Effective dates
When you select an effective date, you are telling the application when the change you are making to a record is to go into effect. This lets you actually schedule a change to a record, if the date you select is other than today's date. In other words, you decide when the change to that record should occur, in the past or in the future. The change itself does not actually happen until the date that you selected is met.
If you do not select an effective date for a record, the as of date, either today or a future date, defaults.
The effective date for a record displays in the audit log, so that you can see when and why a record was changed, and when a change is pending.
See View the audit log.
Retroactive changes
When you select a past effective date for a change, the change is referred to as retroactive.
Be aware that security rules affect who is allowed to make retroactive changes.
For example, contract talks with the local union have completed, and you need to incorporate a change in employee pay rates to be effective on the date when the contract was approved, two weeks ago. To schedule the change, select an effective date for these records to be two weeks ago.
For example, you have a contract whose line item price has been reduced as of a month ago. To schedule the change, you select an effective date for that contract change to be effective a month ago.
Future changes
For example, an employee tells you that he is moving to a different address in one month's time. Rather than having to remind yourself to make the change in a month, you schedule the change by assigning the appropriate record an effective date of one month from now.
For example, you have a contract whose line item price will be increased in a week. To schedule the change, you select an effective date for that contract change to be effective in a week.
Future record changes display in the audit log. To see if a record has a pending change due to a future effective date, you can view the audit log for that record.
You can also set an alert on list for records that have pending changes.