Need help in creating an Access Project Tracking/Management program 2

[Sherman6789]

Hi,

I am in the process of "trying" to create a project tracking/management system using MS Access. There are about 10 staff members, 5 division managers, 2 directors and me as administrator of the database program. They all have access to Access on their computers and access to a common drive where the files will be stored. The security feature of Access has NOT been implemented. I know that I should learn it and do it, BUT I have not yet. Until then, I need to prepare a way that a simple password entry will bring up the proper dialog form.

I plan to create about five tables in the database: Access group levels, Personnel List, Divisions, Password Table, Project Information, etc.

The division managers will assign projects to several staff members. Each staff member should be able to sign on with a password which will allow them to see only their assignments and record the hours they work on the project by the week.
The division managers will be able to see all of the project for their division only. The directors and I will be able to see all projects and get reports on status and time spent by staff, division, etc. I will create reports as needed.

Lastly, I am told that they need to record the total time a staff member spent on the individual projects by the week and the total hours spent on all projects. I am not sure of the best way to have a weekly total entered. On Friday they may need to enter the fact that they worked 6 hours on project "A" and 3 hours on Project "D". The totals need to be automatically caculated for the managers not only on reports but also on certain forms.

Hope that my explaination is not too completed or wordy. Any assistance will be appreciated. I am also open to seeing other programs with similar objectives that I can study and modify, as needed.

My personal experience is a cross between a programmer and a technical user with just enough knowledge to be dangerous. But I can learn.

Thanks for any help received.

 

[Remou]

A few rough thoughts ...
Perhaps you could use a log-on form based on the user name (

http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0008.htm)

to control access? Once the user has sucessfully logged-on, the form could be hidden. Each menu item could be controlled from the hidden form (If Forms!frmHiddenForm.Access_Level < 1 ...). You will find quite a few post (and a FAQ or two, I think) on this sort of idea. As for time, perhaps the easiest thing for your users would be to have a table keyed on UserID + Project + Start Date/Time; an End Date/Time field would also be required. Weekly summaries could be created from such a table.

 

[Sherman6789]

Thank you for your throughts. I will check out the site you recommended and study your recommendations. They appear to be very good and exactly what I need.

WRS

 

[BobRodes]

<Each menu item could be controlled from the hidden form (If Forms!frmHiddenForm.Access_Level < 1 ...)

Yeah, but...
Isn't it more efficient to use a variable? Accessing properties of objects is significantly slower than accesing variables. Once you have the login validation, just show the main form. The main form can assign any needed values such as access_level to the variables, and then dump the login form. I'm more of a vb programmer, but isn't that more efficient?

Bob