBadge does not operate a server that receives any of your spreadsheet contents, form responses, recipient data, or generated certificates. Full details in our Privacy Policy.

Can I send more than 100/day? Yes, if you're on Google Workspace (1,500/day Gmail quota). Personal Gmail accounts are capped at 100/day by Google. If you need higher throughput, batch your sends across days or upgrade your Gmail to Workspace.

Can I use my own custom design? Yes. Open any of the 15 starter templates in Slides and redesign it — change colors, fonts, layout, add logos. Or upload a brand-new Slides file as a template (paste its share link in the sidebar's Advanced → Add shared template).

Does it work with Google Forms quizzes? Yes — automatic. If your form is configured as a quiz, IssueBadge reads the score and sends certificates only to people above your passing threshold.

What about Docs-based certificates? Same engine. Replace any Slides template ID with a Google Docs file ID and IssueBadge will use the Docs merge path. Useful for letter-of-recognition style certificates.

What if a respondent enters a fake email? The certificate gets sent to whatever address they typed. Best practice: enable Forms' built-in email validation on the Email question (question's ⋮ → Response validation → Text → Email) so only valid email format is accepted.

How do I cancel auto-send? In the Forms sidebar, click Turn OFF. The submission trigger is removed immediately; new submissions stop generating certificates.

Need help?

Email support@issuebadge.com or visit our contact page. We typically respond within 48 hours.

For full Google API data-handling details, see Privacy Policy Section 12 — Google Workspace API & Limited Use Policy.