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New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?)

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On 9/3/2016 07:17, Huge wrote:
> On 2016-09-03, Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>> Huge wrote:
>>> Paul Sture wrote:
>>>> Having worked on payroll, the yearly changes to tax and social
>>>> contributions seemed to be designed to break existing systems.  It
>>>> didn't matter how well you had parameterised your payroll system to
>>>> minimise the impact of regulatory changes, the government would find a
>>>> way that forced you to change your code.
>>>
>>> Having worked on payroll, I completely agree.
>>
>> Ditto (and I dare say it's got worse in the past 25 years).
>>
>> Accounts packages can run unchanged for years, with just the occasional
>> tweak to tax rates, payroll tends to need program changes for edge cases
>> as well as tax rate/threshold changes.
>
> And when we parallel ran the new system (written in [spit]RPG2), the numbers
> were different from the old one.
>
> The old one was wrong.

My first assignment in computers was a "programmer" in a system that was 
to capture the data and information required to publish entries in the 
telephone books involved for a telephone subscriber from the service 
order that installed (or changed) the service. (A listing might appear 
in four different books).

This was a long time ago and the system being replaced did not involve 
computers at all, and there was a great deal of latent (and also of 
explicit) Ludditism working to stop the new system.

Accuracy was a major issue because there was a huge cottage industry in 
suing the telephone company for anything that looked like it might 
fly--and in the atmosphere of the day reinforced concrete balloons flew 
with distressing regularity.


So it was ordained that EVERY mechanically produced directory would be 
read against the hot lead book-on-the-street.  It was decided that we 
would use the Information Directory Reprints (and the Supplements) would 
be used since the Reprints came out monthly (and the Supplements daily) 
so several cycles could be be checked.

The Daily Supplements were abandoned quickly because the new system was 
quicker than the old and the differences were huge.

But the Reprint effort persisted and every "Error" was greeted with 
great delight until it became apparent that with few exceptions the lead 
book was wrong.  And where the lead was "right" there was an Error 
Notice in awaiting resolution by Error Control in the automated system.
-- 
quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
-- Juvenal

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How difficult is a payroll system? Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-09-01 12:04 +1000
  Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 02:27 +0000
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-09-01 02:47 +0000
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-09-01 14:10 +1000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 10:12 +0000
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-01 21:48 +0200
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-09-01 14:14 +1000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 10:22 +0000
  Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-08-31 22:23 -0500
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 06:44 +0000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:09 -0500
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-09-01 08:15 +0000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 10:27 +0000
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:16 -0500
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:43 +0200
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? polygonum <rmoudndgers@vrod.co.uk> - 2016-09-06 07:28 +0100
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-01 21:18 +0200
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-01 21:23 +0000
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2016-09-03 08:17 +0100
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-03 12:17 +0000
              New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-03 22:12 -0500
                Re: New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-09-05 20:00 -0400
                Re: New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-05 19:36 -0500
                Re: New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-05 19:42 -0500
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:13 +0200
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:46 +0200
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-04 21:26 +0000
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? "Kerr Mudd-John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2016-09-18 08:56 +0100
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-18 10:18 +0200
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:20 -0500
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 21:41 +0200
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:11 -0500
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:30 +0200
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-04 21:25 +0000

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