Using Groups for Periodic Processing

Periodic processes are processes that you run on a regular basis to maintain your pension data. Consolidations run only as periodic processes, and other functions which store history also run in periodic mode.

You can run periodic processes for:

All employees at once.
Individual employees.
Employees identified by employee ID on a predefined list.
Employees who meet criteria defined by a group custom statement.

When you use a group custom statement, the system evaluates every employee in the system against the criteria to determine whom to process. This is a very slow process, and PeopleSoft does not recommend that you use it on a regular basis. Instead, use predefined employee lists, which process those employees on the list without needing to evaluate any other employees.

Note: List processing is much more efficient than group processing. A group that you define to include all employees belonging to Plan A takes exponentially longer to process than a list that includes the same employees. It is well worth your while to use SQRs to create and maintain lists for periodic processing. For example, to process all employees who are paid monthly, do not create a group with this criteria. Instead, create an SQR that selects employees who are paid monthly and creates a calculation group list consisting of those employees. Run that SQR again before each periodic processing run in order to keep your list up to date.