December 7, 1990
Dear Everyone:
PEP Codes!
Slippery little critters.
These are the eight-digit charge codes that “Bean
Counters” uses to pay for services and purchases.
Payroll also uses PEP Codes to account for people’s pay checks.
Look at your pay check; it’s got a PEP Code on it.
(All of this is “funny money”, of course.
At no point does so much as a copper penny actually changes
hands. It’s all done with
electrons.)
Records Management also uses PEP Codes for Records
Retention Schedules (to identify an organization) and for boxes in the
Records Centers – the Box Owner Code is tied to the organization’s PEP
Code. But here’s the
problem: PEP Codes don’t
just stand there. They’re
constantly on the move. The
minute your back is turned, they take off, skittering in all directions
like something out of a Jim Henson movie.
Every Monday, I receive a report which lists all the PEP Codes
that have been added, changed, closed or deleted since the previous
week. There are people who
get paid to do nothing but maintain the PEP Code Table and boy are they
busy!
The reason we use PEP Codes to identify Box Owners
is so that we can avoid “Orphan” boxes.
Say there’s a department:
Offshore Projects.
They have a PEP Code which they use to pay their people and to charge
things to. They also use it
to store boxes in the Records Center.
Then, one day, Offshore Projects is no more.
The people have been let go or transferred to some other
department(s).
Needless to say, it would never enter anyone’s head
to notify the Records Center that the department is gone.
This results in “orphan” boxes.
This is why we use PEP Codes.
Because the report that I get on Monday will alert us to this
callous abandonment of those poor, defenseless boxes.
Theoretically, what happens next is that we in Records Management
contact someone in Offshore Projects and find out where the people went
and, more importantly to us, where should the boxes go.
In fact, none of us knows anyone in Offshore Projects and no one
has time to go tracking these people down.
You see, PEP lets us know when they (the people who
maintain PEP are generally referred to as “PEP” and, no, nobody knows
who these people are) change, close or delete a Code; but they never
tell us where the people who were paid under that Code went to.
The detective work is up to us.
The result is that we’ve more or less ignored the problem up
until now. Now there are (as
of last Monday) 233 Owner Codes based on Closed PEP Codes and 88 Owner
Codes based on Deleted PEP Codes.
So, next month, when we start running the Billing System to
charge people for their boxes, some 321 Owner Codes are going to turn
belly up and reject because they don’t match the PEP Codes in Corp
Accounting’s Table.
And that’s why I’m suddenly interested in PEP
Codes. I’ve got to get as
many of these little monsters cleared up as I can before the end of the
month which, for me is December 19th.
Speaking of which, our travel plans have changed
somewhat. Mother found a
plane (a whole plane) that had space on it so she booked seats for
“Marshall”, “Jeannie” and me.
We’ll fly Oakland to Portland on the 20th and come
back on the 28th.
This means that (in addition to the deadlines at work) I need to get all
of my Christmas shopping and shipping done as soon as possible.
Actually, I’m in pretty good shape in this
department. My shopping
which, I admit, I began last June in Los Angeles, is nearly complete.
Good thing, too, because my “Christmas closet” is bulging at the
seams. What I haven’t yet
purchased, I at least know what to get.
And I’ve got some nice big boxes that our PC equipment came in;
as the official Assistant PC Coordinator, I’m in charge of ordering
equipment and of disposing of the cartons after it arrives.
I’ve “disposed” of several cartons behind the door in my office.
Movies…
“Jeannie” and I went to the movies last weekend
(news flash). I wanted to
see
Home Alone which
several people had raved about.
But “Jeannie” was in the mood for senseless violence.
So we went and saw
Predator 2.
After 15 minutes, we agreed, it was pretty senseless.
The original was better.
At least it had the redeeming factor of showing what it would be
like to be on the receiving end of all those
Bambi-killing “sports”
hunters. As for the sequel,
I give it a thumbs-down, but it wasn’t a total loss.
The popcorn was good.
I’m hoping we can go see Home Alone while we’re spending Christmas in
Canby.
Love, as always,
Pete
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