Compress and archive salary entries
Use the Salary - Date Compression report (the Date Compression action on the SwissSalary Organization page) to compress historical payroll runs and related entries. The process combines entries by period, deletes the original records, and writes compressed replacement records. Compress only clearly closed prior years—after making a complete backup and clarifying retention periods, and never for current periods or periods that might be revised.
Prerequisites
- You have administrator permissions for SwissSalary and the affected tables.
- A current backup of the database or company is available.
- Reporting, audits, and statutory retention periods are clarified for the periods that you want to compress.
- The required Ending Date is at least three years before the ending date of the most recent payroll run. You can't compress the last three years.
What is compressed
Within the selected date range, the report processes, among other things:
- payroll run logs (Payroll Journal),
- salary headers,
- posted employee bank accounts,
- posted employee dimensions,
- document management entries for the payroll run,
- salary entries (Salary Entry).
Depending on the Period Length (Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, or Period), the report combines multiple runs and entries into compressed records. You can also retain field contents for G/L Account, Cost Type, Cost Center, Cost Object, and Job (Retain Field Contents).
Run date compression
- Open the SwissSalary Organization page.
- Choose the Date Compression action.
- Set the Starting Date and Ending Date. The report stops if you don't specify an ending date.
- Select the Period Length.
- If necessary, enter a Posting Description (default suggestion: Date Compressed).
- Under Retain Field Contents, select the fields that must remain distinguishable in the compressed entries.
- Run the report and confirm the security prompt.
SwissSalary locks the affected tables, deletes the original records in the filter, and writes the compressed replacement records. Document management entries for the compressed runs are removed. At the end, a message shows the number of deleted records and the compression ratio—or states that no data is available to compress.
Warnung
The batch job deletes entries permanently. Without a prior backup, you can't restore the original entries, run details, and linked documents for the compressed period. Never compress current periods or periods that might be revised.
Wichtig
SwissSalary rejects ending dates within the last three years relative to the most recent payroll run. Plan compression only for clearly closed history.
Check the result
After the process, check samples to verify:
- that payroll runs and entries in the compressed period now exist only as compressed records,
- that totals in reports for prior years still match the expected totals,
- that the required account-assignment attributes were retained by using Retain Field Contents,
- that auditing and archiving accept the reduced level of detail.
Good to know
- Starting compression without a complete backup—you can't restore the original entries, run details, and linked documents for the period afterward.
- Choosing an Ending Date within the last three years relative to the most recent payroll run—SwissSalary rejects the date.
- Running the report without an Ending Date—the report stops.
- Not retaining account-assignment attributes—reports lose distinctions by account, cost center, and other dimensions.
- Not clarifying the reduced level of detail with auditors and those responsible for retention requirements in advance—supporting records might be unavailable later.