To ensure that employment history actions are reported correctly, a number of controls are built into the system. These may be requirements of State or federal entities and/or the Board of Trustees; each 'control' must be satisfied before a particular transaction will be accepted by the system, and with many, there is little or no human intervention. Some of the controls include over 200 automated 'front end' edits and audits on the PIMS database, and some 300 payroll edits and audits. There are also many manual review audits performed by the SCO staff on transactions processed.
A computer-assigned document processing number (DPN) is a system control. When a personnel document is processed, a computer-generated DPN is assigned. For future transactions, the computer will accept data only from the document with the latest document processing number for that employee's position number.
A transaction code is another means of controlling information being processed on the PIMS database. Every action is identified by a transaction code and each transaction code requires the entry of specific types of data unique to that transaction.