Short answer. The certificate must state that the judgment or final order has become final and executory, and it is attached to a record containing the dispositive part of that judgment or order, signed by the clerk. The entry itself goes into the book of entries of judgments once no appeal or motion for reconsideration was filed on time.
What the law says
The record shall contain the dispositive part of the judgment or final order and shall be signed by the clerk, with a certificate that such judgment or final order has become final and executory.
Rule 36, Section 2 — Entry of judgments and final orders. Read the full provision →
When the clerk makes the entry
The clerk enters a judgment or final order once the time to appeal, or to file a motion for new trial or reconsideration, has run out with none filed. At that point, the clerk must forthwith enter the judgment or final order in the book of entries of judgments — the entry is not optional or left to a later convenient date, but is meant to happen promptly once the period for challenging the ruling has lapsed without action. The trigger is purely the lapse of those periods with nothing filed; the rule does not make the entry wait for any party's motion.
What the record and certificate must contain
The record that gets entered must contain the dispositive part of the judgment or final order — the operative portion stating what the court actually ordered, rather than the whole body of the decision. That record must be signed by the clerk, and it carries a certificate stating that the judgment or final order has become final and executory. This certificate is what confirms, on the face of the record, that the ruling can now be enforced because no timely challenge to it was filed.
Why the date of entry matters
The date the judgment or final order is entered in the book is deemed to be the date of finality of that judgment or order. This matters beyond bookkeeping, since deadlines that run from finality — such as the period for filing certain post-judgment remedies — are counted from that entry date rather than from the date the decision was originally issued or received. Anyone tracking how much time remains to act on a ruling needs the entry date, not just the decision date, to compute it accurately. The rule also equates the two dates as a matter of definition — the date of finality shall be deemed to be the date of entry — so there is no separate finality date to argue about.