When can I use a business rule?

Business rules allow you to extend the standard SunSystems validation and processing rules for selected SunSystems functions. This topic aims to help you decide whether or not your particular requirement can be met by a business rule.

Business rules only apply to a single selected function

Business rules can be defined for the following Financials or Order Fulfilment functions, and many of the static data functions.

Financials functions:

  • Ledger Entry
  • Ledger Import
  • Account Allocations
  • Online Allocations
  • Tax Reporting
  • Reconciliation Manager.

Order Fulfillment functions

  • Purchase Order Entry
  • Sales Order Entry
  • Purchase Invoice Entry
  • Movement Order Entry
  • Automatic Allocations
  • Inventory Receipt Note Entry.
Uwaga:  The business rules apply to these system functions when they are used manually and when they are initiated by Transfer Desk.

Business rules can only reference data items available to the chosen system function

Business rules can only reference SunSystems data items and only those data items that relate to the system function chosen. The rules can reference two types of data item:

  • data items, or redefined data items, held on the transaction being entered or updated by the chosen function.
  • related static data items that can be obtained from a static data code held on the transaction being processed.
Uwaga:  Although business rules cannot reference external transactions and data items directly, the CALL command can execute an external COBOL program which can access any external data and use this information to set various SunSystems data items.

Business rules only apply to data entering, or held, within SunSystems

As a general rule, business rules cannot be used to extract data from SunSystems and cannot be used with any of the SunSystems reporting or extract functions.

The following exceptions apply to this rule:

  • Business rules are required to control the Tax Reporting function.
  • Business rules can be used by Reconciliation Manager to match transactions.
  • Data can be extracted by an external COBOL program that is called by a business rule.

The results of a business rule must always comply with the standard SunSystems validation and audit rules

You cannot use a business rule to 'break' any of the audit and validation controls that exist within the chosen SunSystems function. Any data item values that you SET using a business rule are fully validated, and you can only SET selected data items.