13 input micro auxiliary transaction imat file
The Input Micro Auxiliary Transaction (IMAT) File
The Input Micro Auxiliary Transaction (IMAT) File is an optional update data source. It provides the necessary information for the MOA File, which supplies supplemental data to Micro File records wherever they are needed. The Micro Auxiliary File is a KSDS-indexed fixed-length VSAM file, while the IMAT File is a sequential, or “flat” file. IMAT records are processed by program ES2MI43, which matches them against the MOA File to determine what updates are taking place.
An IMAT record is 327 bytes in length, much longer than the 128-byte MOA records. It contains elements from multiple MOA records so that any combination of the record types for a specific employer may be updated simultaneously. Like the IMT File, there are no strictly numeric fields in the IMAT record layout; alpha values could be used in the numeric fields for special notation. Low-values (binary zeroes) are used to show that a field is to remain the same as it has been on the MOA record. Since the IMAT record represents five MOA records, low-values should be used globally first before other fields are place; this keeps fields from being erased unnecessarily during MOA updates. For a new account, low-values indicate that system defaults should be applied to the field. Unknown or missing data, or items that are irrelevant to processing the record, could explain the presence of low-valued fields. The use of low-values was elected rather than spaces, since there may be instances when a field should be blanked out, and special characters would be required to distinguish between the "no change" and "blank out" notations.1,2
In writing IMAT records, the entire record should first be initialized to low-values, so as to allow any unset fields to be properly defaulted or left alone. Next, set the State Employment Security Agency Identification Number (SESA-ID), which is comprised of the Unemployment Insurance (U-I) account number and reporting unit number. Thereafter, fields may be filled in as they are needed. The field descriptions that follow use the variable names as they appear in the exportable system. These begin with "IMAT-", and generally list their purpose in the remainder of the field name. Up to four MOA records may be created or updated from a single IMAT record, since all record types can be combined into a single transaction data record.
The ES2MI43 interface program has been designed to make the writing of the interface programs as simple as possible. For records that are already present on the MOA File, most of the IMAT record elements may be left as low-values. In fact, as a minimum requirement, an IMT record could process with no data except the SESA ID (which is the primary record key). However, this would be worthless, since it would not change the MOA data at all. Most often, only one or two sections of data will be needed, since these are relatively rare data elements, and often not present on State source files. The data contained in the IMAT record is dealt with on a field-by-field basis in the pages that follow.
Note: Each field name below appears in blue because it is hyper-linked to the IMAT record layout at the end of this document. Click on the field ID to see where it is placed in the record, which values are valid, etc. When finished with the hyperlink, click the “back” arrow to return to your place in the document.
1 There are alternative approaches that could potentially be effective. For instance, BLS had once opted to use spaces to show unchanged fields in the EQUI deliverable file, but looked for a right brace ('}') at the beginning of a field to denote a change from non-blank to blank values. This format was short-lived, however, as it presented its own complications.
2 Some states perform extracts through a PC network. PC’s have notoriously had problems with low-value characters, since they normally signal an end-of-record or similar marker. If this becomes problematic, a separate character can be substituted for low-values, such as a pound sign (“#”); the characters can be reconverted by the EXPO MI43 program.
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