# Required Qualifications

Source: https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/settings/users-settings/qualifications

> Require User Groups to hold a current User Record before rostering, and choose whether a missing record warns or blocks.

Astalty Premium - This feature is part of the Astalty Premium plan. See What Premium includes.

## Overview

Qualifications let you say that members of a User Group must hold a particular credential, such as First Aid, NDIS Worker Screening or Manual Handling, before they can be rostered onto a shift.

A qualification isn't a new kind of record. It's built directly on your existing [User Records](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/settings/users-settings/user-records): you mark an existing **User Record Type** as required for rostering, and Astalty works out who holds it from the records already on each worker's profile. There's nothing extra for workers to upload, and no separate Qualifications screen to maintain.

Requirements can come from two directions:

- **User Group-based**: everyone in a selected User Group needs the qualification. This is set on the User Record Type and covered on this page.
- **Participant-based**: anyone supporting a particular Participant needs the qualification. This is set on the Participant's profile. See [Required Qualifications for a Participant](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/participants/required-qualifications).

> **User Group requirements live on the User Record Type**
>
> User Group requirements are configured **inside the User Record Type** itself. There is no separate **Qualifications** item in the Settings menu.

## Setting Up a User Group Requirement

Only the Account Owner, and Admins who have **Can manage User Records for all Users** turned on, can set up or change qualification requirements. That toggle is off by default for other Admins. Managers can view requirements but not change them.

1. Go to [Settings > Users](https://app.astalty.com.au/settings/users).
2. Find the **User Record Types** card.
3. Click **Create User Record Type**, or open the menu on an existing record type and click **Edit**.
4. Scroll down to the **Rostering** section.
5. Tick **Required to work**.
6. Open **Select a user group** and choose the User Group that needs this qualification. The list includes custom groups, Team groups and reserved role groups.
7. Choose an **Enforcement** level, then select **Add**. Repeat for each User Group that needs this qualification.
8. Select **Update**, or **Create** on a new record type, to save.

The **Rostering** section only appears once Qualifications is enabled on your account. Ticking **Required to work** reveals the description:

> Warn or block rostering workers who don't hold a current record. Workers see this as a required qualification when you roster them.

Each User Group you add appears in a list, with its own **Enforcement** dropdown and a **Remove** action.

![The Rostering section of the Edit User Record Type drawer for First Aid Certificate highlighted, with Required to work ticked, Support Worker set to Block, and Select a user group, Enforcement and Add below](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/qualifications-user-record-type-rostering-guide.png)

> **You must add at least one User Group**
>
> If you tick **Required to work** but do not add any User Groups, saving fails with **Add at least one user group to require this record to work.** This blocks the whole save, including creation of a new record type. Add a User Group or untick the box before saving.

Once every User Group has been configured, the add row is replaced with **Every user group is configured.**

## Enforcement Levels

Enforcement decides what happens when a worker who doesn't hold the record is rostered.

| Level     | What happens                                                                                                                                                        |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Warn**  | The worker is flagged on the schedule, in worker suggestions and in the Qualifications Compliance report, but nothing is blocked. Schedulers can still roster them. |
| **Block** | The roster save is rejected, and the worker is greyed out and unselectable in the worker suggestion tables.                                                         |

**Block** is selected by default when you add a user group.

> **Warnings never block anything**
>
> A worker whose only issues are **Warn**-level counts as passing every check. Warn-level issues never grey out a worker, stop a save or affect how workers are sorted in the suggestions list. They are indicators for visibility rather than enforcement.

### Turning a Requirement Off

There's no "Off" option in the dropdown. To stop enforcing a qualification, either:

- **Remove a single User Group**: select **Remove** next to it, then save. Other groups remain configured.
- **Remove the requirement entirely**: untick **Required to work** and save. The qualification is deleted along with all of its User Group requirements.

### Overlapping Requirements

A worker can be covered by more than one requirement for the same qualification. For example, a User Group requirement could be set to **Warn** while a Participant requirement is set to **Block**.

When that happens, the strictest one applies. If any requirement covering that qualification is set to **Block**, the worker is blocked.

## Seeing Which Record Types Are Required

Once Qualifications is enabled, the **User Record Types** table gains a **Required to Work** column showing a tick against each record type that has at least one rostering requirement.

## Required Record vs Required to Work

The User Record Type drawer has two settings that sound similar but do different jobs:

- **Required record** (and **Required for some user groups**) controls whether the record shows as *missing* on the [User Records Report](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/reports/user-records-report). It's about record-keeping.
- **Required to work**, in the **Rostering** section, controls whether a missing or expired record *warns or blocks* when rostering. It's about scheduling.

You can use either on its own, or both together.

## When a Worker Counts as Holding a Qualification

A worker holds a qualification when they have a **current** record of that type. A record is current when it is:

- not archived,
- not declined,
- verified, if the record type requires verification,
- not expired.

Anything else counts as a failure and shows on the compliance report as one of four reasons: **Missing**, **Expired**, **Awaiting Verification** or **Declined**.

> **Archiving a record type switches its requirements off**
>
> If you archive a User Record Type, every qualification requirement built on it stops applying. It disappears from roster checks, the schedule, worker suggestions and the Qualifications Compliance report. Astalty does not warn you about this when you archive.
>
> Nothing is deleted. Unarchive the record type and all of its requirements start applying again exactly as before.

If you **rename** a record type, the qualification is renamed with it. If you **delete** a record type, the qualification and all of its requirements are deleted too. Deleting a **user group** removes that group's requirements.

## Related Guides

- [Required Qualifications for a Participant](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/participants/required-qualifications): requirements that apply to anyone supporting a particular Participant.
- [Qualification Checks When Rostering](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/qualification-checks): what schedulers see on the roster.
- [Qualifications Compliance Report](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/reports/qualifications-compliance-report): who is currently missing a required qualification.
- [Lapsed Qualification Notifications](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/notifications/lapsed-qualification-notifications): get alerted when a worker on an upcoming shift is no longer qualified.