Transactional and Test Data Cleanup

Activate User's Guide
Version
2025.4
ft:lastEdition
2025-10-14
Transactional and Test Data Cleanup

The Transaction and Test Data Cleanup wizard removes any transactional data in the system that could have an effect when trying to balance a Parallel or validate data for a system to Go-Live.

In Dayforce, testers create transactions in UAT to test the system. But during Parallel or Go Live, these transactions can cause problems with balancing or data validation (because of overlapping dates or committed Time Entry clocks or payrolls). To avoid errors, it’s best to clear the data from the system and start the next phase with a clean environment.

Note: When configuring and testing pay groups, pay group calendars, or payroll, the wizard restores successfully, even when the pay date has been changed to allow for adequate testing.

Recommended actions

Note the following:

  • If you need to preserve any of the testing that has taken place or you still have issues that might require the test data for resolution, it’s highly recommended that you back up the environment as it exists before you run this wizard. In addition, Activate is tied to the Stage environment. If another environment is available, backing up there prevents any of the data clean up modules from erasing any archival UAT testing.
  • Make sure that no background jobs are running while the cleanup is processing. Background jobs can regenerate data and cause the clean up to fail.
Retained Pay Group Calendar fields

When you initiate the Data Cleanup or the Transactional Cleanup Wizard, the following fields from the Pay Group Calendar are retained for Custom Pay Groups.

Pay Group Calendar fields retained for Custom Pay Groups
EffectiveStart PayImpoundDate TimeCollectionEndDate
EffectiveEnd PayRunDate OffsetPayPeriodStartDate
TransmitByDate PayDate OffsetPayPeriodEndDate
ApproveByDate CommitByTimeOfDay LedgerCode1*
PayPeriod DataGateOpen LedgerCode2*
CalendarStart DataGateClose GLAccrualPercent*
CalendarEnd TimeCollectionStartDate ContractPayDate

*These fields are also retained for pay groups with a noncustom frequency (for example, Biweekly and Monthly).

Tasks

To review the data:
  1. In Activate Central, click Prepare Environment for Parallel or Go Live. The Prepare Environment for Parallel or Go Live wizards show.
  2. Click Transactional and Test Data Cleanup.
  3. On the Review page, review the data to be removed by the wizard.

    Activate takes a backup before running the cleanup. If necessary, you can use the Rollback Activate and Dayforce Wizard to restore the system back to this point.

To remove data:
  1. In Activate Central, click Prepare Environment for Parallel or Go Live. The Prepare Environment for Parallel or Go Live wizards show.
  2. Click Transactional and Test Data Cleanup.
  3. On the Review page, click Remove Data. The Load page shows a summarized list of the elements to be removed. It also gives an estimate of how long the installation should take to complete.
  4. To receive an email when the installation process ends instead of waiting for it to finish, click Add Email and enter your email address.

    During the cleanup process, the current step in the process shows in bold text so you can monitor the progress.

  5. In the Profile menu (), click Quit Program & Go Back to Central.

    Note: For noncustom pay groups in AUS, IRL, and the UK, Activate populates the Contract Pay Date field with the same pay dates as before the Data Clean Up.

    Note: The original custom pay calendars remain present on the Pay Setup > Pay Group > Pay Calendars page in Dayforce. However, all transactional data for custom calendars have been removed.