---
id: KB-SC-012
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/smartcheck/certifying-many-things-at-once
idioma: en
categoria: smartcheck
subcategoria: certificar
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-SC-004, KB-SC-002]
citadoPor: [KB-SC-017]
---

# Certifying many things at once

_A month-end, a photo campaign or a whole archive. What deserves a seal and what does not._

**Responde a:** certify many documents at once · sealing an entire archive · batch certification · is it worth certifying everything

When people discover what certifying is for, the temptation is to seal everything. And although technically possible, it is rarely the best idea: certifying makes sense where a dispute over date or content could arise, and across most of an archive that dispute will never happen.

## What is worth it

| Worth sealing | Usually unnecessary |
| --- | --- |
| What proves you gave notice in time | Internal working documentation |
| Field photos and evidence | Drafts and working versions |
| What supports a claim | What already comes signed and dated by a third party |
| What may disappear at source | Copies of something already sealed |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The last row on the right saves the most. Certifying a copy of something already certified adds nothing: the proof is in the original and travels with it.

## When batching makes sense

1. **At the close of a period** — End of site, end of season, file closure. All together, same date.
2. **After a day in the field** — The day's photos and reports, on return, in a single batch.
3. **Before something changes** — If you know a website, catalogue or price is about to change.
4. **And on receiving an alert or a claim** — Whatever exists at that moment, sealed now: from then on everything gets disputed.

> [!WARNING]
> What makes no sense is sealing the whole historical archive "just in case". Seal what could end in dispute; the rest only consumes and adds noise around what matters.

## How to know it worked

**En corto**

- Anyone outside can verify it without asking you for anything.
- The date does not depend on your system or your word.
- And the file can be verified years later, even if you are no longer customers.

That third point usually settles the question of whether it pays: the evidence does not expire with your relationship with the platform.

> [!NOTE]
> Each certification is an action and consumes. Hence the list above: it is not a technical restriction, it is that sealing what nobody will dispute is money buying nothing.

**Can I certify something old?**

Yes, but it fixes today's date, not the original one. For old material it proves less than it seems.

**What if the file changes afterwards?**

It stops verifying, which is exactly the point.

**Is it needed for what is already signed here?**

No: the signature carries its own evidence.

## Ejemplos

**A company wants to certify its twenty thousand historical documents.**

- Seals only what could end in dispute and what expires
- Leaves the rest unsealed

→ Gets the same practical protection for a fraction of the consumption.

**A whole history is sealed with no criteria.**

- Seals what could end up disputed

→ The listing stays readable.

**A month-end close is sealed document by document.**

- Seals the set at once

→ Cost and time do not grow with volume.

**A photo campaign is sealed without identifying the photos.**

- Adds project reference and date before sealing

→ Each photo is locatable afterwards.

**Everything is sealed and nobody knows what each item is.**

- Organises before sealing

→ The seal rests on something ordered.

**Sealing is postponed until there is time.**

- Seals at the close of each period

→ Work does not pile up into something that never gets done.