# Effective End Date Idiosyncrasies

MetraNet does not allow gaps when dealing with effective dates; all accounts must have a payer from the time they are created on.

For example, let's look at a simple Payment History screen:

This screen indicates that Ralf paid for himself on 5/30/2002 (most likely when the account was created), and then Christine pays from 5/31/2002 on (the infinity symbol indicates that there is no end date; in some screens, the system represents this as some date far in the future).

If you attempt to change Ralf's Payment History by choosing a different payer for some time period that would create a gap, the system will adjust on its own. Let's look at an example.

## Example

You can adjust Payer information from either the Account Information, Pay For Accounts, or Payer History screen. If you want to add an account as a payer, you can do it in either of the following ways:

- Select the payer account, then click Pay for Accounts from the Account menu, and add the account to pay for, or

- Select the payee account, then click Edit Payers, and add the payer account. (You could also go to the Account Information screen and add a payer there).

For example, let's say you want to set Dave Blair as the payer for Ralf's account from 6/5/2002 until 6/4/2003.

You could either select Ralf's account, then add Dave Blair as the payer, or select Dave Blair's account, and add Ralf as the payee. Since these are equivalent, we'll illustrate adding Ralf's account to the list of Account's Dave Blair pays for:

1. Select Dave Blair's account, either by searching for it or selecting from the Hierarchy Tree view.

2. Click Pay for Accounts. You would now see the Add Accounts for Payment screen.

3. From this screen, add Ralf's account to the list and fill in the effective date fields as shown below:

4. Click OK, then look at Ralf's Payment History screen. You'll see the following:

Even though you did not specify who would pay for Ralf after 6/4/2003, the system has filled in the gap that would have occurred after 6/4/2003, by reverting to the previous payer—in this case Christine—after Dave Blair's duration as payer ends.