HELP! I'M GOING NUTS trying to figure out how to do this

[pzaman1077]

OK, here's the deal. I am trying to put together a bookkeeping system for my food concession business and am having troubles trying to figure out where i should atart. To complicate things, i am as new as new can get to Access as well as VB (did some programming in college, but that was 10 years ago). Because of the nature of my business, I am in new "spots" (towns/events) every couple weeks. What I need to do is be able to enter a new spot, keep track of expenses (daily as well as for the whole spot as well as what the expenses were for like Sam's Club, food supplier, home Depot... you get the picture) for each spot, daily grosses for each spot, Taxes, Employees and payroll expenses. I also want to be able to bring up reports for per-spot expenses and end of year income/expense reports for the government. I really have no idea how to go about this and i have been trying for weeks to figure out what to do staying up all hours of the night brainstorming. Any help to get me pointed in the right direction would be extremely appreciated. Thanks

 

[rebooot]

To save yourself a lot of headache, hire some guy who knows access for a few hours and have sit with you to create the tables for your application and the main form. Once you watch him/her do that you should be able to pick up the ball slowly. However, if you think your business is going to grow (hopefully you do) then it might be worth your time to hire a person to do the work for you. If they are experienced enough they should be able to predict future situations or data modeling issues that may need to be addressed in the begining. Good luck.

Rebooot

 

[smuckers]

Good Morning pzaman1077:

From your description it sounds like you are very busy. My approach is non-standard but I believe in your situation it my be helpful. I'll leave that up to you to decide.

First of all, this is an evolutionary process. You may use any point to start and then move forward. As a side note, this forum focuses on MS Access Projects for *.ADP databases that work with SQL Server 2000. If you are starting out, I recommend HIGHLY, that you start with a *.mdb MS Access database and check out those specific forums on Tek-Tips.

Here goes:
1. Throw all your information into one or two tables.(This is a big no-no for those database folks. Most though, do not own a business). This table will be like a general ledger or tracking log for business activities.

2. Use the query wizard and create useful queries that pull the correct information from the table(s). Queries answer questions, so the more direct your questions, the more helpful the queries. Queries are the basis for good forms and critical for good reports.

3. Use the form wizard and select the queries created from table(s). You always have a choice but over time you will paint yourself into a corner selecting tables instead of queries.

4. Whenever possible, update tables using the forms.

5. Use the Report wizard and select the queries. Queries are the basis for your reports. Again, do not paint yourself into a corner using tables, try to use queries whenever possible.

6. When you get time, try to divide up the one or two tables into several logical tables, by food category, location and so on.

7. The help feature, F1, is very good for MS Access. Use it to answer your questions and learn how to do calculations and queries by cities and dates.

8. Tek-Tips is excellent for searching code and answers for problems.

9. End result is that you will immediately have something up and running with the single or few tables and you will be able to add data, group data and report on data will very little additional effort using the Wizards.

Good luck and hope this will point you in the right direction.

Smuckers

May your hysterical randomness be cured!