Activating an application turns an approved request into an actual certification. If the applicant does not already have a certification in the program, Rhythm creates one. If they already have one, Rhythm renews or reinstates that existing certification.
When to Use This
Use this task when an application is ready to become a certification. Most associations activate applications after their process moves them to Approved, but Rhythm shows the Activate Certification button on Draft, Missing Requirements, Rejected, Expired, and Approved applications. Rhythm does not re-check the application’s status before activation, so review the application’s requirements and status carefully before you activate it. An application can remain in Draft because Save and Return Later is enabled, or because a submission started but never finished processing. For example, the applicant may have hit an error or timeout and left before Rhythm's order engine completed the request.
If you need to activate many applications at once, such as at the end of a review period, use a certification billing run instead. A billing run can automatically activate every approved application in a program as one of its scheduled actions, along with sending reminders. See Create a Billing Run if that fits your workflow better than activating applications one at a time.
Prerequisites
- You have permission to activate applications.
- The application was created through an application process. An application created directly, without a process, has no requirements and cannot be activated.
- The application has not already been activated. Rhythm hides the Activate Certification button once an application’s status is Activated, and it refuses a second activation with the message “This certification has already been activated.”
- If you need to delete an activated application, delete the certification it created first. Rhythm will not let you delete an activated application while the resulting certification still exists. After the certification is gone, you can delete the application and process a new one.
Tip
If an application is described as not yet "finalized," the certification record itself has not been created yet. It does not mean the applicant still needs to submit or pay. An application can be fully submitted and paid, then still wait for activation to finalize it.
Activate an Application
- Go to Certifications › Applications and find the application (see Search for and Manage an Application).
- Open the application to its Application 360 page.
- Select Activate Certification.
- Confirm the warning that activation will certify the applicant, update dates, and send a confirmation email, and that it cannot be undone.
Result
Rhythm creates or updates the applicant’s certification in the program, sets the certification status to Active, sets the application status to Activated, and opens the certification record.
What Rhythm Does Automatically
- New certification or renewal. If the applicant does not already have a certification in this program, Rhythm creates one. If they do, Rhythm updates the existing certification instead of creating a second one, and reactivates it to Active if it was previously suspended, inactive, or retired.
- Certification number. When the program has a certification numbering sequence, Rhythm assigns the next number in that sequence automatically. A certification activated this way uses a different counter than a certification you number by hand on the certification form, so the two sequences can produce the same number.
- Expiration date. Rhythm calculates the certification’s expiration date and reinstatement period from the application process’s expiration rule set, using that rule set’s default options. Changing the expiration date on the application does not drive this calculation or update the certification's expiration date. The certification gets its date from the process's rule set during activation. While a renewal application is still pending, Rhythm can show a projected new expiration date on the application, but the active certification's expiration date does not change until you activate the application.
- Copied details. Rhythm copies the application’s custom field answers, the name to print on the certificate, and the training provider onto the activated certification for fields that exist on both records. In practice, a custom field value carries over only when a matching certification custom field is set up to receive it. If your application and certification custom fields are not matched, those specific values will not transfer.
- Grandfathered certifications. If the applicant has other grandfathered certifications linked to this program, Rhythm extends those certifications to match, regardless of their current status, including inactive or suspended. This happens only when the program you are activating into has grandfathered certification renewals enabled and lists the other programs it should extend. You choose which related programs renew this way when you set up the program, and the extension carries no additional charge.
- Confirmation email. Rhythm emails the applicant to confirm their certification is active, unless the process has this notice turned off or the order behind the application suppresses customer emails.
- Transfer applications. Based on current behavior, activating a transfer application renews the applicant’s certification in the same program the application was filed against, rather than moving them into a different target program.
Tip
If activation fails partway through, such as after the certification is saved but before every step finishes, Rhythm does not mark the application Activated. You can select Activate Certification again to retry. If the retry reaches the certification step again, Rhythm renews the certification that was already created.
Renewal and Reinstatement Dates
How far the expiration date moves depends on the process the applicant used and the certification’s current state:
- Renewal. With a rule set based on a fixed term, such as three years, a renewal completed while the certification is still active, or within its grace period after expiration, extends the expiration date by that term from the certification’s current expiration date, not from today’s date. If an expired certification has not yet been dropped by a billing run, renewal remains available, and the expiration date still advances from the previous expiration date. If the certification's current expiration date falls on December 31, a multi-year renewal rule set has, in some cases, added one extra year beyond what the rule set's own test calculation showed. If a renewal's actual result looks a year further out than expected, check whether the certification's prior expiration date was the end of the calendar year.
- Reinstatement. Reinstating a certification that has already lapsed and been terminated advances the expiration date only to the next term after the certification’s prior expiration. It does not bring the certification all the way up to the current term. If you need the certification brought fully current, use a renewal process instead of reinstatement.
- Which one is offered. An inactive certification shows a renewal or a reinstatement application based on whether the certification has a termination date, not simply because it is inactive. A certification that is inactive but was never terminated still offers renewal. A certification that has lapsed and been dropped, and therefore has a termination date, offers reinstatement instead.
If you need to correct expiration dates for many certifications at once, such as through a bulk import, target the certification records directly rather than the applications. Updating an application's expiration date does not change the expiration date on its certification. Use the certification IDs from your source file, and select Certifications as both the application and the service for the import.
Related Reading
To find the application you want to activate, see Search for and Manage an Application. To start a new application on someone’s behalf, see Apply for a Certification. To activate approved applications in bulk instead of one at a time, see Create a Billing Run. Rhythm’s activation and other certification emails use your Rhythm account’s email setup, including sandbox redirection.