If you manage licensed employees at a utility contractor or vegetation management company, there’s a good chance your compliance tracking system is a spreadsheet. Maybe a few spreadsheets. Maybe a spreadsheet that links to another spreadsheet, plus some calendar reminders, plus a folder of screenshots from state board websites.

It’s not because you haven’t looked for something better. It’s because most software in this space was built for something else. Your LMS handles training assignments fine, but it has no idea whether someone’s ISA certification is actually current with the credentialing body. Your HR system tracks hire dates and job titles, not pesticide applicator license renewals in Virginia vs. North Carolina.

So the spreadsheet grows. And someone — usually one person — becomes responsible for keeping it accurate.

The problem gets worse with every state you add

A company operating in five states has five sets of licensing requirements to track. Different renewal cycles, different CE categories, different state board websites to manually check. An ISA Certified Arborist credential is national, but pesticide applicator licenses are state-specific. CDL medical cards have their own timeline. If you’re also tracking TRAQ qualifications, BCMA credentials, or electrical licenses for line construction crews, each one adds another column to the spreadsheet and another government website to check.

The person managing all of this is probably logging into each state board’s lookup tool individually, typing in names, confirming statuses, and recording the results by hand. That works when you have 20 employees in one state. It breaks down when you have 200 across 25.

What actually goes wrong

The risk isn’t theoretical. When an employee shows up to a job site with an expired or lapsed license, that’s a liability issue. Utility customers increasingly require proof of current credentials for every crew member on their property. If your documentation is a spreadsheet that was last updated three weeks ago, you’re exposed.

The other thing that happens is quiet attrition of institutional knowledge. The person who owns the spreadsheet knows which states require annual renewals vs. biennial, which boards send email reminders and which don’t, which certifications have CE requirements and which are just renewal fees. If that person leaves, the replacement is starting from scratch.

Why an LMS doesn’t solve this

Learning management systems are built to assign training and track completion. They answer the question “did this employee take the required course?” They don’t answer “is this employee’s license currently active with the state board?”

Those are different questions. You can complete all your CE requirements and still have an expired license because you missed the renewal deadline or forgot to submit your documentation. An LMS has no way to check that because it doesn’t connect to the licensing boards where the actual status lives.

The gap between “completed training” and “verified as licensed” is where compliance risk hides.

What a purpose-built system looks like

The alternative to the spreadsheet isn’t a bigger spreadsheet or a more expensive LMS. It’s a system that was designed specifically for license compliance. That means a few things:

Automated verification against the actual source. Instead of someone manually checking the ISA website or a state pesticide board, the system checks for you and flags anything that’s changed. Not self-reported status — actual verification against the licensing body’s records.

Multi-state, multi-license tracking in one place. One employee might hold an ISA Certified Arborist credential, a state pesticide applicator license, and a CDL with a medical card. Each has different renewal cycles and different requirements. A compliance system should track all of them together, per employee, and show you who needs attention.

Alerts before things expire, not after. Expiration alerts at 90, 60, and 30 days give you time to act. By the time someone’s license has actually lapsed, you’ve already got a crew scheduling problem.

A clear compliance picture for leadership. When someone asks “are we compliant?” the answer should be a dashboard, not a request to wait while someone updates the spreadsheet.

This is what we’re building at CourseCounter

CourseCounter started as a mobile app for individual professionals tracking their own CE credits and license renewals. Nurses, social workers, therapists — people who were using paper folders and anxiety to manage their compliance.

We’ve since built an enterprise compliance dashboard that does the same thing at the organization level. Automated license verification against state and national boards. CE tracking broken down by requirement category. Status alerts. Mobile app access for employees so they can log their own credits, which sync to the admin dashboard automatically.

We’re working with companies in the utility and vegetation management space right now, building out verification coverage for ISA credentials, state pesticide applicator licenses, and other certifications that matter in this industry.

If you’re the person who owns the compliance spreadsheet at your company, I’d like to hear how you’re currently handling it. We’re building this alongside the people who live the problem every day, and those conversations are the most useful ones we have.

You can reach me at carl@coursecounter.com or check out the platform at coursecounter.com.