text: Title: [INF] Implement utils pytest mark
  Body: # Brief Description
  
  When updating the tests for #510, I noticed that `test_check_columns` had a `pytest.mark.utils` decorator but, when running the code, `utils` was not a a valid mark. I updated the `pytest.ini` file to have it, but AFAICT `test_check_columns` is the only package that uses it. We should expand this mark to all utilities tests, and make sure that there's no missing documentation, etc. associated with the new mark.
  