Employee Group

1Purpose #

• Builds the group tree the Employee master assigns staff to.
• A group is either primary (top of the tree) or sits under another group, which is what makes nested subtotals possible in payroll reporting.
• It does not set pay, leave or shift rules — it is a classification only.

2Your first groups, step by step #

Groups form a tree, and a tree needs its top first. Suppose you want Office Staff and Factory Labour reported separately under one company-wide group.

1. The page opens in Add mode. Type STAFF into Group Name , leave Is Primary Group ON (a primary group is a top-of-tree group and has no parent — notice the Under Group box is disabled), and press Enter until focus lands on Save (F5) . Confirm.
2. Press F3 . Type Office Staff , and this time switch Is Primary Group OFF. The Under Group box wakes up — open it and pick STAFF . Save.
3. Press F3 again and create Factory Labour the same way, also under STAFF .

That is a complete two-level tree. Employees assigned to Office Staff and Factory Labour on the Employee master will subtotal separately in payroll reports, and together under STAFF.

The tree protects itself: a group cannot be placed under itself, renaming a parent quietly carries all its children with it, and a group that still has children refuses to be deleted — the message tells you how many to move or remove first.

3How to use it #

1. Find (F2) lists every group with its parent; pick one to load it.
2. Add (F3) starts a new group with the cursor in Group Name.
3. Switch Is Primary Group off to choose an Under Group; switching it on clears the parent.
4. Save (F5) commits and leaves the record in View mode — press Add (F3) for the next.
5. Enter moves field to field and lands on Save.

4Field details #

• ID is assigned on first save and never changes; it reads "Auto" until then.
• Group Name is required and must be unique — it is what employees and child groups are linked by.
• Is Primary Group marks a top-level group. A primary group has no parent, and turning it on clears Under Group.
• Under Group is the parent, required when the group is not primary. The list offers every other group; a group cannot be placed under itself.

5Shortcut keys #

• F2 Find · F3 Add · F4 Modify · F5 Save · Esc Cancel.
• Enter moves to the next field; from the last one it lands on Save.
• Keys belong to the focused copy of the page; a dialog's own keys win while it is open.

6Why is a pick-list empty? #

• Under Group lists the other groups already saved on this page. It is empty when this is the first group being created — make that one primary, then later groups can sit under it.
• It is also disabled whenever Is Primary Group is on, because a primary group has no parent by definition.
• The list is built from records loaded by Find (F2) ; if you have not searched yet in this session it may show only what has been loaded so far.

7Rules and integrity #

• The group name is unique. It is the table's primary key, checked on the page and again on the server.
• A non-primary group must name a parent, and no group can be placed under itself .
• Renaming carries the children. The parent link stores the parent's NAME and has no foreign key behind it, so the server re-points every child group in the same transaction — otherwise a rename would orphan them.
• A group with children cannot be deleted. The server counts them and refuses, naming how many; move or delete those first.
• Permission triggers record who created and changed each row, and a delete-cleanup trigger removes linked documents.