How to set up a new trigger field.

With the exception of the main Accounts/Financial Statements workflow system that is typically linked to the Next Year End field, trigger date workflow systems can have multiple triggers. This allows you to create jobs on the same workflow system with different frequencies (handy for payroll e.g. monthly, weekly etc) or to create multiple jobs with the same frequency (e.g. annual property rental accounts where a client has 3 properties, potentially with different year ends). Here's how to add a new trigger field:

  1. First up follow this guidance to create a new custom client field, add it to the appropriate workflow system and choose the field type Trigger date.
  2. In name enter the name of the field. Remember this will always hold the date of the next job to be created and so we typically recommending naming the field "Next ....... date" e.g. "Next monthly management accounts period end".
  3. In this case leave User editable as Visible.
  4. Choose a frequency type, each option is explained below:
    1. Days will create a job every x calendar days, the number of days is taken from the frequency amount field. You would also use this setting to create a weekly (7 days), fortnightly (14 days) or 4 weekly frequency.
    2. Working days is exactly as above except that the date will roll forward based on x working days, this allows for both weekends and bank holidays.
    3. Months (28-31) will create a job every x months, the number of months is taken from the frequency amount field. The trigger field will progress to the exact same date of the month unless it is the 28th, 29th, 30th or 31st in which case it will progress to the end of the month.
    4. Months (29-31) is exactly as above except that only the 29th, 30th and 31st will roll forward to the end of the month. This setting is preferable where you have payroll clients that are always paid on the 28th of the month.
    5. Years will create a job every x years, the number of years is taken from the frequency amount field.
    6. Special: Last Monday (Tues, Weds etc) of the month is a monthly frequency that will always roll forward to the appropriate final day of the month, again this is useful for payroll scenarios where you wish for the job date to exactly match the pay day.
    7. Special: Last working day of the month is a monthly frequency that will always roll forward to the final  working day of the month.
  5. Set the frequency amount which controls the number of days, months, years etc (based on above setting) that you wish to roll forward by each time a job is created.
  6. The creation (days relative to trigger date) controls the date on which the job will be created. It is stated in calendar days and a positive number will mean the job is created after the trigger date where as a negative number will mean the job is created before the trigger date.
  7. The order simply controls the order in which the trigger fields are displayed on the client card, it is only relevant where you have more than one field.

If you change the offset on an existing trigger remember to check whether some clients' auto creation dates have moved into the past (which includes the current day). I.e. if a trigger had an offset of -2 days  and was due to create tomorrow, changing the offset to -3 days would mean the job never created automatically. To correct this you can either create the job manually on the client card or, if there are numerous effected clients, you can save time by using the bulk job creation screen (found in the config menu).

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