Short answer. There is a separate step. Rule 120, Section 8 provides that after a judgment has become final, it shall be entered in accordance with Rule 36. Finality and entry are treated as two distinct events — entry is the formal recording that follows once the judgment can no longer be appealed or modified.
What the law says
After a judgment has become final, it shall be entered in accordance with Rule 36.
Rule 120, Section 8 — Entry of judgment. Read the full provision →
Finality comes first
A criminal judgment becomes final in the ordinary course — typically once the period to appeal or move for reconsideration lapses without such action, or once appellate remedies are exhausted. Section 8 assumes that finality has already occurred; it addresses what happens next, not how finality itself is reached. Only once that window closes without further challenge does the judgment attain the finality that Section 8 then requires to be formally entered. Nothing in this provision changes how or when finality itself arises — it simply picks up the analysis at the point finality has already been reached under the ordinary rules on appeal periods.
Entry is a distinct, formal act
Once final, the judgment 'shall be entered' — not automatically, but in accordance with Rule 36, the rule governing entry of judgments generally. Entry is the clerk's formal act of recording the judgment as final in the book of entries, giving it a fixed, documented, and reliable date of finality. Rule 36's entry procedure is the same mechanism used across the rules generally, rather than a separate process invented specifically for criminal judgments. None of this changes when the judgment actually becomes enforceable in substance; finality itself is what allows execution to proceed, while entry under Rule 36 is the administrative act that formally documents that finality for the record, so a delay in entry does not by itself extend the period during which the judgment could otherwise still have been challenged. Parties tracking deadlines tied to a judgment's finality should therefore look to when finality actually occurred, not merely to the later date stamped on the entry itself.
Why the distinction matters
The date of entry often triggers subsequent deadlines and procedural consequences — for enforcement, for computing periods tied to finality, and for closing out the case administratively. Treating entry as a formal step under Rule 36, rather than something that happens automatically the moment finality occurs, keeps that date clear and verifiable in the record. Parties and the court can point to the entry date in the book of entries as the definitive reference point, instead of arguing over exactly when the period to appeal or reconsider actually lapsed.