05 job 107d parameters earn
Job 107D Parameters in EARN
Although the 107D job’s parameters are laid out with a similar entry screen as the other jobs, this actually serves as a gateway to the more elaborate parameters kept in the Refiling Report Selection File (an alias of the Roll-up Parameters File used in EXPO). The format of the 107D job parameters screen is the same as the 020D, 040D, and 246D job parameter screens described earlier with the ES2N documentation in this section. The split screen shows a row of nine entry fields on the top to enable selection of up to nine sets of parameters based on their parameter ID code (also known as the “Request ID”). The lower two-thirds of the screen (separated from the top by a row of equal signs) lists the refiling selection records’ summary information. This includes the ID code, the last change information (the user ID and the date of last modification), and the parameter description.
Detailed information for one of the available parameter sets can be displayed by moving the cursor to the underscores that precede its synopsis line and pressing Enter. If new parameters need to be added, press the F5 key. Both methods go to the 107D detailed parameters screen (a sample of this screen is displayed above).
The screen is divided into sections using sub-title lines that are surrounded by asterisks. The topmost of these sections is unlabeled, but references the geographic area selections. These can be defined by counties, metropolitan statistical areas (MSA’s), or sub-county zone or township codes. Certain combination restrictions apply here. Either county codes or MSA’s can be selected, but not both. Since each MSA is a collection of county codes, the specification of MSA’s with county codes causes confusion as to which selection takes priority over the other. In a similar manner, but for different reasons, sub-county zone or township codes can be selected for a set of county codes, but cannot be combined with MSA codes. One reason for this is that the sub-county code cannot be as easily linked with the counties contained in an MSA, since the counties are not directly listed in the parameters. The overriding factor, though, is that the same area of the Refiling Report Selection Parameters record is used to store MSA and zone/township codes, with an internal switch used to designate which of the two is in effect.
Since both the county code and the township/zone codes are refilable values, selection switches have been added to the screen to choose between old and new values. These switches, which also appear for all other refiling-related fields in the remainder of the screen, refer to the field values found at the beginning (“old” or “O”) and end (“new” or “N”) of the refiling cycle. This is one of the aspects that distinguish this screen’s parameters from its EXPO counterpart, since micro selection parameters choose records based on the value of fields found in a particular quarter of the Micro File. If the old/new selection field is left blank, the new code will be used. However, should the new code be blank (since it was unchanged in refiling), the old code would still be used as a back-up default.
Another difference between this screen and the one tied to Job 020D parameters is the number of allowable MSA or zone/township codes that can be entered. The EXPO program allows up to 12 of these codes to appear, whereas this screen only permits 10. The reason for this is that both use the same parameters file which, because of the extra selection parameters used in this screen (such as the old codes, new codes, and the date fields, etc.), leave insufficient room remaining to parallel all of the selection parameters from the micro selection screen.
If county codes are specified, an ‘ALL’ field can be used (flagged with an “X”) to use every county in the State. The individual county codes can still be specified, however. They now hold a different meaning, though, since any counties listed after the ‘ALL’ flag are to be excluded from the selection process rather than included. This type of selection is useful when most, but not all, of the counties need to be examined, such as when the counties of a major metropolitan area need to be removed from a statewide search to distinguish between rural and metropolitan refiling response rates.
The second sectional division of the screen identifies the industry classifications that are to be chosen for the refiling firm list report. These are entered as a list of individual NAICS codes, sectors, or super-sector codes (SIC-based selections are obsolete). There are 23 fields provided for the individual industry selections because it was originally anticipated that there would be 23 NAICS sectors (but only 21 actually exist). Alternatively, a range of NAICS values can be specified with up to five exclusions available for entry thereafter. It is not possible to enter both the roster of industry codes and the range of values, as only one set of industry selections is allowed. As with the county and zone selections, either the old (pre-refiling) or new (refiled) NAICS code can be selected by an “O”/”N” switch. Again, if this field is left blank, the new code is used as a first choice, while the old code will fill in when the new code is blank.
NAICS codes, in either the roster or range specifications, can be listed at 2-, 3-, or 6-digit levels, with any unspecified digits left as spaces (or more properly, tabbed over). Should a 2-digit value be entered that is within a multi-valued sector (such as “32” which is in the “31-33” sector), the value will be replaced by the entire range of the sector. The same number of digits must be specified for both the minimum and the maximum if an industry range is selected. So when the minimum NAICS is a 3-digit value, for instance, the maximum must also be a 3-digit NAICS. Exclusion fields, however, may use a higher digit count (more-specific values) than the range fields, if needed.
The fields found in the industry codes roster lines are essentially “free form.” A NAICS super-sector alpha code, or 4-digit numeric equivalent (e.g., “A” or “1011”) may be selected in one of the 23 fields, followed by another at the 5-digit specification. One caution regarding the use of the alpha codes is that the remaining five characters in that field must be left blank.
The third section of the screen refers to a wider variety of selection fields. The first of these is the MEEI code, which can refer to either the pre- or post-refiling value. This uses the standard values of ‘1’ through ‘6’, which can be listed singly (up to five codes), or as exceptions following the “MEEI: ALL” field. If the “ALL” field is selected with an “X”, but no specific MEEI codes are listed thereafter, every MEEI code will be selected. Only those listed after the “ALL” field will be exempt from selection.
Ownership code selections appear next, using single-digit values. Only three ownership code fields are provided. Therefore, if all ownership codes are to be included, the ‘ALL’ prompt at the beginning of the ownership codes selection list must be marked with an ‘X’. Any ownership codes listed after the ‘X’ will be considered exemptions to the selection process, and will be bypassed. A new/old switch is flagged with an “N” or “O” to select values found after the refiled codes have been entered, or the original values noted at the beginning of the refiling cycle.
A strictly refiling-related field comes next, allowing the selection or omission of carryover employers; even though carry-over processing has been taken out for years. Using a ‘Y’ will select only accounts that are carried over from last year’s refiling, while an ‘N’ will use only “new” refilers not carried over from the prior year. If the program is to select both types of accounts, or if it should ignore the account is carried over or not, this field should be left blank.
The next field is a strictly non-refiling-related specification. The EXPO Micro File status code can be examined in selecting or rejecting a record. This uses the standard numeric status codes of ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘9’ (for active, inactive, and pending, respectively). It also has an “ALL” flag option so that every status code except for certain specific values can be selected as well. Hence, any combination of status codes can be selected. In addition, when this code is specified, the associated Micro File year/quarter (in ‘YYQ’ format) must also be listed in the next field so the proper value can be located. As you can see, this screen must be updated so that the year and quarter (in this case 15/1) are still on the Micro File. If the Micro File status code doesn’t enter the picture for selecting accounts in this report, both of these fields need to be left blank.
The range of the average monthly employment (AME – zero to all nines) appears next. Then comes the minimum December employment, which can select the larger employers with the December employment higher than the minimum. Both this range and the minimum employment are defaulted so that they would get all accounts. Since the AME field uses the average of three months of employment, the value may differ noticeably from that of the December employment. The AME is found on the Refiling File record, set when the file was first built. However, it can reference delinquent, un-estimated values that could be misrepresentative of the status of the account. It may therefore be desirable to set these values differently, possibly selecting only one of the two values, while leaving the other at the default.
The remaining fields in this screen section are selections for three items that are unique to the Refiling File. These are the CMI (for collection mode indicator) code, the response code, the batch ID number, the error codes, and a range of dates for updating the data. Up to three values can be specified for response and batch ID checks, and up to two error code values may be sought. If values are provided, only those CMI codes, response code, batch numbers, error code, and/or update date values will be selected for processing. Any of these sets of fields can be left blank, however; this will omit that field from any selection attempts. In other words, all response codes will be selected if no response code selection values are listed, etc.
The final section on the screen is used to provide report sort sequencing parameters. Up to five of these parameters can be selected by their single-character alpha code. The parameters include the refiling batch code (‘B’), the county (‘C’), ownership (‘O’), industry code (‘I’ (either SIC or NAICS, even though SIC’s have been unused in the refiling data for over 15 years)), U-I account number (‘A’), employer name (‘N’, found on the Micro File), December employment level (‘D’, used in descending sequence), average monthly employment (AME, ‘E’, sorted in descending sequence), the MSA code (which uses a ‘Q’), and sub-county zone or township code (‘Z’). An added selection switch is included to note whether these selection parameters should apply to the original (before-refiling) or new (refiled) field values, when a refiling-related value is included in the sorts. Note that this may differ from the value used in other ‘O’/‘N’ switches throughout the screen. It could well be that specific county or NAICS codes could be selected based on old values, then a sort conducted based on the new values. Unlike the EXPO 020D job, there is no “D” (for delimited) option available here; it must be a file, group, or report output only.
An unlimited number of refiling report selection parameters can be entered on this screen. However, only nine of these can be selected (from the 107D menu screen) for any particular job run. The selection parameters are stored on the Refiling Report Selections File, which is a subset of the EXPO Macro Roll-up File, which also has one other alternate definition in the EXPO system. Once the parameters have been entered, the reports are printed by submitting Job 107D. 107D will read through the parameter sets, extract the requested data from the Refiling File (with fill-in data from the Micro File), and set up the sort parameters. An external sort can properly resequence the data before the reporting program prints the reports themselves.
If some of the parameter sets become obsolete, they can be deleted from the file. To do so, call up the parameter set from the 107D sub-menu screen of EARN, and display the detail screen for the parameters. Press the F4 key to delete this set of parameters. Be sure to examine the detail screen before doing this, as it takes much longer to re-add parameters than to remove them with this handy keystroke.
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