Recording certifications

Certifications use questionnaires to ask stakeholders to provide information.

How it works

When someone enables certifications for a project, a Results collection is automatically created to house questionnaire responses for the project. You can then create one or more questionnaires to send to stakeholders.

App Action
Projects
  • Enable certifications
  • Configure and update certification programs
  • View the status of certification programs

For more information about setting up certification programs, see Creating certification programs.
Results
  • Manage user access to Collections
  • Create questionnaires
  • View all responses in table and process records

Certification data

Each project that uses certifications has a corresponding data structure in the Results app. When someone enables certifications on a project, a Collection containing an Analysis and empty Table are added to the Results app:

  • Collection name is the same as the project name, and will update if you rename your project.
  • Analysis name is "Certifications" by default. If you have defined custom terms for the project type that generated this collection, your custom term is used instead. You can rename this in the analysis settings. If you change a custom term in Projects later, that change will not be reflected in the analysis name.
  • Table name is "Responses" by default. You can edit this in the table settings. The table is also tagged as a Certifications table above the title. If you have defined custom terms for the project type that generated this collection, your custom term is used instead. If you change a custom term in Projects later, that change will be reflected in the tag and table type, but not until you send or resend a certification.

The table contains all certification records for that project. As more items are added to certifications, records are appended to this table.

Note

Certification tables are similar to any table in the Results app. You can use standard functionality like triggers, metrics, and visualizations with them. Certification tables also contain standard metadata columns such as Status and Priority. You cannot manually delete certification tables or the Collections and Analyses that contain them.

Note

If you enable control performance and certifications for the same project, both features use the same collection in the Results app, but records are stored in separate analyses and tables.

Contextual data captured in Results

The following Projects fields are captured as contextual data in the table in the Results app:

Note

You must configure the questionnaire in Results to Show all record fields or Show select record fields to display these fields to questionnaire respondents. For more information, see Creating questionnaires.

Project fields Objective fields Certification fields
  • Project name
  • Project ID (system field)
  • Project URL
  • Objective ID (system field)
  • Objective reference ID (the ID assigned by the person who created the objective)
  • Objective name
  • Objective URL
  • Type (objective, narrative, risk, or control)
  • Title
  • URL
  • Certification name
  • Due date
  • Recipient
  • Object ID (system field)
  • Control ID (for certifications on controls, this is the ID assigned by the person who created the control)
  • Risk ID (for certifications on risks, this is the ID assigned by the person who created the risk)

Contextual data visible to stakeholders but not captured in Results

To improve context while answering certification questionnaires, stakeholders see additional information about the certification program in the questionnaire itself, but this data is not captured in the records stored in Results.

  • Additional information or instructions about the certification.
  • Related files attached to the certification.
  • The description of the item being certified.
  • To properly support SOX 302 requirements, sequential certifications allow stakeholders to see previous responses to a questionnaire, even if question fields are turned off in that certification table's settings. This allows, for example, a control owner to certify a control, then their managing director to certify that control after seeing the control owner's answers, and so on. This creates a chain of certifications that lead to final executive sign-off. For more information about sequential certification programs, see Creating certification programs.

Deleting tables or records

You cannot delete tables or records that were created by Diligent One to support certifications. You can delete these tables or records by deleting the project that generated them in the Projects app.

Disabling certifications or deleting items

If you disable certifications, or delete an item in the Projects app that has an associated certification, the table and records are retained in the Results app. However, any links to the certification questionnaire expire and cannot be used to record additional records.

Archived projects

When a project that uses certifications is archived or deleted in the Projects app, the associated collection in the Results app is also archived. For more information about archived Collections, see Working with collections.

Rollforward projects

When an archived project that uses certifications is rolled forward in Projects, certifications are copied to the new project.

A new Collection is automatically created in the Results app containing all collection members and previously created questionnaires. The Analysis name and description are also copied to the new Analysis within the new Collection. The new project and the new Collection are automatically linked, but certifications are not resent automatically. When you are ready to begin certifications, you can resend each certification as needed.