Start by creating or opening a Google Slides presentation that contains your certificate design. This is where you build the visual layout: the background, logo, borders, text styling, and any static content that stays the same for every recipient.

In the places where you want personalised content to appear, type a placeholder in double curly braces. Kiacert will replace each placeholder with the corresponding value from your spreadsheet when generating certificates.

Examples of placeholders:

You can use as many placeholders as you need. The names inside the curly braces can be anything, but they must match the column headers in your spreadsheet exactly (case-insensitive).

When your design is ready, copy the link from your browser address bar. It will look like: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/XXXXXXXXXX/edit

Create a Google Sheet where your recipient data is stored. The sheet must follow this structure:

• Row 1: Column headers. Each header must match one of the placeholders in your Slides template, without the curly braces.
• Row 2 onwards: One row per certificate recipient. Each row generates one certificate.

Using the example placeholders from Step 1, your sheet should look like this:

When your sheet is ready, copy its link from the browser address bar. It will look like: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/XXXXXXXXXX/edit

Kiacert saves each certificate as a PDF file directly to a folder in your Google Drive. You need to create this folder in advance and copy its link.

1. Go to drive.google.com
2. Click New and select Folder
3. Give it a descriptive name, for example: May 2026 Certificates
4. Open the folder and copy the URL from your browser address bar

The folder link will look like: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/XXXXXXXXXX

Open Kiacert and click Sign in with Google. You will be asked to grant Kiacert access to your Google Slides, Sheets, and Drive. This is required for the app to read your template and data, and to save certificates to your folder.

Once signed in, you will see three input fields on the setup screen. Paste your three links into the appropriate fields:

• Google Slides template link: the presentation containing your certificate design
• Google Sheets data link: the spreadsheet containing your recipient list
• Google Drive destination folder link: the folder where certificates will be saved

When all three links are filled in, click Run pre-check.

Before generating any certificates, Kiacert runs four checks to make sure everything is in order:

• Google Slides template: confirms the presentation is accessible and finds all placeholders in the slide text.
• Google Sheets data: confirms the spreadsheet is accessible, reads the headers, and counts the number of recipients.
• Drive destination folder: confirms the folder exists and that you have edit access to it.
• Placeholder sync: checks that every placeholder in your Slides template has a matching column in your sheet.

Each check shows one of three results: passed, warning, or failed. If any check shows a failure, you will see a description of what went wrong and you will need to fix it before continuing. Warnings do not block generation but indicate something to be aware of.

Once all checks pass, click Looks good, continue to proceed to the confirm screen.

The confirm screen shows a summary of your run before anything is generated:

• How many placeholders were found in your template
• How many recipients are in your sheet
• How many units this batch will use
• Your current unit balance

If you do not have enough units to cover the full batch, you will be prompted to top up before you can proceed. Kiacert does not generate partial batches; the full batch must be covered by your balance before generation starts.

Once you click Generate certificates, Kiacert processes each recipient one by one. For each row it will: clone your Slides template, fill in all the placeholder values, export it as a PDF, and save it to your Drive folder. One unit is deducted from your balance for each certificate successfully generated.

When generation is complete, you will see a list of all certificates with links to view each PDF directly. You can also click Open Drive folder to see all the files at once.

Kiacert uses a unit-based pricing system. Each certificate generated uses 1 unit from your balance. Units do not expire and carry over between sessions.

New accounts receive 10 free units on signup, which is enough to generate your first 10 certificates and test the platform with real data.

When you need more units, you can purchase a bundle from the units panel in the app:

Payments are processed securely by Paystack. Units are credited to your account immediately after a successful payment.

Pre-check says it cannot access my Slides presentation.
Make sure the link is a full Google Slides URL and that your Google account has at least view access to the presentation. If the file is in a shared Drive owned by another organisation, you may need to request access.

My placeholders are not being detected.
Check that your placeholders use double curly braces with no spaces inside: {{Name}} not {{ Name }} or {Name}. Also make sure the text is inside an editable text box on the slide and not embedded in an image or shape fill.

The pre-check says a column is missing from my sheet.
The column header in your sheet must match the placeholder text exactly, without the curly braces. For {{Certificate No}}, your column header should be Certificate No. Check for extra spaces or different capitalisation.

I cannot access the Drive folder.
Make sure you are signed in to Kiacert with the same Google account that has edit access to the folder. View-only access is not sufficient; Kiacert needs to be able to create files inside the folder.

Some certificates failed during generation.
Occasionally a single certificate may fail due to a temporary API issue. You can re-run the batch with only the rows that failed by removing the successful rows from your sheet temporarily and running again. The failed certificates will not deduct additional units.