HRMS - Date Track

Date Track is a very important concept in HRMS. Contrary to the other Modules where start dates and end dates stamp the progress of and entity (example Procure to Pay cycle - requisition creation date, order creation date etc), in HRMS the entity person itself is dynamic and is constantly evolving. There is no clear cut flow.

The dimension of time is crucial and based on the date for which we are querying, we would expect a different information for the person. For example, the marital status, age, salary and assignment may be different when querying a person at today's date and at a date 2 years' back.

In HRMS, if there is a change, then a new record is inserted and the previous value end-dated with the date of change. It is therefore crucial to date-track to the appropriate date before making any changes. If I want to change the Position of an employee, then I would date-track to the promotion date before changing the Position.

Making any changes on HRMS brings us to 2 concepts:

1. Correction


2. Update

Oracle will prompt us to decide what we are doing when we are saving after a change.

Correction

In the case of a correction, then the actual value is modified without any change in history. The current record is not end dated. There is no new record inserted.

Update

In the case of update, that means that something has actually changed. The actual value is end dated. A new record is created with the date we have date tracked to. We can view the history. Query of the person with a date anterior to the change will the previous record which was valid for that time Query of the person with a date greater of equal to the date of change brings up the new record.

Note that you can make changes in the past or in the future.

How Date Track Works

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="708" caption="How Date Track Works"][/caption]

Shameem Bauccha

22 June 2009