ESR Employee assignment number duplication.

Keeping the data in two computer systems in sync is a task which requires a reasonable amount of care. The rules for doing so should to be simple, easily followed and where possible automated to avoid human error. The Ava Pa / ESR interface follows these guide lines.

To ensure total consistency and ensure the ability to cope with late timesheets: Ava keeps a record of all previously imported assignment numbers and all imported Position Title(s) and Position No(s). Ava cross checks that an assignment number has not be used for two different Position Titles or Numbers, This could cause problems with payments at a later date which would be difficult to trace, resolve or cause incorrect pay slips. During the import process Ava checks that these are consistent.  Both systems must be able to cope with a person being employed in multiple posts during any period of time.

If Ava finds a re-use of an assignment number for a different Position, it will reject that row of data and produce an error list:

When exported to Excel it looks like this:

In the example above, ESR 10949595-4 has been (newly) set up as Bank Nurse - Level 3. However this assignment number was previously used as Bank Nurse - Rate 2. Clearly confusion could arise with a late time sheet, or someone acting up. Someone could work as both a Level 2 and a Level 3 Nurse in different areas or even in the same area but on subsequent shifts which may even be included in the same time sheet return. To avoid any ambiguity the (new) Bank Nurse - Level 3 needs to be given a different and previously unused number: for instance: 10949595-5. Provided 10949595-5 has not been used before, a re-export of that weeks assignment numbers will now import without issue. At the same time to account for different areas of work or responsibility the previous 10949595-4:  Bank Nurse - Rate 2 should remain on the ESR system until notified that all relevant timesheets have been processed.

There is one other important aspect to the way Ava checks for consistent import data. The Position Number: (for example) '5786692' is not a particularly human friendly description of the Position Title 'Bank Nurse - Rate 2'. For instance if the former were changed to 'Bank Nurse - Rate 7': a human reader probably may not notice that the Position Number still read '5786692' or vice versa, the number may have changed, but the title not. In one case we have an employee who thinks it's Christmas, in the other a senior employee who will probably be quite upset. To avoid this embarrassing situation, Ava compares the postion number with the position title. So if the position title is changed, to avoid potential embarrassment, a new (previously unused) position number and assignment number need to be generated.