Trigger Uses

In Global Payroll, the mechanism used to detect online data changes that should result in iterative, retroactive, or segmentation processing is called a trigger. To set up triggers, you select the database records and fields that you want to make sensitive to data changes such as pay increases, job location changes, and terminations; then, when the change occurs, the system writes a line of data to a table called a trigger table to tell the system how to process the change.

There are three types of triggers:

  • Iterative

    An iterative trigger tells the system to process (or reprocess) a payee in the current open calendar, possibly because payee data has changed or the payee was placed in suspended mode during batch processing. The system generates only one iterative trigger per payee per open calendar group, regardless of the number of calendars in the calendar group. When data changes for the payee, the system (using online code) generates iterative triggers that enable the batch process to recalculate the payee, add the payee to the calendar run, or remove the payee from the calendar run.

  • Retroactive

    A retroactive (or retro)trigger tells the system to reprocess previously calculated (closed) calendars. For example, this can occur when a payee's rate of pay changes and the change goes back to a prior calendar. The payroll data must be reprocessed to ensure that the payee receives the correct payment amounts.

    See Understanding Retroactive Methods.

  • Segmentation

    A segmentation trigger tells the system to segment all or a subset of payroll elements in a pay run in response to a change in payee data.

    See Understanding Segmentation Setup.

You can generate triggers in two ways:

  • Manually: Doesn't require you to set up trigger definitions. You create triggers manually for a given payee.

    See Managing Automatically Generated Triggers and Defining Triggers Manually.

    Note:

    You can generate triggers manually only for retroactive and segmentation triggers.

  • Automatically: Requires you to set up trigger definitions. These trigger definitions tell the system how and when to generate "automatic" triggers when a database change occurs.

Once triggers are generated (manually or automatically), the batch process uses the trigger to perform the proper action.