Radenkovich’s P(a)lace

Sometimes master data in your ERP or similar software could be full with obsolete definitions not used anymore. It could look like they should be erased from databases to make data more reliable. There are to many reasons not to do it. Regardless it is item master data, partner master data or any other master data type… Once opened master definitions should exist for all eternity. Clearing those unused definitions could cause more troubles than benefits. Let see this example:

Company have partners not used in last two years, with aspect of referential integrity with transaction data (invoices, payment transactions…) they could be removed safely. Lets assume those partners still exist - they are not closed. Next year company could start work with them again, this once existed before partner must be opened again and this time he will be assigned new ID in master table and reports for period of 3 year will show two different partners. Better way is to mark partner as deactivated and reactivate it again when company start to do business with him again. On this way all transactional data will be related to one ID and it will be possible to look at whole partner history even we had pause of 1-2 years working with him. This wil save your Business Intelligence team of some hard solving problems.

Prerequisite and the most important point is moment when new master data item is opened. This will become more powerful if you choose to use talking-code logic instead of simply auto number increment or range for ID field.