The following characters can be used in the EMPCODEF parameters in Payroll and HR:
9 | A digit (if auto-numbering, the first number which results in a unique code will be used - see below). |
I | A digit (if auto-numbering, the next available number will be used). |
Z | A digit which will be blank for a leading zero (if the string of ‘Z’s is followed by an ‘I’, then it will be an ‘I’ type number, otherwise it will be a ‘9’ type number). |
X | Any character (if auto-numbering, this will be taken as a literal ’X’ as it is really to cater for manual input which does not fit a definable rule). |
A | Any letter (if auto-numbering, this will be taken as a literal ‘A’ as it is really to cater for manual input which does not fit a definable rule). |
F | A character from the first name (initial characters used). |
M | A character from the middle name (initial characters used). |
L | A character from the last name (initial characters used). |
N | A character from the NI/social security/national ID number (final characters used). |
D | A character from the department code (initial characters used). |
P | A character from the pay frequency description (initial characters used). |
For options X, A, F, M, L, N, D, or P, any lower case letters will be converted to upper case. However, if the lower case equivalents (x, a, f, m, l, n, d, or p) are used in the format, then both lower and upper case letters are allowed.
Any other character will be a literal. To specify the literal text for one of the special characters above, an escape code character ‘~’ can be used before it. When using characters from other fields, any characters not allowed in key fields according to normal Coins ERP+ logic will be skipped.
To demonstrate the difference between ‘9’ and ‘I’, consider the formats ‘LLL999’ and ‘LLLIII’. If you first add an employee John Smith, both of these will give the same result: SMI001. But if you then add Sarah Jones, ‘LLL999’ will give JON001 while ‘LLLIII’ will give JON002.
Common examples:
‘999999’ – a 6 digit number including leading zeros (for example 000150).
‘ZZZZZ9’ – a 6 digit number without leading zeros (for example 150).
‘LLL999’ – the first 3 characters of the last name followed by 3 digits to make it unique (for example SMI001).