Creation of a Head of Household Field

The first step in creating a head of household calculation is the creation of a field to store the outcome of the calculation -- a head of household field. Because the outcome of the calculation is either a 'Yes' or a 'No,' a field can be created that stores this bit value. To create the field:

1. Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Fields.

2. Click Insert.

3. Enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Scope - Person

   • ID - Provide a computer friendly and intuitive name for this field, such as 'head_of_household'

   • Name - Provide a human friendly and intuitive name for this field, such as 'Head of Household

   • Prompt - Select 'bit' from the list

   • Value - Select 'Store Value'

4. Click Save.

Click the Slate Scholar Lightbulb in the top left corner for a complete listing of all setting descriptions.

Creation of an Override Field

There may be records that do not fall in line with the standard convention and require manual designation. To exclude these records from the calculation, an override field should be created and subsequently set on each record that will be an exception to the calculation. To create this custom field:

1. Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Fields.

2. Click Insert.

3. Enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Scope - Person

   • ID - Provide a computer friendly and intuitive name for this field, such as 'hoh_override'

   • Name - Provide a human friendly and intuitive name for this field, such as 'Head of Household Override'

   • Prompt - Select 'bit' from the list

   • Value - Select 'Store Value'

4. Click Save.

Click the Slate Scholar Lightbulb    in the top left corner for a complete listing of all setting descriptions.

'Do Nothing' Override Rule

The head of household calculation will consist of three rules, all within an exclusivity group. The order of rules within the exclusivity group is important -- as it determines which of the three rules will take affect on a record.

The first rule in the exclusivity group is a 'Do Nothing' rule. The purpose of this rule is to find all of the records where the 'Head of Household Override' field has been manually set - and exclude them from subsequent rules. To create this rule:

1. Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Rules Editor.

2. Click New Rule.

3. Enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Name - Provide an easy to understand name for the rule, such as 'Head of Household - Override'

   • Base - Select 'Configurable Joins Library (Preview) - Person'

   • Type - Select 'Field'

   • Trigger - Select 'Upon Update (Deferred)'

   • Folder - Create or place the rule in a folder, such as a 'Head of Household' folder

   • Exclusivity Group - Create an exclusivity group for this first rule in the group of three rules. Provide a name such as 'Head of Household'

   • Non-deterministic - Select 'Rule is deterministic and has an exclusive priority'

   • Priority - Set the priority to '1'

   • Status - Set the status to 'Preview'

4. Click Save.

   

With the rule created, the next step is to filter to find records that have the Head of Household Override field value set to 'Yes.' 

With these records identified, this rule can be configured with the selected action of No Action Rule. By selecting this action, Slate will skip the processing of lower-priority rules within the same exclusivity group when the filter criteria has been met.

Head of Household Calculation

The next rule in the exclusivity group is designed to set the custom head of household field to 'Yes' for only those records that should be marked as the head of household. Within this rule, each individual record within the database will be evaluated against their linked relationships - with only one person being selected as the head of household. 

To start the rule:

1. Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Rules Editor.

2. Click New Rule.

3. Enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Name - Provide an easy to understand name for the rule, such as 'Head of Household - Yes'

   • Base - Select 'Configurable Joins Library (Preview) - Person'

   • Type - Select 'Field'

   • Trigger - Select 'Upon Update (Deferred)'

   • Folder - Create or place the rule in a folder, such as a 'Head of Household' folder

   • Exclusivity Group - Place the rule in the same 'Head of Household' exclusivity group that was created for the Do Nothing rule.

   • Non-deterministic - Select 'Rule is deterministic and has an exclusive priority'

   • Priority - Set the priority to '5'

   • Status - Set the status to 'Preview'

4. Click Save.

Within the Action section of the rule, configure the following settings:

• Field - Select the custom 'Head of Household' field

• Action - Select 'Replace Values'

• Prompt - Select 'Yes'

The next step is to add a subquery filter to select the appropriate record as the head of household. To get started:

1. Select the subquery filter icon and enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Name - Provide a descriptive name (e.g.,'Person GUID = Head of Household GUID")

   • Type - Dependent subquery

   • Aggregate - Comparison

   • Operator - '='

   What's going on with the comparison?

   Slate is evaluating each record and its relationships. If the ID is the same as the person being evaluated, then that person is the head of household.

2. Add two exports for comparison: the person's GUID and the GUID of the person who will be selected as the head of household. The Person GUID can be added directly and selected as the Field 1 option for comparison. 

   
   

3. The second comparison export will need to reference not only the person being evaluated, but also their linked relationships. To accomplish this, add a subquery export and configure the following settings:

   • Name - Provide an easy to understand name, such as 'Person and Relations GUID'

   • Type - Dependent subquery

   • Output - Rank

   Why Rank?

   This export looks at each person and all of their relationships. By selecting the Rank output, Slate will only choose 1 record out of all the potential records that exist (each person + their relationships). By using a custom sort, that one record will be the head of household.

4. Click Join to add a new join to the Relations Linked Persons and Self base. Select the category of relationships that are intended to be evaluated in the head of household calculation (such as Spouse and Child)

5. Add an export for the Relations Linked Persons and Self GUID.

6. Add any additional filters as necessary, such as 'Relations Linked Person and Self = Living.'

   
   

   Asking questions, such as "Is the person a Board Member" or "Is the person an Alum", where there is a yes/no response allows institutions to use existence values (such as '1' or '0') within a subquery sort to determine if a record meets certain criteria. For example, the sort in our example references the constituency type of persons and their linked relations and returns a '1' if they are a Board Member and a '0' if they are not:

   
   

   At the end of the list of sorts, a unique value should be added. For these scenarios, records and their relationships match on all the head of household characteristics. By adding a unique value, a consistent record will be selected every time the rules run on the records. 

   
   

   Once the desired sort order has been created:

7. Click Save.

8. Select Person and Relations GUID as the Field 2 option within the comparison.

9. Click Save on the overall rule.

Not Head of Household Calculation

The final rule in the series is designed to set the value of the custom head of household field to 'No' for all records who do not meet the criteria in the previous two rules. 

To create the rule:

1. Click Database in the top navigation bar and select Rules Editor.

2. Click New Rule.

3. Enter the following configurations in the popup window:

   • Name - Provide an easy to understand name for the rule, such as 'Head of Household - No'

   • Base - Select 'Configurable Joins Library (Preview) - Person'

   • Type - Select 'Field'

   • Trigger - Select 'Upon Update (Deferred)'

   • Folder - Create or place the rule in a folder, such as a 'Head of Household' folder

   • Exclusivity Group - Place the rule in the same 'Head of Household' exclusivity group that was created for the previous two rules.

   • Non-deterministic - Select 'Rule is deterministic and has an exclusive priority'

   • Priority - Set the priority to '10'

   • Status - Set the status to 'Preview'

4. Click Save.

5. In the Action section, configure the following:

   • Field - Select the 'Head of Household' field

   • Action - Select 'Replace Values'

   • Prompt - Select 'No'

6. Click Save.