Changes are constantly made to the master data in Personnel Development. For this reason, Personnel Development enables you to edit objects on the basis of key dates and periods.

To make full use of the options available, make sure that you know:

• Which period you want to select objects from when you search for and select objects

• On which date and in which period the objects and object attributes that you create are to be valid

• On which date and in which period the object assignment you create are to be valid

In the Personnel Development component, there are two pieces of time-related information that regulate all changes and evaluations: the evaluation period (reporting period), and the change key date.

• The evaluation period determines the period for which data is evaluated. Some evaluations only use the start date of the evaluation period as the evaluation key date. You can run evaluations for dates/periods in the past, present, or future.

• The change key date is the date on which changes are to be made. The change key date is always the start date of the evaluation period. All data records can be created, changed, or deleted at any time. Even if you change or delete data, the original information is not lost since the data records or infotypes in question are, in effect, only delimited.