Hi
Go into SYS800 ACP180 and check what business rule retention policies you
currently have in place for transactions that are supposedly
completed. Check BPCS security on how many people have access for changing
these rules, then ask them if they remember changing any of those rules
recently. There's also where ITE rules are maintained, and how the GL
accepts those rules, which can help you trace audit trail of some consequences.
You might screen print, for future reference, alll screens that say
anything about retention policies for records having anything to do with
requisitions, purchases, payables.
Without running the program, take a look at the HELP associated with ACP900
ACP910 PUR900 PUR910 which lists the files that get purged during the
course of end fiscal, and the conditions associated with the purge, then
look at your end fiscal check list for how people are supposed to respond
to the prompts. Check reports associated with when those were run in
recent end fiscals to try to deduce if the prompts were responded to
consistently.
You might screen print, for future reference, the lists of files that get
purged, and the conditions associated with how records are selected for purge.
The deletion algorithms are quite complicated, with variables being how the
end fiscal prompts are responded to, what you have in your business rules,
the nature of data entry by everyone, and oh yes, there are some bugs in BPCS.
Note that under classic theory, most of the above is an accounting
function, not a computer professional job. Where I work, the functions of
different people applications are all mixed up.
Study ZPA records to see where BPCS stores dates that got keyed in during
end fiscal, to see what dates got keyed in last, to see if they really 100%
correct ... some of this history may be lost after end month
November. There's an infinite number of ways that innocent human error can
play havoc with your data integrity.
Locate SYS120 on your check list for how often that gets run by your
enterprise, under what conditions. There are other BPCS file
reorganization functions, but in my experience SYS120 is the one that does
most of the completion in removing both hard and soft deleted records, and
in restructuring the files for overall performance.
Also review whether you have an archiving system independent of what came
with BPCS, such as home grown software to get rid of ancient records that
native BPCS does not do a good job of cleaning up.
Do you have archives on changes in the rules by which the company is run?
For example, the rules for a file like APO might not be the same today as
they were a year ago.
Try to find the documentation that came with BPCS original install, or
conversion to another version. You may find a directory of files, which
ones important to your tailoring. This may need to be updated, as the
business rules evolve. I find ours to be an invaluable continuing reference.
Al Mac Wheel
Jack of all BPCS/400 areas, Master of some
Greetings,
A user just came up to me and asked me if I had purged records out of the
APO file??
I told him the file name didn't even ring a bell!
I see there are 144K active records in the file, and 237K deleted records
in the file. Our Fiscal year just ended at the end of October.
Does anyone know of a procedure which deletes records out of this file?
I sure don't know why records from some "in-between" years are missing.
Thanks,
Don C,
Don F. Cavaiani
IT Manager
Amerequip Corp.
920-894-7063
"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the
credit." Harry S. Truman
midrange.com
