Repairing Timekeeper data

12 March 2004

Timekeeper utility has functions for fixing systematic problems in Timekeeper user data. Here is the current list of problem fixing functions:

Change 1900 Dates to 2000

Timekeeper versions before 1.1 were not Y2K compliant. Dates entered as 00 were actually recorded as 1900. When this data is converted to Timekeeper 97 the 1900 dates show as 1900. This function changes all dates 1900 to 1909 to be the corresponding dates in 2000 to 2009. If there is a birthdate in those years it will be changed also.

Link Transactions to Assignments

Accumulated credits are no longer in the Assignment record. Instead they are computed from the Transaction records. But this means there needs to be a link from the transaction back to the assignment.

Timekeeper versions before 1.1 did not make this link. This function tries to make such links for converted data. It might not work in all cases.

Fix Member Identifiers

Some early versions of Timekeeper had a bug that allowed duplicate member identifiers. This functions changes identifiers so that there will be one prefix and no duplicates.

Change Identifier Prefixes

This function lets you change the Identifier prefix. You can make the prefix something more appropriate than XXXX even after you have entered some members.

Fix Assignment Services

When converting 0.6 data to 0.7 data the services for assignments were converted incorrectly. This function can correct the services. You need to know the date when you converted to 0.7. If you data goes back to 0.6 then Link Transactions to Assignments will not work for that very old data if you don't run this function first. If your data has this problem then the Service in the Assignment record will not agree with the Service in the corresponding Transactions records. If you are going directly from a version before 0.7 to version 1.3 then you do not have this problem.

Most people converting data will have the 1900 date problem. If you do not use the accumulated credits in Assignments then there is no point in using Link Transactions to Assignments. Fix Member Identifiers is useful to anyone who might wish to change the Identifier prefix. Fix Member Identifiers and Fix Assignment Services should only be useful if you have very old data.