When working with compensation, the date in which values change can have a major effect on payouts.
Let’s look at the following example. A Sales Representative named Terry Callahan has a base salary of USD$80,000, and a compensation plan that pays an annual bonus of 5% of this amount. If Terry’s base salary increases to $85,000, the date in which the change takes place is critical if his bonus payout is to be accurate.
When you create a new record, such as a new participant or plan, you are prompted for the effective start and end date for the first version. You can then create new versions of the object as needed. Creating new versions retains the old versions for auditing purposes.
We do this by ensuring that changes take place on a specific date through versions and effective dates. Effective dates set the date range within which an object’s version is active or valid in the system. The effective date range of an object’s version is determined by the start and end dates of that version.
The table below shows which objects are effective dated and which are not.
| Effective dated objects | Non – effective dated objects |
| Organization data (Participants, Positions, Titles, Relationships) | Calendars |
| Classification data (Categories and Classifiers) | Global data (event types, credit types, unit types, position groups, etc.) |
| Compensation elements (Territories, Fixed Values, Rate Tables, Formulas, Lookup Tables) | Processing units |
| Variables | Security data (users, roles, business units) |
| Plan data (Plans and Rules) | Transactions |
| Results data (Credits, Measurements, Incentives, Deposits, Payments) |
Creating A New Version Of a Record
To create a new version of a record, or to edit an existing version:
- Select the record in the workspace
- Click the Manage Versions icon on the toolbar
- To create a new version, in the Edit Version dialog box, click the + sign in the upper left and enter the effective start and end dates for the new version.
- To edit an existing version, select from the list of versions in the left pane.
- Make any changes or additions.
- Click OK.
Best Practices For Effective Dates And Versioning
- Plans and Plan Objects should only be versioned on a Leaf Period Boundary. This means new versions should not take effect mid-period.
- Version your organization data on a Leaf Period Boundary. You can use Generic Dates to store specific dates that are needed in Rule logic.
- When retiring a position, do not end date it; instead, inactivate it. To inactivate a Position, create a new version and remove the participant from the Position.
- If a Rule is not being used anymore, you can end date it. If it could be used again, create a new version of the Plan, and remove that rule from the object from that point forward.
- Always clarify the Effective Start date of any requested change into a system before making it.