The continuous service date is always populated with the same date as the appointment start date when the employee is added to the system.
The continuous service date does not have any subsequent functionality to be updated by the system following any change to another aspect of the employee record, such as them being given a new appointment record or career record.
The continuous service date will also not automatically change if an appointment start date is manually amended.
If the appointment start date and continuous service date do not match, it is because one of them has been changed manually from their original entry.