Defining Entities and Calendars

A key part of InterSystems TotalView™ For Asset Management is the ability to schedule automated processing, and these schedules generally need to align with relevant calendars. For example, a report may need to get run on every business day but not on holidays or weekends. However, not all regions and not all organizations necessarily use the same calendar.

To simplify the handling of calendars, the system provides the concept of entities. An entity defines a calendar; specifically, each entity has a time zone, a fiscal calendar, a business week, and a holiday schedule. An entity can be a child of another entity and can inherit some or all of that data from its parent.

In practice, an entity can represent a region, a subsidiary, or an organization. In any case, the entity defines a set of calendar information that you want to rely on, for scheduling purposes.

Defining an Entity

To create a top-level entity:

Click the Entity Master icon in the application menu.
Click Add Entity.
The system displays a dialog box where you can specify the details.
Enter the following information:
- Enable Entity—Select this if you want the entity to be available for use in scheduling.
- Entity Description—Enter the name of this entity, which must be unique.
- Time Zone—Select the time zone to which this entity belongs.
- Fiscal Year Start Month—Select the first month of the fiscal year for this entity.
- Fiscal Year End Month—Select the last month of the fiscal year for this entity.
- Business Week First Day—Select the first day of the business week for this entity.
- Business Week Last Day—Select the last day of the business week for this entity.
Click Submit.

Now you can define the holiday calendar for this entity. You can also define child entities that use parts of this entity’s calendar data.

Defining a Child Entity

To create a child entity:

Click the Entity Master icon in the application menu.
Select the entity to which you want to add a child.
Click Add Child Entity.
The system displays a dialog box where you can specify the details.
Enter the following information:
- Enable Entity—Select this if you want the entity to be available for use in scheduling.
  If the parent entity is not enabled, this entity cannot be enabled.
- Entity Description—Enter the name of this entity, which must be unique within the parent entity.
- Use Parent Time Zone?—Select this if you want the entity to use the time zone defined by the immediate parent entity.
- Time Zone—Select the time zone to which this entity belongs. (Not available if Use Parent Time Zone is selected.)
- Use Parent Fiscal Calendar?—Select this if you want the entity to use the fiscal year start and end month defined by the immediate parent entity.
- Fiscal Year Start Month—Select the first month of the fiscal year for this entity. (Not available if Use Parent Fiscal Calendar is selected.)
- Fiscal Year End Month—Select the last month of the fiscal year for this entity. (Not available if Use Parent Fiscal Calendar is selected.)
- Use Parent Business Week?—Select this if you want the entity to use the business week start and end days defined by the immediate parent entity.
- Business Week First Day—Select the first day of the business week for this entity. (Not available if Use Parent Business Week? is selected.)
- Business Week Last Day—Select the last day of the business week for this entity. (Not available if Use Parent Business Week? is selected.)
- Use Parent Holiday Calendar?—Select this if you want the entity to use the holiday calendar of the immediate parent entity. Note that you can override the calendar details.
Click Submit.

Editing an Entity

To edit an entity:

Click the Entity Master icon in the application menu.
Select the entity you want to edit.
The entity definition is displayed, along with its holiday calendar.
Make changes as needed, modifying the values previously described for top-level entities and child entities.
Click Save.

Note:

Changes to an entity do not affect any tasks that are currently running, because the entity for a task is checked at the start of the task run.

Editing a Holiday Calendar

To edit the holiday calendar for an entity:

Click the Entity Master icon in the application menu.
Select the entity (first expanding the entity tree if necessary).

The system then shows the applicable holiday calendar, next to the entity details. If the selected entity is a child entity that inherits calendar information from its parent, the Status column displays Inherited for each inherited holiday.

Here you can do the following:

Filter the display of holidays. To do so, select a year from the dropdown list above the table of dates. Or type the name (or partial name) of a holiday into the box above the table of dates. In either case, the display is immediately filtered.
Add an entry. To do so:
1. Click Add Holiday.
2. For Holiday Description, enter a short holiday name.
3. For Holiday Date, select a date.
4. Click Submit.
Remove an entry. To do so:
1. Click Delete in the row for that entry.
2. Click Remove Holiday to confirm.
You cannot remove an inherited entry, but you can deactivate it; see the next item.
Deactivate an inherited entry. To do so, click the slider in the first column of row for that entry, moving the slider to the off position. The Status column will then display Deactivated for this holiday.
Reactivate a previously deactivated (inherited) entry. To do so, click the slider in the first column of row for that entry, moving the slider to the on position. The Status column will then display Inherited for this holiday.

Each of these changes is immediately saved as part of the entity definition.

Note:

Calendar changes do not affect any tasks that are currently running, because the entity for a task is checked at the start of the task run.

Deleting an Entity

To delete an entity:

Click the Entity Master icon in the application menu.
Select the entity (first expanding the entity tree if necessary).
The entity definition is displayed.
Click Delete.
Click Delete Entity to confirm.