Problem
I want to use Document Purge to delete any Reports older than 30 days and am wondering whether to use 'Actual Date' and 04/01/2016' or to use 'Today' and '-30' in the Delete Documents Older Than field.
Does it matter?
Solution
Either would work, provided 'today' is May 1.
Date Select Fields appear on numerous reports and processes in RecTrac and consist of two (2) fields, the Date Select Option field (the Drop-down list on the left) and the Entry field (on the right). These fields work together and allow you to specify an exact date.
When using Actual Date in the Date Select Option field, you will enter or select a fixed Date from the Calendar. The Document Purge Program will remove documents older than the Date entered, so entering 01 April 2016 in this field would result in ALL document PRIOR to 01 April being purged.
When using Today in the Date Select Option field, you will enter a negative integer where the integer equals a Number of Days. 0=Today, -1=Yesterday, -14=Two Weeks Ago, -30=30 Days Ago, etc so entering -30 in this field would ALL document PRIOR to 30 ago as of 'today.' If 'today' was May 4th, 30 days ago would be 04 April, so all documents prior to 04 April would be purged as opposed to all documents prior to 01 April.
Note: See Also: RecTrac Date Select Fields for a listing of selection definitions and examples