Overview
Contingent Workers extensions always seem to cause troubles in terms of wrong Job Information records getting created, Employee status wrongly updated, and sometimes, even Job Information portlets getting blanked out.
In order to make some clarity on this process, today we will analyse the specific steps to extend a Work Order (which means, changing its end date), but the same approach needs to be followed if any of the work order fields need to be changed.
Please note that it is recommended to perform these steps out of working hours and/or notify internally that users should avoid any activities in the system in that time frame. The reason is that during the final steps, there might be the need to amend some fields and make them temporarily non-mandatory.
The right place where a work order update should be initiated is the Edit icon next to the Work Order block:
This is very important because the Work Order portlet follows slightly different rules compared to any other portlet.
In fact, it is not recommended to insert new records within the portlet by using the Insert Record option and any changes to an existing Work Order should be made on the initial record.
The reason is that, by adding additional records, you might mess up the Start and End Contingent Worker records automatically created in the Job Information portlet and the users’ status could be wrongly updated.
Sometimes, as mentioned before, it can also happen that some other portlets belonging to the Contingent Worker get blanked out on the UI, regardless of having all the information still available in the background.
In case you run into any of the issues described above, you can follow these steps to sort it out.
Steps
1. Take Work Order backup file and export Person and Employment Export report for the user as a backup
As for any implementation, it is always good practice to take a full backup of the data that you are going to handle.
This could be useful if anything goes wrong during the fix and you need to import back to data in order to re-establish the initial situation.
Moreover, some of the data included in the backup will be useful in the following steps.
In this case, we will need 2 different backup exports:
2. Download Template for Work Order
Navigate to Import and Export Data → Download Template → Work Order.
This will be used to fully purge the work order(s) in the steps to follow.
3. Fill in the Work Order Template with the correct start-date and end-date
In this step, you will use the extract of work orders coming from step 1 to fix the dates.
More specifically, in the case of a work order extension, you should import one row per user which contains the right start and end date, including the extension.
The rest of the information will remain the same:
Note: Only active records will need to be imported.
4. Go to Import and Export Data Import Data and import the Work Order Template in full purge
Still in “Import and Export data”, validate/import the template created in step 3 in Full Purge mode.
The outcome will be the Work Order portlet populated with the correct dates and the rest of the information.
Note: After this import, the whole job information portlet will lose its content, therefore, before performing this step, make sure that you have the Person and Employment Export previously exported at hand.
5. Download template for Job History
This is the first of the remaining 5 steps through which you will re-populate the Job Information portlet with the right information.
Navigate to Import Employee Data → Download Template → Job History and include all the fields in the template.
6. Create the Job History Import Template.
In this step, you will populate the Job History template with the Start of Contingent Worker record (1 row per users) in order to automatically generate the Start and End of Contingent Worker records in the Job Information portlet.
Make sure that the Job History Template only has the Start Contingent Worker records in the Job History Template, as the End Contingent Worker Record will be automatically created according to the Work Order End Date.
Tip: you can use the function HLOOKUP in your import file deriving from your Person and Employment Export to retrieve the specific Start Contingent Worker record for each user that needs to be fixed.
Note: As mentioned, the Job History’s start-date should be the same as the start-date of the Work Order and you can eliminate the end date of the record as it will be automatically generated according to what was indicated in the previous Work Order import.
7. Import Job History in Full Purge
Still in “Import Employee data”, validate/import the template created in step 6 in Full Purge mode.
The outcome will be the Job Information portlet populated with the correct Start Contingent Worker and End Contingent Worker event reasons.
Note: not all the job information fields are always relevant for Contingent Workers, therefore it could be that the import could fail due to some fields being mandatory but left blank in the import file.
Unfortunately, this is expected behavior as of now, therefore the only workaround would be to make those fields temporarily Not mandatory. This can be done in the BCUI and the full list of fields to be changed will be provided by the simulation provided at the beginning of this step.
As explained at the beginning of the article, it is recommended to perform this out of working hours and/or notify internally that users should avoid any activities in the system in that time frame.
After making the fields non-mandatory, you can now proceed with the validation/import of the file.
8. Add any mid-job info record in incremental mode with a separate import
The outcome of the previous step is the generation of the SCWK and ECWK records in the job information portlet, but what about any other records that were previously captured in between?
In order to import back those records, you will need to import them in Incremental Mode.
You can use the same blank template downloaded in step 5 and fill it with all the records except the ones with event reason SWCK and ECWK.
Once again, all the records can be found in the Person and Employment Export pulled in step 1, and you can put a filter to exclude SWCK and ECWK records.
Tip: as before, you can use the formula HLOOKUP to retrieve the specific records for each user that needs to be fixed.
9. Set the fields back to mandatory
In this final step, you will reset the fields you amended in step 7 (if any) and make them again mandatory.
More information
Please refer to the following Knowledge Base Articles to learn more:
Contingent Workers extensions always seem to cause troubles in terms of wrong Job Information records getting created, Employee status wrongly updated, and sometimes, even Job Information portlets getting blanked out.
In order to make some clarity on this process, today we will analyse the specific steps to extend a Work Order (which means, changing its end date), but the same approach needs to be followed if any of the work order fields need to be changed.
Please note that it is recommended to perform these steps out of working hours and/or notify internally that users should avoid any activities in the system in that time frame. The reason is that during the final steps, there might be the need to amend some fields and make them temporarily non-mandatory.
The right place where a work order update should be initiated is the Edit icon next to the Work Order block:
This is very important because the Work Order portlet follows slightly different rules compared to any other portlet.
In fact, it is not recommended to insert new records within the portlet by using the Insert Record option and any changes to an existing Work Order should be made on the initial record.
The reason is that, by adding additional records, you might mess up the Start and End Contingent Worker records automatically created in the Job Information portlet and the users’ status could be wrongly updated.
Sometimes, as mentioned before, it can also happen that some other portlets belonging to the Contingent Worker get blanked out on the UI, regardless of having all the information still available in the background.
In case you run into any of the issues described above, you can follow these steps to sort it out.
Steps
1. Take Work Order backup file and export Person and Employment Export report for the user as a backup
As for any implementation, it is always good practice to take a full backup of the data that you are going to handle.
This could be useful if anything goes wrong during the fix and you need to import back to data in order to re-establish the initial situation.
Moreover, some of the data included in the backup will be useful in the following steps.
In this case, we will need 2 different backup exports:
- Work Order Export: this can be exported in the tool “Import and Export data” → Export → Work Order.
Note: include also inactive records by ticking the box.
- Work Order Export: this can be exported in the tool “Import and Export data” → Export → Work Order.
- Person and Employment Export: this can be run as an ad-hoc report in Reporting Centre, and then select the domain “Person and Employment Export”.
Note: it is convenient to include all the fields, and set a filter to include only the user(s) to fix. Typically, it would be a filter on the key value, therefore the User ID.
- Person and Employment Export: this can be run as an ad-hoc report in Reporting Centre, and then select the domain “Person and Employment Export”.
2. Download Template for Work Order
Navigate to Import and Export Data → Download Template → Work Order.
This will be used to fully purge the work order(s) in the steps to follow.
3. Fill in the Work Order Template with the correct start-date and end-date
In this step, you will use the extract of work orders coming from step 1 to fix the dates.
More specifically, in the case of a work order extension, you should import one row per user which contains the right start and end date, including the extension.
The rest of the information will remain the same:
Note: Only active records will need to be imported.
4. Go to Import and Export Data Import Data and import the Work Order Template in full purge
Still in “Import and Export data”, validate/import the template created in step 3 in Full Purge mode.
The outcome will be the Work Order portlet populated with the correct dates and the rest of the information.
Note: After this import, the whole job information portlet will lose its content, therefore, before performing this step, make sure that you have the Person and Employment Export previously exported at hand.
5. Download template for Job History
This is the first of the remaining 5 steps through which you will re-populate the Job Information portlet with the right information.
Navigate to Import Employee Data → Download Template → Job History and include all the fields in the template.
6. Create the Job History Import Template.
In this step, you will populate the Job History template with the Start of Contingent Worker record (1 row per users) in order to automatically generate the Start and End of Contingent Worker records in the Job Information portlet.
Make sure that the Job History Template only has the Start Contingent Worker records in the Job History Template, as the End Contingent Worker Record will be automatically created according to the Work Order End Date.
Tip: you can use the function HLOOKUP in your import file deriving from your Person and Employment Export to retrieve the specific Start Contingent Worker record for each user that needs to be fixed.
Note: As mentioned, the Job History’s start-date should be the same as the start-date of the Work Order and you can eliminate the end date of the record as it will be automatically generated according to what was indicated in the previous Work Order import.
7. Import Job History in Full Purge
Still in “Import Employee data”, validate/import the template created in step 6 in Full Purge mode.
The outcome will be the Job Information portlet populated with the correct Start Contingent Worker and End Contingent Worker event reasons.
Note: not all the job information fields are always relevant for Contingent Workers, therefore it could be that the import could fail due to some fields being mandatory but left blank in the import file.
Unfortunately, this is expected behavior as of now, therefore the only workaround would be to make those fields temporarily Not mandatory. This can be done in the BCUI and the full list of fields to be changed will be provided by the simulation provided at the beginning of this step.
As explained at the beginning of the article, it is recommended to perform this out of working hours and/or notify internally that users should avoid any activities in the system in that time frame.
After making the fields non-mandatory, you can now proceed with the validation/import of the file.
8. Add any mid-job info record in incremental mode with a separate import
The outcome of the previous step is the generation of the SCWK and ECWK records in the job information portlet, but what about any other records that were previously captured in between?
In order to import back those records, you will need to import them in Incremental Mode.
You can use the same blank template downloaded in step 5 and fill it with all the records except the ones with event reason SWCK and ECWK.
Once again, all the records can be found in the Person and Employment Export pulled in step 1, and you can put a filter to exclude SWCK and ECWK records.
Tip: as before, you can use the formula HLOOKUP to retrieve the specific records for each user that needs to be fixed.
9. Set the fields back to mandatory
In this final step, you will reset the fields you amended in step 7 (if any) and make them again mandatory.
More information
Please refer to the following Knowledge Base Articles to learn more:
- 2584875 - How to Extend a Work Order - Employee Central
- 2898506 - "No SCWK record found for Work Order ID XXX" error when importing Job History to create Co...
- 2658836 - Work Order for Future Dated Contingent Worker Returns Empty Values on Edit Work Order Info...
- 2643193 - Incremental load and Full Purge import of Work Order on various scenarios of Contingent Wo...
- 2562890 - Contingent Worker - "Work order start date should be equal to hire date" when approving wo...
- 2434429 - How to process changes to work order for contingent workers - Employee Central
- 2686323 - Unable to update existing work orders by doing an import for contingent worker
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