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What are PI Start Dates?

Ella Lobb-Miller
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Why is the PI Start Date important?

In Pentana Risk, the Start Date directly affects the Collection Settings, and the Update Due date. The Start Date of the PI controls the start and end of the Collection Year;

  • a Start Date of 1st April 2016 sets the Collection Year to run from 1st April 2016 to 31st March 2017.
  • a Start Date of 1st January 2016 sets the Collection year to run from 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2016.

As such, the PI's Start Date should reflect the start of the collection year for that PI.

An incorrect Start Date can affect which calendar periods are used to calculate other periods, such as which Months or Quarters are used for Years. 

The Months contained in each Quarter are controlled by the Start Date of the PI.  A PI start date in April, for example, means that April, May and June will fall into Quarter 1. A PI Start Date in January will place January, February and March into Quarter 1 instead.

For the Weeks collection, the day of Start Date is very important. For example, Starting a Weekly Collection on 1st April 2016 sets the PI's week to run from Friday to Thursday. However, altering the Start Year to 2013 will set the week to run from Monday to Sunday, as 1st April 2013 fell on a Monday.

How can I change a PI Start Date?

Before you start:

Please note that this process cannot be carried out on PI's that are included in a Formula. You can check if this is the case by opening the PI's Formula tab. Please contact the Pentana Risk Support Team if your PI is in a Formula, or if you have multiple PI's with incorrect Start Dates.  Additionally, please be aware that any Notes will lose their original creation date in this process.

The Year of the PI's Start Date can be changed with exception of Formula PIs, where no part of the date can be changed.
This can be used to alter what day of the week the PI is collected on, an important factor for the Weeks Collection. for example setting a Financial Year (1st April - 31st May) PI to start in 2013 will ensure the data is collected on a Monday.

To allow a change to the day and month of the PI's Start Date, the following steps must be carried out to ensure no data is lost in the process: 

  1. Exporting the Data
  2. Changing the Start Date
  3. Restoring the Data

Exporting the Data:

This section covers the use of Reports to create a copy of your PI's data.

  1. Check if your site has the "Import Template - PI Values, Annual Targets or Notes" Report Layout. If not, please contact the Ideagen Covalent Support Team and ask for it. Alternatively, create a Report Layout with the Code field and Report Date Ranges field that contains all the value fields relevant to your PI.
  2. Once you have the Layout, check that it contains all the fields you need. Add any that you think are missing, and save.
  3. Create a new PI Report, and In the Queries tab, add the filter, "Only these PIs", and add your PI to this query.
  4. In the Date Ranges tab, select Add Date Range, and set up as follows:
    • Set the Start Date and End Dates to the earliest and latest values in your PI.
    • Make sure that all Fields and Collections are enabled as are relevant to your PI.
  5. In the Publish tab, add an Excel format Report using the Layout from Step 1.
  6. Save and Generate this Report. This may take some time depending on how much data the PI held.
  7. Once generated, check that the Report contains all the data from the PI. Save the Report to a location that you can easily refer back to.

Now that the PI's data has been copied out of Covalent, you can now begin removing the values from your PI.

Changing the Start Date:

This section covers the removal of all values from the Data tab, in order to unlock the Start Date.

  1. Open the PI's Notebook from the PI List, and open its Data tab.
  2. Enable all of the PI's collections, and ensure that the start and end filters are allowing all data to show. Use Shift + Click to select multiple rows, then select "Remove" to delete them from the PI. (the data is safe in the Report you created) The Start Date should now be fully editable.
  3. Change the PI's Start Day and Month as appropriate.

Once the PI's Start Date is as you want it, you can then restore the PI's data.

Restoring the PI Data

This process uses the PI Imports sheet to restore the PI's data. As such, you need to download the PIs Import Sheet.
This section of the guide covers importing your PI's Values back into Pentana Risk.

Restoring the Values:

  1. Open the PIs Import Sheet, and open the PI Values tab. Additionally, open the saved Report from earlier.
  2. Using the data from the Report, fill in the columns in the Import sheet. Make sure to choose the correct Year and Period for each of the PI's Collections. See the Online Help for more details. 
  3. Once this is done, open Pentana Risk Classic back up, and find and open "PI Values Import". In the tab that opens, select "Open Spreadsheet". and find the Import Sheet you filled out.
  4. Once the sheet is opened, Pentana Risk will check it for any issues that might cause problems if the import goes ahead. If any crop up they'll be marked red in the table. If this happens, make a note of these, close the PI Values Import tab and amend your Import Sheet.
  5. Once any errors are amended, select the "Import" button to add these values back into Pentana Risk, and into your PI. Once it's done, you can go and check that the PI's values are now all there.

This section of the guide covers importing your PI's Notes back into Pentana Risk.  

Restoring the Notes:

  1. Open the PIs Import Sheet, and open the PI Notes tab. Additionally, open the saved Report from earlier.
  2. As you did in the previous section, match up the Notes to their Collection Periods in this tab.
  3. Once this is done, open Pentana Risk Classic back up, and find and open "PI Notes Import". In the tab that opens, select "Open Spreadsheet". and find the Import Sheet you filled out.
  4. Once the sheet is opened, Pentana Risk will check it for any issues that might cause problems if the import goes ahead. If any crop up they'll be marked red in the table. If this happens, make a note of these, close the PI Values Import tab and amend your Import Sheet.
  5. Once any errors are amended, select the "Import" button to add these Notes back into Pentana Risk, and into your PI. Once it's done, you can go and check that the PI's values are now all there.

That's it! The PI now has all its data back, and now also has the correct start date.

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