Certification Workflow

When a direct manager completes a My Team worksheet, a Submit button becomes active. The direct manager clicks the button to transfer certification recommendations to corresponding records in certifier worksheets. "Complete" means the direct manager has selected the Approve or Remove status for all roles assigned to all users in the worksheet. As already noted, the worksheet may contain multiple due dates taken from multiple certifications, but the direct manager must submit the entire worksheet by the earliest of those due dates.

When a certifier completes a worksheet, a Submit button becomes active. The certifier clicks the button to submit the worksheet to its role manager for approval.

For a standard certification, "complete" means that the certifier has made a final certification decision about every user-role combination in the worksheet. That is, the Action value for every record in an original worksheet would be Approve or Remove, or the Action value for every record in an enhanced worksheet would be Keep Role or Remove Role. The certifier submits the worksheet only once (unless an owner or role manager reopens it; see below).
For a continuous certification, "complete" means that the certifier has made a final certification decision about every user-role combination existing at any given moment. But subsequent assignments of scoped roles to users may cause more user-role combinations to be added later. If so, the worksheet reopens. So the certifier may submit the worksheet multiple times.
When a worksheet reopens, the certifier can approve or reject newly added role assignments in a continuous certification, or modify decisions about previously submitted role assignments in either type of certification.

If the Submit button doesn't become active when you think it should, check whether the certifier worksheet is filtered, and if so whether any hidden user-role combinations aren't yet at a final status. Once the worksheet is submitted, the Submit button becomes inactive, and remains in that state unless the worksheet is reopened.

A role manager may review or make follow-up requests in any of the certifier worksheets for which he or she's responsible, either before or after the worksheet is submitted. The role manager may also use an overview page to complete these actions:

Submit the certifier worksheets for which he or she's responsible. A Submit button in the manager overview becomes active only when all its certifiers have submitted their worksheets. The role manager may then click the button to submit all the worksheets at once to the owner.
Reopen worksheets submitted by certifiers. To reopen any number of worksheets, select check boxes in their rows (or click Select All), and then select Actions > Reopen. Or, to reopen a single worksheet, click the Actions icon at the right end of its row. It looks like an ellipsis. Then select Reopen. (In either case, the Reopen option is inactive if any selected certifier hasn't yet submitted the worksheet.)

To challenge decisions in a continuous certification, a role manager should reopen a worksheet the same day that the certifier submits it. Otherwise, the certifier's decisions take effect. A security administrator could act immediately on a decision to remove a role assignment. (In standard certifications, this timing factor doesn't apply because each certifier submits all certification decisions at once.)

An owner may review or make follow-up requests in any of the worksheets for a certification project, either before or after the worksheet is submitted. An owner may also use an overview page to complete these actions:

Reopen submitted certifier worksheets. The owner would choose either of the procedures available to role managers. In this case, however, the Reopen option is inactive if the role manager hasn't yet submitted all worksheets for certifiers under the manager's direction. The owner's action cancels the role manager's submission and reopens all of that manager's worksheets.
Terminate the certification. The owner may click a Terminate Certification button at any point to cancel the certification for any reason. However, a record of the terminated certification remains in the owner's overview page. Once a certification is terminated, all buttons are disabled and no one can do further work on the certification.
Finalize the certification. Upon agreeing with all certifiers and role managers that all certification decisions are correct, the owner clicks a Finalize Certification button to complete the certification. Once a certification is finalized, all buttons in the certification are disabled.

A certifier's submission of a worksheet generates a notification to its role manager, and a role manager's submission of worksheets generates a notification to the owner. However, the reopening of a worksheet or a manager overview page doesn't generate a notification.