A consolidation definition is a way to combine multiple records from a file that have matching criteria. When a file you are working with has multiple records that share the same characteristics, a consolidation definition will allow you to combine the matching records into one record.
Create a new Consolidation Definition
To create a new consolidation definition, access the Admin Console by clicking on your initials at the top right hand corner.
Next you will want to click on the Consolidation Definitions tab and then click on the Add button to create a new consolidation definition.
If you do not see the Consolidation Definitions option in the Admin Console, please Contact Us to request the feature to be added to your account.
Then select the Create New Definition option.
Enter in a Name and a Description for your consolidation, then select an Input File Definition.
If you do not see a specific File Definition you have created, please refer to the How to create a new File Definition article and make sure the definition has been published.
Key Fields are the fields that will be used to create the unique records when the data is consolidated. For example, if we are trying to consolidate multiple records of employee data in our source file, we would select Key Fields that identify the employee. Here we will select the employee's SSN as our Key Field.
Consolidation rules allow you to specify how the records are consolidated if matching records are found using the Key Field(s). To add a rule, click on the Add Rule button.
To create a rule, select the Input Field.
When creating a consolidation rule, different rules are available for the different data types (STRING, NUMERIC, DATE). To see the different rules for each data type, select an Input field with the specific data type.
Fields where the data is identical across all records (like a Plan ID, Company Code, etc.) don't need to have rules applied to them. In most cases, NUMERIC fields (401k contributions) need a consolidation rule. For example, if we want to SUM any Employee PreTax contributions for employees with multiple records in the source file, we would create the following rule:
We would then create a rule to SUM any NUMERIC field that we want to combine using the consolidation definition. Other rules are available depending on how you wish to control how the consolidation behaves based upon your needs.
Once we have created our consolidation rules, click Save Changes to save the consolidation definition.
Publish a Consolidation Definition
Before the Consolidation definition can be used to create a moov Definition, it must be Published. To Publish the Consolidation Definition, edit the definition and click on the Publish button at the top right hand corner of the page.
