Custom field to existing database table

brian-dittman

Our HR benefits manager has been instructed by our health insurance provider that we need to pass a Y/N indicator for employee dependents as to whether they have other coverage.  This is for a so-called Coordination of Benefits effort.  On HR13.1, the manager suggested we re-purpose the student flag, since we no longer ask about that, but I wanted to see if there is a better way.  I understand that Design Studio can be used to customize the token form, but can the table (in this case EMDEPEND) be modified to add a new value.  Or, is there a better way entirely to accommodate HR's requirement?  We're on version 10.

unknown

If you have a spare field on HR13, that is the simplest thing to do. Repurpose and move on. You definitely don't want to alter EMDEPEND. That said, depending on how you are creating your provider file, there are other places you can store the flag. If your provider file is created with a custom 4GL program, it can read in the flag from a csv file, or from a custom table that is defined to Lawson. If you are using a flow or some non-Lawson file creation tool, you can store the info almost anyhow/where you like.

Something that might be worth trying, if you feel like playing around, would be to create a custom table that is defined to Lawson, and then seeing if you can access it with design studio. That might be one way to get an additional field onto HR13 to store your flag. I have never tried this though, so I do not know whether it will work.