The Status Reconciliation Command allows you to analyze the changes in values of any coded field that is contained on both of two selected files. Typically the two files represent employee information for two different years and the coded field gives the employee status (such as active, retired, deceased, etc.). This command allows you to find how many employees went from one status in the first file to each possible status in the second file.

Status Field is the coded field (usually status) to be reconciled between the two databases.

Key field(s) allows you to specify the key field(s) to use in matching records between the two files. The key field is usually a field like social security number or location number, but it can be any type of field, as long as it has a unique value for each record.

The match case in key(s) option determines whether ProVal should, for example, treat “a” differently from “A” when these characters are encountered. For case-sensitive treatment, check the box.

The database containing prior year data is the first of the two databases to compare. Generally, this file contains the original or older data. If you do not wish to reconcile statuses for all records on the database, enter a selection expression.

The database containing current year data is the second of the two databases to compare. Generally, this file contains the updated or newer data. If you do not wish to reconcile statuses for all records on the database, enter a selection expression.

Clicking the button to the right of either selection expression accesses the Retrieve Selection Expression dialog box. Pick a selection expression to retrieve by clicking its name in the list of selection expressions in the current Project. You will return to the preceding dialog box and the selection expression will appear in the appropriate Selection Expression box.

Once you have made all of your selections, click the Run button to have ProVal compute the status reconciliation report. The report is displayed in a viewer.

The rows of the table correspond to statuses in the first file (labeled File A); the columns correspond to statuses in the second file (File B). (The columns are numbered rather than labeled. Use the numbers in the row labels to find the corresponding column label.) The value in row i, column j of the table gives the number of records having the i-th status in the old file and the j-th status in the new file.