Jonathan and Somckit: The SQL is fairly long so this is going to be a long post. If you have any thoughts on this issue, I would appreciate it. I can't paste the explain plans as they get formatted so badly they are not readable.. Here is the SQL. I have highlighted my change in blue (down at the bottom of the SQL) SELECT tran.FEE_PRD_SLS_KEY as tran_key, dy.full_dt as shft_dt, tran.empl_key, emp.racf_id, emp.lst_nm, emp.prefr_nm, UPPER(emp.lst_nm || ', ' || emp.prefr_nm) as full_nm, tran.acct_nbr, mpt.PRDCT_TYP_DSC, tran.chan_hrchy_key, ref.chan_ref_key, tran.FEE_PRD_SLS_CNT, tran.FEE_PRD_SLS_KEY, tran.FEE_PRD_SLS_SEQ_NBR, tran.FEE_PRD_SLS_ADJ_IND, tran.OPERS_CNTR_CDE, tran.SHFT_DY_TM_PERD_KEY, tran.ACCT_KEY, tran.FEE_PRD_SLS_UP_MTH_TM_PERD_KEY, tran.FEE_PRD_SLS_UP_DY_TM_PERD_KEY, tran.CHAN_HRCHY_KEY, tran.MBR_PRDCT_TYP_KEY FROM TELSREP.FEE_PRD_SLS tran, TELSREP.chan_hrchy ch, TELSREP.chan_ref ref, TELSREP.mbr_prdct_typ mpt, TELSREP.dy_tm_perd strt, TELSREP.dy_tm_perd end, TELSREP.dy_tm_perd dy, TELSREP.call_cntr_empl_mthly_hist hist, TELSREP.call_cntr_mgmt_hrchy hrchy, TELSREP.call_cntr_empl emp WHERE tran.EMPL_KEY = 1877 AND strt.full_dt = to_date('2006-07-27','yyyy-mm-dd') AND end.full_dt = to_date('2006-07-27','yyyy-mm-dd') AND tran.shft_dy_tm_perd_key between strt.dy_tm_perd_key and end.dy_tm_perd_key AND dy.dy_tm_perd_key = tran.shft_dy_tm_perd_key AND hist.shft_mth_tm_perd_key = tran.shft_mth_tm_perd_key AND hist.empl_key = tran.empl_key AND hrchy.call_cntr_mgmt_hrchy_key = hist.call_cntr_mgmt_hrchy_key AND emp.empl_key+0 = tran.empl_key AND tran.CHAN_HRCHY_KEY = ch.chan_hrchy_key AND ch.chan_ref_key = ref.chan_ref_key AND mpt.mbr_prdct_typ_key = tran.mbr_prdct_typ_key ORDER BY shft_dt, emp.lst_nm, emp.prefr_nm, chan_ref_key, mpt.PRDCT_TYP_DSC thank you Gene Gurevich -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l