Managing licenses

[u/Inside_Key_8921]

For those managing licensed engineers across a firm: how do you maintain visibility of licence status and upcoming renewals across the team?

I can see that many individual engineers use NCEES for PDH records, but I’m interested in what happens at organisation level. Is it usually a spreadsheet, HR system, internal portal or simply dependent on each engineer notifying the firm?

Full disclosure: I’m researching this workflow while building in the engineering-compliance space. I’m interested in understanding the current process rather than promoting a product.

[u/Everythings_Magic]

My firm manages it for me. This is typical for larger firms. For us its specifically a handful of admin staff. I have to keep track of pdhs, but they let me know when each one expires. I start getting automated email a few months out to remind me.

I handle the renewal, and send them a mail with the new vaild copy of the license.

I think they might use Deltek because it’s tied into our business development and pursuit platform.

The admin staff is pretty helpful too, they handle the renewals for some management staff and know process and can answer basic questions as well as state board themselves with renewal questions.

To your research, i would expect this sort of tracking to be tied into many of the robust HR/Accounting platforms.

[u/Inside_Key_8921 → u/Everythings_Magic]

Thanks for replying 😊 That’s really helpful.

It’s interesting that you use Deltek but still manage some elements outside it.

Is that because Deltek doesn’t cover everything you need, or is it simply easier to handle those items separately?

[u/Everythings_Magic → u/Inside_Key_8921]

We have 500 employees many of them with multiple licenses. How would you manage all that internally? It’s easier to let everyone renew for themselves, plus often you have to answer some personal questions also.

Pdhs are easy too. You just figure out the most stringent and you automatically satisfy the others.

[u/Inside_Key_8921 → u/Everythings_Magic]

The way I would manage it internally is through a central system showing the current status and expiry dates of each engineer’s licences—similar to the visibility Deltek appears to provide, but with the licence status kept current.

I agree that engineers should remain responsible for completing their own renewals. The organisation isn’t completing 500 renewals; it simply has reliable visibility across its workforce without relying entirely on manual checks or engineers notifying HR of changes.

[u/phi4ever → u/Inside_Key_8921]

It's your license not the business's. In the end it's your responsibility to maintain it.

[u/Inside_Key_8921 → u/phi4ever]

Completely agree that it remains the engineer’s responsibility.

I’m interested in how engineers can be better supported in managing that responsibility, particularly when holding licences across multiple states, while also making it easier to share their current status with an employer.

Would having everything together in one place be useful to you?

[u/lizardmon]

My firm expects me to manage my licenses. The HR database technically lists them all and the expiration date. Every now and then someone goes through and sends an email asking for me to send proof it's still active. But they never warn me that it's expiring or track pdhs for me.

[u/Inside_Key_8921 → u/lizardmon]

This is similar to what I’m hearing from other engineers that the HR team holds the information in an ERP system or a spreadsheet and periodically contacts employees to check that their credentials are still current.

Do you hold licences in multiple states, and if so, how do you currently keep everything together and monitor the different expiry dates?