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Setting Up Territory Nodes

Territory nodes determine whether a territory is available for assignment. You need to have an active node for each territory that you want to have assigned. To be active, a node must have a start date in the past and either no end date or an end date in the future.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Territory Management.

About Structuring Territory Nodes as a Family Tree

Territory node records are also used to determine the structure of the territory hierarchy. You create the structure of the territories in the hierarchy by specifying parent-child relationships between territory nodes. These relationships create a family-tree structure for your hierarchy.

You do not have to specify parent-child relationships for the territory nodes in your hierarchy. Some or all your nodes can have no parent, and territory assignment will be made. However, there are advantages to structuring territory nodes into a family tree:

• You can generate a reporting hierarchy. For information, see Generating Reporting Structures Based on Territory Hierarchy.
• The application maintains consistent start and end dates for child nodes based on the dates you set for the parent node.
• You can view this tree structure in the Territory Explorer view. This is a good way to review and understand the arrangement of your hierarchy.

Restrictions on Effective Start and End Dates for Territory Nodes

For many situations, good practice is to keep all the end dates the same (or blank) for the territory nodes in your hierarchy.

There are various restrictions related to start and end dates on territory nodes. These restrictions are designed to:

• Maintain data integrity by not allowing expired nodes to be edited or deleted
• Prevent orphan nodes by not allowing parent nodes to expire before their children

Some of these restrictions are:

• You can only edit a record if the end date is in the future.
• You cannot delete active or expired territory nodes. You can only delete nodes where the start date is in the future.
• You cannot set a parent node to expire before its children. The end dates for the children are automatically changed to match the parent's end date.
• You cannot have two nodes for the same territory with overlapping dates. The start date for second node must be on or after the end date of the first node.

For information about configuring start and end dates for nodes, see Configuring End-Date Behavior for Territory Nodes.

Procedure

NOTE:  For information about creating territory nodes through bulk loading, see Using EIM with Territory Management.

To create territory nodes

1. Navigate to the Territory Management screen, Hierarchies List view.
2. Click the Name field of a hierarchy record to drill down on it.
3. In the Territory Nodes list, create a node record for each territory, and complete the fields.

   If you are specifying parent-child relationships between nodes, create the parent nodes before creating the children.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Territory #	Select a territory that you created in Setting Up a Territory Hierarchy.
   Parent Territory #	If this is a child node, select its parent node. You can select only active and future nodes. (Expired nodes cannot be selected as parents.)
   Effective Start Date	Typically, Enter dates that are in the future, because you are running, reviewing, and refining a territory alignment some weeks before you are rolling it out. When you create a new territory node record, the Effective Start Date field defaults to the current day + 1. For more information about these fields, see Restrictions on Effective Start and End Dates for Territory Nodes.
   Effective End Date