A certification status reason is the short explanation staff add to a certification status, such as “Non-Payment” or “Ethics Review.” Certification status reasons are separate from the similar list used for applications.
What It Controls
This setting controls the reasons staff can choose when they explain why a certification is active, inactive, suspended, or retired. You can limit a reason to certain statuses, mark it inactive, or protect it from deletion.
Where to Find It
Go to Setup › Certifications › Status Reasons to see every certification status reason in your account. Select Create Status Reason to add one, or use a row’s Edit or Clone action to update or copy an existing reason.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Any text | Blank | The reason staff see in the list. More than one reason can use the same name, but each reason’s identifier must be unique. |
| ID | Letters, digits, underscores, dashes, and vertical bars | Suggested from the name | The reason’s permanent identifier. You can edit it while you create or clone the reason, but it locks after you save. |
| To which applicable statuses does this status reason apply? | Active, Inactive, Retired, Suspended — choose one or more, or leave blank | Blank (applies to all statuses) | Limits which of the four certification statuses show this reason in the Send Notice dialog on a certification’s 360 page. This setting does not limit the certification create-or-edit form, where every reason is offered. |
| Status | Active, Inactive | Active | Controls whether the reason appears by default on the Setup list. Inactive reasons still appear on the certification form, in the Send Notice dialog, and in certification search. |
Only Rhythm staff see a Deletion Protection switch, which prevents a reason from being edited or deleted from the list. Customer administrators do not have this option.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Applicable statuses filter the Send Notice dialog only. If you limit a reason to Active and Suspended, staff sending a notice from a certification’s 360 page see that reason only when the certification’s current status is Active or Suspended. The certification create-or-edit form still lists every reason, regardless of applicable statuses.
- Inactive is a display filter, not a withdrawal. Marking a reason inactive hides it from the default Setup list until you choose to show inactive reasons. Staff can still pick it anywhere they choose a reason for a certification.
- A status change can leave a mismatched reason attached. If a certification’s status changes after a reason was added, the existing reason can stop matching the certification’s new status. Rhythm does not automatically clear or flag it.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Changes to a reason’s name, applicable statuses, or active flag take effect immediately wherever the reason is used or offered. Certifications that already have the reason keep that reason. To retire a reason you no longer want staff to choose for new work, mark it Inactive. If any certifications still use the reason, that is the only practical option because Rhythm refuses the delete.
Permissions
You need administrator-level access to Certifications Setup to open Setup › Certifications › Status Reasons and create, edit, or delete reasons. Staff who send notices and update certifications from a certification’s 360 page do not need this setup access. They use the reasons that have already been configured.
Validation and Errors
- Name and ID are required. If either field is blank, the form’s error panel shows “You haven’t entered a valid value for Name” or “… for Id.”
- If you enter an ID already used by another reason, Rhythm shows an advisory duplicate warning as you type. The warning does not block the save by itself, but Rhythm refuses a genuine duplicate identifier when you save.
- Delete is refused while any certification still carries the reason. You’ll see “Unable to delete Status Reason” with more detail. To delete the reason, first find and update the certifications that use it, such as by searching certifications by status reason, then remove it. Other places that only filter by or reference a reason, such as a billing run’s filters, do not block deletion.
- Mass updating Certification Status Reason may need the reason's ID, not its displayed name. If a mass update on this field fails, try entering the status reason's configured key from Setup instead of the human-readable Name shown on the certification.
Related Tasks
Certification status reasons appear with certification notices when staff communicate with a holder. See Define Certification Notices for the notices part of that setup, and Send a Certification Notice to a Holder for how staff use both together.