>>The smart safe transaction table has two possible eventcode values DECL and VER
>>
>>a VER transaction can relate to one or DECL transactions.
>>
>>The verifyid column in a DECL transaction points to the VER transaction for that row, if any.
>>
>>I was to select ALL DECL rows where the verifyid column is 0 or if it's not zero the postingdate in the related VER transaction is earlier than a given date
>>
>>I get this far and go blank
>>
>>

>>select * from view_expandedsmartsafetrans where eventcode = 'DECL' and verifyid = 0 
>>

>
>

>select *;
>      from view_expandedsmartsafetrans VEXP;
>LEFT JOIN VER ON VER.verifyid = VEXP.verifyid AND VEXP.transaction < SomeDate
>where VEXP.eventcode = 'DECL';
> and VEXP.verifyid = 0 OR VER.verifyid IS NOT NULL
>

>NOT TESTED!

DECLARE @selectdate DATETIME
SELECT @selectdate = '2015-10-31'
select * from view_expandedsmartsafetrans where eventcode = 'DECL' and verifyid = 0 
OR (verifyid <> 0 AND  verifyid IN  (SELECT idcol FROM smartsafetrans WHERE eventcode =  'VER' AND postingdate < @selectdate ))

This worked.
Thanks to all for your advice
Yes, a second coffee is amazing.
Boris, we needed to define VER