Chris21 Rollback Overview

If you haven’t setup Chris21 rollback yet, you might find this article interesting. The Chris21 rollback function has been available for a while now. It provides a quick and easy way to ‘rollback’ your changes should it be necessary. For instance, the Update Pay – UPD process. A lot of things happen when UPD is run. Traditionally, if you realise you need to go back after running UPD, it would mean restoring a backup.

That can be a hassle and time consuming, especially if you must wait on IT to do this for you. And there is always the possibility of issues occurring with the backup restore.

The Chris21 rollback feature takes away a lot of this hassle. For example, if you want to rollback UPD, you simply select the UPD file from the Rollback form and click Rollback. The system will then undo all changes that the UPD process made. There is no need to restore any backup files.

And best of all, the process to setup the rollback functionality is simple.

How does Rollback work?

If you need to rollback a process into the current database, use the Rollback Update – ROU process. This will set the data back to the state prior to when the initial was run. The Rollback function does not back up any files, rather it backs up individual entries or records which are written or updated by the process.

You select the processes that you wish to be rollback enabled using the Rollback Details -ROD form. Whenever one of these processes is run, all information prior to running this process is saved in a unique rollback file.

For more information about rollback see my blog How to Use the Chris21 Rollback Feature.

Configuring Your System for Rollback

Before you can use the Chris21 Rollback function you must configure your system. Even though you may have selected processes for Rollback using the Rollback Details -ROD form, rollback files will not be created until you have completed these steps:

• Enable Settings – CFT setting number 141.
• Update the RBSEQ table. Go to Tables – TAB and lookup RBSEQ. Set the Description value to 00000 (five zeros). This forces the rollback process to create a rollback file using the first available filename.
• Add these forms to your security – ROD, ROF, ROK, ROP and ROU. Also add ROD and ROU to your menu. These are usually added to the System -> Audit menu.
• Identify the processes or forms required for Rollback. Select the Rollback Enabled checkbox for each process required. The processes that are currently rollback compliant are:

Form Identifier	Process Description
UPD	Update Pay
LLR	Leave Liability
TCB	Timesheet Import
FEU	Update Fast Time
ETU	Update Daily Time
MTU	Update Multiple Staff
ALA	Adjust Previous Leave
LPP	Leave Pre-Process
MDC	Reset PYP Values
CLR	Clear End of Year
CST	Clear Static Update
GSU	Update Salary
GAU	Update Awards

System Performance and Housekeeping

You may notice a slight degradation in system performance when running a process that is Rollback enabled. This is because the changes are being written to a rollback file. Although in my exprience, I’ve never noticed any degradation in performance.

The Chris21 rollback feature will create rollback files each time a rollback enabled process is run. You may never need to rollback a process, however the file will remain in the system DAT directory until it is deleted. Over time, a large amount of rollback files will accumulate in the DAT directory. To avoid this issue, enter a value in the Days to Hold field on the Rollback Details – ROD form. This defines the number of days to hold the files before they are deleted. In the example below, rollback files will be deleted after 7 days:

Rollback files are deleted when the Background Administrator – FLM process is run with Remove Expired Rollback Files selected. For more information about FLM see my blog Chris21 Database Management – Housekeeping Processes.

Rollback will give you more flexibility and allow you to work more efficiently. The key point to remember if you want to take advantage of the Chris21 Rollback functionality, is to perform the configuration setup. Without this, the system will not be able to create the necessary rollback files.

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Configuring Chris21 Rollback functionality

Setting up Chris21 rollback is a straightforward process. Go to Rollback Details (ROD) and select the process that you want to configure for rollback by selecting the Rollback Enabled checkbox.

It’s important to note that not all Chris21 forms can be selected for rollback. Below is a list of processes that are rollback compliant. These are the ones that you can enable for rollback, as mentioned above:

How to Rollback a Process

If you need to rollback a process go to the Rollback Update (ROU) form. You will see a list of all processes that have been run during the current payrun and that are rollback enabled:

Double click the process you would like to rollback, then click the File Name drop down and select the file to rollback:

Once you have selected the process to be rolled back, click the Rollback button:

The rollback process will produce a report showing the changes that were made. You can also choose the Report Only button, prior to selecting the Rollback button, to view the changes that the rollback process will make.

Be Mindful of Housekeeping Requirements

The Chris21 rollback feature will create rollback files each time a rollback enabled process is run. While you may never need to rollback a function, the file will remain in the system DAT directory until it is deleted. Over time, a large amount of rollback files will accumulate in the DAT directory. To avoid this issue, enter a value in the Days to Hold field on the Rollback Details (ROD) form. This defines the number of days to hold the files before they are deleted. In the example below, rollback files will be deleted after 7 days:

A final note: The Chris21 rollback functionality is an easy and efficient way for selected payroll processes to be reversed from within the Chris21 interface. In my opinion, however, it is always a good idea to make full backups of the Chris21 DAT directory prior to running key processes such as UPD and CLR.

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An insufficient audit configuration will result in gaps in audit report output. If you find that audit reports are not showing the desired information you need you may need to review your setup.

Configuring Chris21 to track audit changes is a manual process. You must flag the files and individual fields that are required in your audit file. While this process may sound time consuming, remember that you can automate this by using GTR, see my blog Increase Your Productivity Using GTR Processing.

Notwithstanding that you can automate the actual setting of flags in the system, you will still need to do a review of your current setup and decide what needs to change. This is the part that can be challenging because there are so many individual fields that make up the Chris21 system. The answer is to run a report over your data dictionary to identify the audit flags. The data dictionary is where all the fields are defined in Chris21. Read this article for some background information about the data dictionary – Customising Chris21 the Right Way.

Why it is necessary to review the way you are auditing in Chris21

Chris21 is delivered with a default configuration. When Chris21 is implemented the auditing setup is predefined by the vendor. It’s likely that this default setup has never been reviewed in your organisation, meaning that you are relying on the default setup to be the best one.

Usually the default setup won’t completely suit your needs. This will only become obvious when you are looking for information in your audit file and it’s not there. Keep in mind that there is no way to track a system change to a field if that field is not included in your audit setup.

How to review the way you are auditing in Chris21

Firstly, you will need to run a report over the data dictionary. You only want the report to include the Field Code, Label and Show on Audit? fields. Considering the sheer number of fields that make up the system, this will be a large report. Publish the report as a spreadsheet.

It is then a matter of working through the spreadsheet and changing the Show on Audit? flag as appropriate. It’s a good idea to clear the flag for any fields that you do not need to audit. This will help to reduce the size of the audit file as these fields will no longer be included.

You should consider all business groups who may have a vested interest in the audit file, such as Payroll, HR, Training and Development and Administrators. These groups may want to review the spreadsheet to ensure the audit setup meets their requirements.

How to control Chris21 auditing at the file level

So far I have talked about reviewing your Chris21 auditing setup at the field level. It is also possible to switch auditing on and off at the file level. This is done on the File Tables (FIL) form in Chris21. Go to FIL and open the file you want to change. Then check or uncheck the Audit Enabled? checkbox.

Note that this method overrides field auditing. If you switch off auditing on a file, no auditing will be maintained on any fields in that file, even though the individual fields may be flagged for audit. For this reason it is important that you also run a report over all files in Chris21 to ensure they have been correctly flagged for auditing.

Taking the time to review your Chris21 auditing setup and updating it appropriately will help greatly when it comes to meeting your auditing requirements and to maintain the integrity of your database.

The post Reviewing Your Auditing in Chris21 appeared first on System Logic.

Configuring your Chris21 system to track audit changes is a manual process. You will need to flag the files and individual fields that you want to have included in your audit file. While this process may sound very time consuming, it’s good to know that you can automate this by using GTR, see my blog Increase Your Productivity Using GTR Processing.

Even though you can automate the actual setting of flags in the system, you will still need to do a review of your current setup and decide what needs to change. This is the part that can be challenging because there are so many individual fields that make up the Chris21 system. The answer is to run a report over your data dictionary to identify the audit flags. The data dictionary is where all of the fields are defined in Chris21. Read this article for some background information about the data dictionary – Customising Chris21 the Right Way.

Why it is necessary to review your Chris21 auditing setup

Chris21 is delivered with a default configuration. So when you first implemented Chris21 the auditing setup was predefined by the vendor. It’s quite possible that this default setup has never been reviewed in your organisation, meaning that you are relying on the default setup to be the best one.

It’s highly likely that the default setup won’t completely suit your needs and this will only become obvious when you are looking for information in your audit file and it’s not there. Keep in mind that there is no way to track a system change to a field if that field is not included in your Chris21 auditing setup.

How to review your Chris21 auditing setup

Firstly you will need to run a report over the data dictionary. You only want the report to include the Field Code, Label and Show on Audit? fields. Considering the sheer number of fields that make up the system, this will be a large report. Publish the report as a spreadsheet.

It is then a matter of working through the spreadsheet and changing the Show on Audit? flag as appropriate. It’s a good idea to clear the flag for any fields that you do not need to audit. This will help to reduce the size of the audit file as these fields will no longer be included.

You should also consider any other groups who may have a vested interest in the audit file, such as Payroll, HR, Training and Development and Administrators. These groups may want to review the spreadsheet to ensure the audit setup meets their requirements.

How to control Chris21 auditing at the file level

So far I have talked about reviewing your Chris21 auditing setup at the field level. It is also possible to switch auditing on and off at the file level. This is done on the File Tables (FIL) form in Chris21. Go to FIL and open the file you want to change. Then check or uncheck the Audit Enabled? checkbox.

Note that this method overrides field auditing. If you switch off auditing on a file, no auditing will be maintained on any fields in that file, even though the individual fields may be flagged for audit. For this reason it is important that you also run a report over all files in Chris21 to ensure they have been correctly flagged for auditing.

Taking the time to review your Chris21 auditing setup and updating it appropriately will help greatly when it comes to meeting your auditing requirements and also to maintain the integrity of your database.

The post Why You Should Review Your Chris21 Auditing Setup appeared first on System Logic.