As Payroll Year End approaches, it's essential to ensure your non-production environment mirrors production for testing and validation. This article outlines how to clone your production environment and whether a backup request is necessary.
Clones
What is a clone in the context of Payroll Year End?
A Clone refers to copying one environment to another. Although an optional step, cloning your Production environment to your UAT environment in advance of validating the Year End process on UAT ensures that the employee and payroll data on UAT is up-to-date and appropriate for Year End validation purposes.
However, any data on UAT which is not on production (e.g. configuration or test data for an in-progress implementation project) will be lost. This means that a production to UAT clone may not be appropriate, it depends on what's going on in your organisation at the time.
When should the clone be taken?
It’s best to take a clone after completion of the last payroll of the year, to enable testing of Year End on the latest data.
How do I arrange a clone (Production > UAT) for Year End validation purposes?
Email [email protected] to arrange a clone. Depending on your contractual entitlements, there may be an additional charge per clone. If you have a contractual entitlement to a clone, then there is no charge.
📌Note: It's critical that you check internally before requesting a clone to ensure that you don't interfere with work being carried out by other teams or functions. The clone process will delete any data on UAT that is not yet on Production. Please consider:
Who else uses the UAT environment?
Are there any in-progress or on-hold projects taking place on UAT (new product implementations, new feature adoptions or anything else)?
Is there data on UAT that does not exist on Production? Who owns this data? Is it ok to lose this data?
Back ups/Data exports
Do I need to arrange for my Production environment to be backed up in advance of running the Year End cleardown?
If your PeopleXD solution is hosted by PeopleXD (exdata platform), then you do not need to specifically request a back up as this will happen automatically.
If your PeopleXD solution is not hosted by PeopleXD (exadata platform), then you need to arrange the backup with your I.T. department.
📌Note: It's critical that you take care when completing the Year End process, follow the steps outlined in the user guide and complete all checks consulting with colleagues or Support as required. Although a restore is possible - it's very much an emergency measure, with an associated cost, and should ideally be avoided.