Person Number Generation Methods

You can select one of the following person number generation methods for your enterprise on the Edit Enterprise page of the Manage Enterprise HCM Information task in the Setup and Maintenance work area:

• Manual

• Automatic prior to submission

• Automatic upon final save

Manual: You can use the Manual method to manually enter a person number when creating person records. You can update person numbers in the Manage Person page.

Automatic prior to submission: The Automatic prior to submission method automatically creates person numbers when creating person records. This method is the default method for person number generation.

Note: The Automatic prior to submission method may create gaps in the person number sequence if the transaction is canceled after the person number is generated.

Automatic upon final save: The Automatic upon final save method creates person numbers only after the Add Person transaction is approved. You can't view the person number when creating the person record. However, you can view the person number on the Person page after the transaction is approved. This method generates person numbers without gaps in the sequence.

Note: Person numbers are also assigned to contacts if they are created as a part of the Add Person transaction. For example, if a person is assigned person number 5 and two contacts are created during the Add Person transaction, then the contacts will be assigned person number 6 and 7. This means the next new person will be assigned person number 8.

The Automatic prior to submission and Automatic upon final save methods use an enterprise number sequence. By default, the sequence starts from 1; however, you can change the starting number. The person number increments by one for each new person record created.

You can change the person number generation method but you must be careful of the method that you select if you have existing data. You can change from Automatic prior to submission method to the Automatic upon final save method and change it back again. You can also change from the automatic method to the manual method and change this to the former.

Initial Person Number

You can specify the initial person number for your enterprise when you generate person numbers automatically. The application uses this number for the first person record that you create using the automatic person number setting, and increments the number by one for subsequent person records. By default, the initial person number is 1.

Using the initial person number option, you can retain the legacy person numbers for existing persons. Additionally, you can automate the number generation for new persons, starting from the last legacy person number plus one. You can change the initial person number.

Person Numbers for Contact Records

Workers and contacts have the same number sequence when the generation method is Automatic. You can correct automatically generated person numbers for contacts on the Manage Person page if the person number generation method is Manual. If contacts are later hired as workers, they retain their original person numbers.