Mandatory Activities and Deadlines - Article

What Mandatory helps you achieve

The Mandatory feature turns a Training Activity into a required learning commitment with a completion deadline.

Typical uses include:

• Give every new employee 30 days from enrollment to complete induction.
• Require a scheduled compliance cohort to finish within 14 days of the program starting.
• Set one annual policy deadline for everyone.
• Prioritize required product or safety training in the participant experience.
• Remind incomplete participants before their deadline.
• Escalate missed deadlines to an Immediate Manager, Organization Manager, or responsible Course Administrator.
• Apply a fresh completion period when a re-certification attempt begins.

Mandatory combines three ideas:

1. The Training Activity is required.
2. Every applicable Registered signup receives a deadline.
3. An incomplete signup becomes visibly Overdue after that deadline passes.

Mandatory creates accountability, not enforcement by itself

The deadline and Overdue label communicate urgency and support reporting and automation. They do not automatically remove access, complete the activity, cancel the participant, notify a manager, or apply a penalty.

Choose the correct date or control

Many Eurekos features use dates. Select the control that matches the business objective.

Understand how deadlines, access, and certificate validity work together

Access Restrictions, Mandatory, Access Expiration, and certificate expiration control different parts of the participant lifecycle. They should not be treated as one uninterrupted sequence.

For example:

• The participant enrolls in the Training Activity.
• Access Restrictions open the preparation when its prerequisites are met.
• The participant must complete the training by the Mandatory deadline of 30 September.
• If the participant is incomplete on 30 September, the training displays Overdue. This status does not automatically remove access.
• Access Expiration is configured for 30 October, allowing the participant an additional month to complete the training.
• When completion is recorded and the certificate criteria are met, the certificate is issued.
• The issued certificate remains valid until its configured expiration—for example, two years after issuance.

A participant can therefore become Overdue and subsequently complete the training while access remains available. Access Expiration ends access to the learning; it does not by itself expire an issued certificate. Certificate expiration applies to the qualification after the certificate has been issued.

Document every date in plain language so administrators and participants understand which setting controls enrollment, completion, access, or qualification.

Understand the configuration level

Mandatory is configured in the activity-level Features of a Training Activity.

The deadline applies to the participant's complete activity signup rather than one individual module. This means:

• A learning path has one activity-level deadline for the whole journey.
• A single-Course or single-Event activity also receives an activity-level deadline.
• Individual Assignments can still have separate due dates.
• Events retain their own Starts and Ends values.
• Courses and Events can have their own access restrictions.

For activity types other than a learning path, Eurekos can also display the activity deadline at module level. This extra display does not create a second independent deadline.

If different parts of a program need genuinely independent completion deadlines, consider whether they should be separate Training Activities or use the module-specific controls that match the requirement.

Permissions and ownership

Configuring Mandatory requires permission to edit the Training Activity and its activity-level Features. Course Administrator, Support, Platform Administrator, and Global Administrator roles normally have access, subject to platform configuration and organization scope.

The people who receive deadline reminders do not need permission to configure the feature. Their relationship must exist in the data used by the workflow—for example, the participant's Immediate Manager or the activity's responsible Course Administrator.

Establish ownership for:

• Policy owner—decides who must complete the training and by when.
• Course Administrator—configures the deadline and validates participant behavior.
• Content owner—keeps the required learning completable throughout the deadline period.
• Instructor or assessor—records attendance and assessment in time.
• Manager—follows up when a participant is approaching or has missed the deadline.
• Compliance or reporting owner—monitors completion and Overdue records.
• Platform or email owner—governs workflows, sender configuration, templates, and delivery evidence.

Mandatory training can affect employment, licensing, customer obligations, and audit evidence. Define exceptions, extensions, and escalation responsibility before participants receive the assignment.

Configure a Mandatory deadline

To enable the feature:

1. Open Course Administration.
2. Open the Training Activity.
3. Choose Edit activity.
4. Open the activity-level Features.
5. Add or enable Mandatory.
6. Select the deadline calculation.
7. Enter the required number, date, and time.
8. Save the activity.
9. Register a controlled test participant.
10. Verify the participant's calculated deadline before assigning the activity more widely.

The deadline models are:

The interface groups these through Days after, Months after, and At specific date choices. The available reference field depends on the chosen unit.

A duration is required

If a Days after or Months after option is selected but the number is left empty, saving the activity does not enable Mandatory.

After saving, reopen the activity and verify that:

• Mandatory remains enabled.
• The selected rule is still present.
• The number is stored.
• A new Registered test signup receives a Deadline.

Do not mistake an incomplete configuration form for an active policy.

Choose the correct deadline model

Days after Activity starts

Use this when the completion period should follow a scheduled cohort.

Example:

Everyone enrolled in the September compliance cohort must complete the full activity within 14 days after the program starts.

This model requires an applicable activity-level Start date. It is most appropriate when:

• Participants belong to the same scheduled delivery.
• The activity opens or begins as a shared cohort.
• Late enrollees should still inherit the same cohort deadline.
• The completion period is measured in days rather than calendar months.

Before using it, check:

• Activity-level Schedule is enabled.
• Starts contains the correct date, time, and time zone.
• Module dates do not extend beyond the calculated completion deadline.
• Late enrollment remains operationally possible.
• Automated Email Workflow rules use the participant's effective Deadline rather than a copied fixed date.

A participant enrolled after the activity starts can receive a much shorter remaining period. If every participant should receive the same amount of time, use a deadline relative to User enrollment instead.

Days after User enrollment

Use this when each participant should receive the same number of days from registration.

Example:

Every newly enrolled employee has 30 days to complete onboarding.

This model is suitable for:

• Rolling onboarding
• Evergreen compliance learning
• Individually assigned product training
• Self-paced customer or partner education
• Onboarding Rules that enroll users at different times

The deadline varies by signup.

Confirm when each enrollment route creates the Registered signup. Manual enrollment, import, onboarding, nested training, self-enrollment, Storefront purchase, manager enrollment, and approved participation requests can represent different operational journeys.

Months after User enrollment

Use this when the policy is naturally expressed in calendar months.

Examples:

• Complete annual induction within three months of enrollment.
• Finish a partner-accreditation program within six months of receiving access.

Calendar-month calculations are not the same as a fixed number of days. Test participants enrolled:

• On the first day of a month
• Near the end of a month
• On 29 February in a leap year
• Before a daylight-saving change when a time is displayed

Use Days after when the policy requires an exact day count. Use Months after when stakeholders genuinely mean calendar months.

At specific date and time

Use this when everyone should work toward one shared deadline.

Typical uses include:

• Annual compliance due by year-end
• A policy update due before a regulatory date
• A cohort that must complete before a shared assessment
• A customer group with a single contractual milestone

Enter both date and time. Confirm the time-zone context presented by your platform and communicate the moment clearly to global audiences.

Fixed deadlines need extra care for late assignments. Someone enrolled the day before the deadline receives far less time than someone enrolled months earlier.

Before assigning new participants, check:

• Whether the deadline is still in the future.
• Whether the content can realistically be completed in the remaining time.
• Whether required Events or instructor assessments occur before it.
• Whether Access Expiration ends later than the deadline.
• Whether the notification workflow still has time to run.

Understand participant visibility

The effective Deadline is displayed for mandatory activities in Trainings I attend.

Mandatory training is also prioritized in the participant's training experience so required work is easier to find. Current participant overviews can group or order Mandatory and Overdue training prominently among active learning.

For activity types that are not learning paths, the deadline can additionally appear at module level. Treat it as another presentation of the activity's deadline, not a separate module rule.

The participant should be able to answer:

• Which activity is mandatory?
• What is my deadline?
• Is the deadline shown in my local time?
• What remains incomplete?
• Can I still continue after the date?
• Who should I contact for an exception?

Use the Activity Description and email communication when the reason, consequence, or exception policy needs more explanation than the platform label provides.

Understand Overdue

If the participant has not completed the Training Activity when the deadline passes, Eurekos displays Overdue.

Overdue is a label

It identifies that the deadline has passed. It does not perform another action by itself.

Overdue does not automatically:

• Remove access
• Change the signup to Expired or Cancelled
• Lock a Course or Event
• Mark the participant complete or failed
• Revoke a certificate
• Create a new re-certification attempt
• Notify a manager
• Send an email
• Apply a financial or HR consequence
• Free or consume an additional seat

If access remains available, the participant can continue working after the deadline and can still reach completion when the activity's normal criteria are met.

Use an Automated Email Workflow to send reminders or escalations. Use Access Expiration only when the business requirement also says access must end.

Do not use Overdue as a failure grade

Overdue describes timing, not learning performance.

A participant can be:

• Overdue and not started
• Overdue and in progress
• Overdue while awaiting Event attendance recording
• Overdue while waiting for Assignment assessment
• Overdue because a required certificate criterion has not been met

Investigate the underlying completion state before treating Overdue as participant inaction.

Prevent participant self-cancellation

A Registered participant should not be able to use Cancel participation on a Mandatory activity.

This helps preserve administrator-assigned obligations. It prevents the participant from removing required training simply because they do not wish to complete it.

It does not mean the signup can never be changed. An authorized administrator can still use the appropriate participant-management process when:

• The assignment was made in error.
• The participant is exempt.
• Employment or contractual status changed.
• The user should move to another delivery.
• Duplicate enrollment must be corrected.
• The activity is being retired or replaced.

Define who approves cancellation or exemption and how the reason is documented. Do not disable Mandatory merely to let one participant cancel, because that changes the policy for the activity population.

Understand deadline recalculation

Mandatory deadline changes apply differently from Access Expiration changes.

When the activity's Deadline configuration is updated, Eurekos recalculates the Deadline for all active signups.

This means a live change can immediately:

• Move participant deadlines earlier or later
• Make incomplete participants Overdue
• Remove an Overdue condition when the deadline moves later
• Reschedule deadline-based workflow notifications
• Change the date displayed to participants, managers, and administrators

Before changing a live deadline:

1. Export or review current participants and their completion state.
2. Identify people already near or beyond the existing date.
3. Compare the old and new deadline for each enrollment cohort.
4. Review scheduled, sent, and skipped workflow notifications.
5. Check certificate and re-certification timelines.
6. Verify Access Expiration remains later than the new deadline where required.
7. Plan participant and manager communication.
8. Save the change deliberately.
9. Review the activity Change log.
10. Recheck representative participant signups.

Do not change a deadline silently after participants have been told another date.

Recalculate a deadline when a signup becomes Registered

When a signup changes to Registered after the Deadline configuration was updated, the participant's deadline is recalculated.

This applies when Registered status is restored or created from another state such as:

• Expired
• Cancelled
• Waiting list
• Reserved

The resulting deadline follows the activity's current Mandatory configuration.

Examples:

• A waiting-list participant receives a seat and becomes Registered.
• A reservation is converted into an active enrollment.
• An expired participant is reactivated.
• A cancelled signup is reactivated.

After the status change, check the new deadline. Do not assume the participant retains the date from an earlier signup state.

Coordinate with waiting lists and reservations

A person on the Waiting list or holding a reservation may have been aware of the activity for some time without having an active Registered signup.

When they become Registered:

• An enrollment-relative deadline is calculated from the relevant registration event.
• A fixed date may leave little time.
• An activity-start-relative deadline may already be close or overdue.
• Deadline-based workflow messages may have little time to run.

Check the participant journey when promoting or converting people late in a scheduled program.

Reapply the deadline during re-certification

For a duration-based Mandatory rule, a new re-certification attempt receives a fresh Deadline. The original duration is calculated again from the date the new attempt starts.

Example:

The activity gives participants 30 days to complete. When a re-certification attempt begins, the renewed attempt receives another 30-day completion period from the new-attempt date.

The Mandatory deadline remains separate from:

• Certificate expiration
• The date re-certification becomes available
• The end of the grace period
• Access Expiration
• Scheduled Event availability

For uninterrupted qualification, design the intended timeline in this order:

1. Re-certification becomes available.
2. The participant starts the new attempt.
3. The new Mandatory completion period begins.
4. Required Events, assessments, and instructor actions take place.
5. The renewed attempt reaches its Mandatory deadline.
6. The existing certificate expires.

Confirm the actual dates rather than relying only on this intended order. If the Mandatory deadline falls after certificate expiration, the participant can have a gap in valid qualification. If the first required Event occurs after the deadline, the renewed journey cannot be completed in time.

Align renewal availability, attempt start, required delivery dates, the Mandatory deadline, and certificate expiration deliberately.

Add reminders and escalation with Automated Email Workflows

Mandatory does not send a complete communication sequence by itself. Connect an Automated Email Workflow when stakeholders should receive reminders or take action.

The workflow can use Deadline as a timing reference.

Use the correct participant audience

Before the deadline, use Participants not completed. These participants still have time to act.

After the deadline, use Participants missed deadline. This audience depends on:

• Mandatory being enabled
• A valid calculated Deadline
• The Deadline having passed
• The participant remaining incomplete

Do not use Participants missed deadline before the date. The audience state does not exist yet.

Use the effective signup deadline

When deadlines can differ by participant, include Signup deadline date in the message. This ensures a manager or custom recipient sees the date belonging to the participant concerned.

Avoid typing one fixed deadline into a reusable workflow unless every connected signup genuinely has that same date.

Choose timing that participants can use

Examples:

• 14 days before: early notice for substantial learning
• 7 days before: planning reminder
• 1 day before: final completion prompt
• 1 day after: missed-deadline notice
• 3 days after: manager escalation

The appropriate cadence depends on course duration, urgency, learner workload, Event dependencies, and organizational policy. More messages are not always more effective.

Connect at activity level

The Mandatory deadline belongs to the complete activity signup. Connect deadline-based workflow rules at activity level so the audience and Signup deadline date resolve in the correct context.

Module-level workflows can still support Course or Event communication, but should not be used as though every module has an independent Mandatory deadline.

Manager and administrator dependencies

A manager escalation needs a current relationship in the participant's profile or organization. A Course Administrator reminder needs the relevant responsible Course Administrator.

Before rollout, test participants with:

• A valid Immediate Manager
• No Immediate Manager
• An Organization Manager
• Several organization relationships where applicable
• The responsible Course Administrator present
• A blocked or inactive recipient account
• Every supported language

Monitor the notification timeline

Use the activity's notification timeline to confirm whether each rule is:

• Scheduled
• Sent
• Skipped
• Available for an authorized manual send

A scheduled or sent state does not by itself prove that the external mailbox delivered the message. For delivery problems, continue with Settings → Email Sending → Logs, sender configuration, daily sending limits, and mail-provider evidence.

Coordinate Mandatory with completion

The deadline does not define what completion means. Completion follows the Training Activity's modules and configured criteria.

Depending on the activity, completion can require:

• Course content completion
• Test success
• Event end or marked attendance
• Assignment assessment and Passed status
• Certificate issuance criteria
• Completion of required modules in a learning path
• Participant confirmation through a Complete button
• Required Training Feedback when configured as a certificate dependency

Before setting the deadline, calculate how long the slowest required process can take.

For instructor-dependent activities, allow time for:

• Attendance recording
• Assignment review
• Resubmission
• Manual assessment
• Support correction
• Certificate processing

An apparently late participant may be waiting for an administrator or instructor action.

Coordinate Mandatory with Access Restrictions

Access Restrictions can keep part or all of the journey locked until requirements are met. Mandatory continues counting toward its deadline unless its calculation depends on an event that has not yet occurred.

Before combining them:

• Ensure prerequisites are reachable.
• Ensure cross-activity requirements can be completed before the deadline.
• Avoid circular dependencies.
• Test date-based restrictions against the Mandatory date.
• Confirm an optional adaptive module does not continue blocking required learning.
• Explain unusual sequences in the Activity Description.

Do not assign a deadline that expires before a restricted module can open.

Coordinate Mandatory with Access Expiration

Mandatory tells the participant when the Training Activity should be completed. Access Expiration tells the System when to remove access.

The recommended order is:

1. The participant reaches the Mandatory deadline.
2. Incomplete training becomes Overdue, and any approved follow-up or grace period begins.
3. Access ends when the configured Access Expiration is reached.

If Access Expiration occurs before the Mandatory deadline, the participant can lose access before they are expected to complete the training. If both occur at the same time, there is no recovery period for technical problems, delayed attendance recording, assessment, or other administrative actions.

Use a deliberate grace period when policy permits it. Clearly communicate which date is the completion deadline and which date is the final opportunity to access the training.

For more detail, see Access Expiration.

Coordinate Mandatory with enrollment and onboarding

Mandatory does not enroll anyone. Participants must receive a signup through an appropriate route, such as:

• Administrator enrollment
• User import
• Onboarding Rule
• Self-enrollment
• Manager enrollment
• Invitation or Smart Link
• Participation approval
• Subscription
• Nested Existing Training
• Integration or API

The enrollment route can affect when an enrollment-relative deadline begins.

For Onboarding Rules, deadline-relative-to-enrollment is useful when people are assigned at different times. Test identity updates and bulk imports so users are not silently assigned a deadline they cannot meet.

Do not confuse Mandatory Training Activity deadlines with mandatory login content configured in an Onboarding Rule. Login content can block progression until acknowledged; the Training Activity feature creates a deadline and Overdue state.

Coordinate Mandatory with scheduled learning

Review every scheduled dependency before setting the deadline.

Align activity Schedule, Event times, Assignment due dates, workflow reminders, and Deadline as one delivery plan.

Coordinate Mandatory with commerce

Mandatory training can be free, paid, subscription-funded, contract-funded, or assigned without checkout.

The Mandatory feature does not:

• Collect payment
• Accept terms
• Apply a Coupon
• Create a subscription
• Decide who is financially responsible
• Refund a participant who misses the deadline

For paid mandatory training, explain:

• When the completion period begins
• Whether missing the deadline affects access
• Whether an extension is available
• Whether a new purchase is required
• Who approves deadline changes
• What happens to Additional Products and Events

Do not move a paid participant's deadline without following the approved commercial and customer-service process.

Report and monitor mandatory training

Mandatory deadlines support operational and compliance monitoring across participant and administrative views.

Useful evidence can include:

• Activity and signup
• Mandatory indicator
• Effective Deadline
• Completion status and date
• Overdue state
• Activity and module progress
• Event attendance
• Assignment status
• Certificate status
• Notification timeline
• Manager relationship
• Administrative completion or exception evidence

The Training Statistics report includes mandatory/deadline information for signup-level visibility. Learning Performance and Progress views can also support overdue monitoring according to role and platform configuration.

Use one authoritative report for each recurring compliance process. Document:

• Report scope
• Date and organization filters
• Which status counts as compliant
• How overdue-but-completed records are treated
• How exceptions are represented
• Whether the report reflects current state or historical state at a point in time

Export before a major deadline change when an audit may need the earlier dates.

Change, clone, repeat, or link Mandatory activities safely

Change a live activity

Because the deadline recalculates for active signups, a live edit is a participant-impacting action.

Before saving:

• Compare old and new rules.
• Identify who becomes newly Overdue.
• Identify which scheduled reminders will move or be skipped.
• Review manager communication.
• Confirm required learning is still available.
• Preserve an evidence snapshot where needed.

Clone

Cloning copies enabled activity features and configured values, subject to the documented cloning behavior.

Review Mandatory before enrollment:

• A copied fixed date may already be past.
• A copied start-relative rule needs a valid new activity Schedule.
• Workflow connections may contain dates or wording for the source audience.
• The cloned activity may serve a different policy or organization.

Repeat

Repeating scheduled training creates another linked occurrence. A duration based on Activity starts can adapt when the new occurrence has the correct activity Start. A copied fixed date must normally be reviewed.

Check that required Events, Assignments, and assessment capacity fit within the new deadline.

Linked activities and Apply to all

Mandatory is an activity-level feature and can be included when linked activity changes are saved with Apply to all.

Use Apply to all only when every linked delivery should have the same deadline configuration. Regional cohorts, different start dates, different contract periods, or different certification cycles may require separate values.

After a linked update, inspect the recalculated deadlines on active signups in every affected activity.

Verify the configuration

Use normal participant accounts rather than relying only on administrator Preview.

Build a test matrix.

For deadline-based workflow testing, use controlled short intervals only in a safe test environment. Monitor scheduled processing rather than changing production dates repeatedly.

Practical configuration patterns

Troubleshooting