If you choose to wait a year or so before starting to use Workforce Record Manager, there will be a significant backlog of data that has not been copied to the archive database. To attack this backlog, it is recommended that you first understand how much data you have over various time periods. A good approximation of this can be obtained by going to your database's query tool and running some date relative queries of a key table, the TIMESHEETITEM table. For example, a query like:
select count(*) from TIMESHEETITEM where EVENTDTM between '1/1/2009' and '1/31/2009'
This query identifies the number of rows in the table for the month of January 2009. Run comparable queries over different date ranges and you will have a reasonable approximation of the density of data over different time periods.
After you run a copy or two and have actual processing times, you will be in a position to extrapolate the performance of subsequent copies and choose date ranges appropriate to your needs. When you run your first copy, plan on starting small, for example, copy the data for a single pay period, before trying to copy larger amounts of data.
Note: You will need to populate the copy start date value on the Copy Screen for the initial copy in the same manner as previously described when using Workforce Record Manager right away.
After copying the initial pay period, you can experiment with larger date ranges based on the performance of the initial copy and the TIMESHEETITEM table row counts you have collected.
Purges should be run in a manner similar to copies to remove any data for which access is unlikely to be required. Remember, if you have waited only about a year before starting to use Workforce Record Manager, there may not be any significant backlog of data to be purged. After you have dealt with the backlog of data that has not been copied or purged, you can proceed with a regular schedule of copies and purges that meets your needs, for example, doing a copy and purge each pay period. Some other considerations to keep in mind:
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Data within the copy/purge time frames must be payroll locked before it can be acted upon by Workforce Record Manager. It is best to payroll lock data every time payroll is issued.
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In addition to the routine periodic backups done of the production database, make sure to backup the archive database. It is best to do this shortly after data has been copied to the archive database.
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