Understanding Calculating Flexible Service
This section discusses:
Service Calculation process.
Processing modes.
After you set up service parameters and flexible service control tables, and assign workers to calculation groups, you are ready to run the flexible service calculation process from the Calculate Flexible Service page. Run this background process on a periodic basis, for example, at the end of a service year or a service computational (calendar) period to calculate the accrued service record for each worker.
Calculating flexible service is a two-step process:
Calculate service credits in Normal Run processing mode for a specific time period, such as a semester or fiscal year.
You can calculate service credits for:
A specified calculation group or an individual worker.
All service types within the calculation group or just one service type.
View the results using the Review Flexible Service page. Normal Run mode produces the results in a temporary file, which enables you to rerun the process until you are satisfied with the results.
Note: After you run the process in Normal Run mode, you should view any messages about the background processing using the Message Log and View Flexible Periodic Results pages. Viewing messages enables you to ensure that the worker's service credits are properly processed before committing them to history in Update to History mode.
Run the service calculation process in Update to History mode.
Update to History mode uses the temporary file that was created in Normal Run mode and applies it to the worker's service history. View the results on the Flexible Service History page. After this data is committed to history, the temporary file that was created in Normal Run mode is deleted.
Before you run flexible service calculations, you should understand these three processing modes, how these modes differ, and when to use each one:
Normal Run.
Update to History.
Delete_Rebuild History.
Normal Run
Normal Run mode calculates accrued service credits for a specific time period and stores the results in a temporary file. Enter the time period for which you want to process service credits on the Calculate Flexible Service page, when you enter the from and to dates. Use Normal Run mode on a periodic basis. For example, in a 10-month calendar year with two calendar periods of five months each, you might want to run the process after each 5-month calendar period.
Normal Run mode doesn't affect a worker's existing service history data. View the temporary data using the Review Flexible Service page, or print the Calculated Service Report for a listing of the service calculations. You typically create the temporary file from Normal Run mode for a specified period of time, and then commit this data to history by running the process in Update to History mode for the same period.
Note: To process a single worker, you should run the process in Normal Run mode for that worker only and then run the process in Update to History mode for all workers within a calculation group at the same time.
Update to History
Update to History mode commits calculated service credits to history. Update to History mode takes the temporary file created in Normal Run mode and applies it to the worker's service history. For each worker, the process creates a service history record for each calendar period that falls within the processing from and to dates that you entered on the run control page. After the data is committed to history, the temporary file created in Normal Run mode for that processing period is deleted.
Because Update to History mode commits to history the data generated in Normal Run mode, you must use the same run control ID that you used in Normal Run mode so that the processing dates and calculation group are identical for both background processes. By using the same run control ID, you ensure that the processing dates are the same.
Delete_Rebuild History
Delete_Rebuild History mode deletes previously saved service history data and enables you to delete service credits that have been committed to history for the time period (the from and to dates) specified on the run control page.
This processing mode recreates the service credits, in a temporary file, for the time period and calculation group that you specified. The existing history data for the same time period is then flagged. The background process uses this flag in a later process to identify which history data to delete.
However, the history data isn't deleted until you decide to delete it. You can compare the newly created temporary file against the existing flagged history data. If the new temporary data is correct, run the process in Update to History mode for the same time period and calculation group. This deletes the flagged history data and recreates the history data from the temporary file that was created in Delete_Rebuild History mode. You won't use this processing mode often.
If the history data becomes corrupt, Delete_Rebuild History mode enables you to rebuild a worker's service history. For example, if any manual adjustments to the service history data on the Service History page were incorrect and not noticed until after running several processes in Update to History mode, you can rebuild the history data.
Note: Delete_Rebuild History mode does not re-accrue manual adjustments that were entered on the Flexible Service History page. You must reenter these adjustments after the data is committed to history again. However, the system will recalculate all startup credits.
If you want to set up your run control page but you don't want to run the process until later, select the [none] value to save the run control page.