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Error when creating or amending or deleting the career history record: The current transaction cannot be committed and cannot support operations

Error message when trying to create or edit a career history record.

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Written by Harry Ledger
Updated over a month ago

When you update an appointment, career, or continuous service date, the system automatically recalculates absence history. This process is resource-intensive and may result in a timeout or transaction error if any absence-related data is invalid or problematic.

To resolve this, perform the data checks outlined below.

Data checks to perform

Check

Steps

Does the employee have any non-live sickness absences without an end date?

1. Open the SelectHR Administrator Tool.

2. Go to Import/Export Data.

3. Click Create an export definition > Select the data to export.

4. Change the database to SelectHR and log in.

5. Paste the SQL below into the Options > Paste SQL from clipboard

Select All Top 100 Percent pSS.[Person Number], pSS.[First Name], pSS.Surname, ah.[Absence Number], ah.[Absence Start Date], ah.[Absence End Date], ah.[Absence Type], ah.[Created Date], ah.Workflow, Case When (ah.Workflow = 1) Then 'Live' When (ah.Workflow = 2) Then 'Pending Update' When (ah.Workflow = 0) Then 'Pending' When (ah.Workflow = -1) Then 'Declined' When (ah.Workflow = -2) Then 'Cancelled' When (ah.Workflow = -3) Then 'Soft Deleted' End As [Workflow Status] From Person.Snapshot pSS Inner Join Absence.History As ah On pSS.[Person Number] = ah.[Person Number] Group By All pSS.[Person Number], pSS.[First Name], pSS.Surname, ah.[Absence Number], ah.[Absence Start Date], ah.[Absence End Date], ah.[Absence Type], ah.[Created Date], ah.Workflow, Case When (ah.Workflow = 1) Then 'Live' When (ah.Workflow = 2) Then 'Pending Update' When (ah.Workflow = 0) Then 'Pending' When (ah.Workflow = -1) Then 'Declined' When (ah.Workflow = -2) Then 'Cancelled' When (ah.Workflow = -3) Then 'Soft Deleted' End Having pSS.[First Name] = 'CHANGEME' And pSS.Surname = 'CHANGEME' And ah.[Absence End Date] Is Null And ah.[Absence Type] = 'SICKNESS' And ah.Workflow <> 1 Order By pSS.Surname, ah.[Absence Start Date] Desc

6. Replace 'CHANGEME' with the employee’s actual first name and surname.

7. Click Data.If any results appear, these open-ended absences must be corrected. Set an end date, ideally the same as the start date, to resolve the issue.

Does the employee have an absence that spans the effective date on the career history record?

1. Follow steps 1–4 above to access the export tool.

2. Paste the following SQL

​SELECT PSS.[Person Number], PSS.[First Name], PSS.Surname, PSS.[Effective Status], AD.[Absence Date], AH.[Absence Type], AH.Workflow FROM Person.Snapshot PSS INNER JOIN Absence.Days AD ON PSS.[Person Number] = AD.[Person Number] INNER JOIN Absence.History AH ON AD.[Absence Number] = AH.[Absence Number] WHERE PSS.[First Name] = '' -- ENTER FIRST NAME AND PSS.Surname = '' -- ENTER SURNAME AND AD.[Absence Date] = '01/Jan/2023' --

3. Enter the employee’s name and the effective date of the career record.

4. Click Data.

If any results appear, and the absence is long or open-ended, it may be causing a timeout.

You can delete the absence, make the career change, then recreate the absence, or ask Support to run a SQL script to update the career record.

To proceed with Support: First create the career record with today’s date, then raise a case online referencing this article and ask for the effective date to be updated.

Does the employee have a Holiday History record for the same year they started?

Go to Absence > Absence > Holiday History. The employee should have a Holiday Year record that matches their earliest appointment start date (e.g., 1 June 1990 requires a 1990 holiday record).If it’s missing, add the record and retry your update.

Does the employee have a Holiday History record for the current year?

In Holiday History, confirm the employee has a record for the current holiday year. If not, create one and try your update again.

Does the start date of the first appointment and career record match the continuous service date?

Go to Employees > Career History and check the earliest start dates for Appointment and Career against the Continuous Service Date.They should match unless the employee is a TUPE transfer or rejoiner. If so, the Continuous Service Date may be intentionally different—do not change it.

Does the employee have many active pay history records?

If the employee has many active records in Basic Pay History or Other Pay, trying to end the appointment may cause a timeout. This is because the system tries to set an end date for all active records. Manually enter end dates for each Pay History record before ending the appointment.


If you’ve completed these checks and still encounter issues, or need help with any of the steps, please raise a new case online and reference this article.

Please include:

  • The employee’s name.

  • The change you’re attempting.

  • The exact error message received.

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