Need Urgent Help before I go NUTS!

[Brian]

I was wondering if anyone can please help? Before I go completely NUTS!

I have a small one band business company whereby I sell a service, with this in mind I am trying without success to make a small database whereby I can do the following

1: record my customers name address etc
2: record the sales for each call mad
3: record and remind me to contact my customer at a latter date

I am after a simple database, whereby I can simply open my program and see a nice coloured index card, fill in the required information and also see what sales I have been made in the past

The problem is with every book and training program which I have seen, they all seem to go into great depths, and thereby forgetting, and assuming that people like me know how to do the simple things
So if anyone can help I would be very grateful!!!!!
Kind regard
Bria
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Howard Brody]

Try using the Contact Management Database template. That should give you something close to what you need that you can tweak

If you want to do it yourself, I'd have two tables (tblClients and tblSales), joined on the ClientID field. My form would be bound to tblClients and, when one was selected, any sales for them would display in a subform. Should be simple enough for a beginner

Not all books assume the reader is experienced. When I got started, I went to a bookstore with a good selection and took some time to look through all the Access books and bought the one I was most confortable with ('The Access Bible' by Prague and Irwin, in case you're interested

Hope this helps

Howard Brod


----- Brian wrote: ----

I was wondering if anyone can please help? Before I go completely NUTS!

I have a small one band business company whereby I sell a service, with this in mind I am trying without success to make a small database whereby I can do the following

1: record my customers name address etc
2: record the sales for each call mad
3: record and remind me to contact my customer at a latter date

I am after a simple database, whereby I can simply open my program and see a nice coloured index card, fill in the required information and also see what sales I have been made in the past

The problem is with every book and training program which I have seen, they all seem to go into great depths, and thereby forgetting, and assuming that people like me know how to do the simple things
So if anyone can help I would be very grateful!!!!!
Kind regard
Bria
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

 

[Nikos Yannacopoulos]

Brian,

Don't go nuts over this! It's not just not worth it, it's also absolutely
unreasonable!

"A simple database" like the one you describe in a line and a half is not
that simple at all, I assure you!
Simple to use >> complicated to develop is the rule, I'm afraid... You just
can't expect to obtain an "MS-Access for the Complete Idiot" manual and sit
down and do it overnight. You have two options, really: invest time to do
it, or invest money to buy or commission it. No free rides!

Sorry to disappoint you, if I have, but that's what my painful experience
says... and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Nikos

I was wondering if anyone can please help? Before I go completely NUTS!!

I have a small one band business company whereby I sell a service, with

this in mind I am trying without success to make a small database whereby I
can do the following:

1: record my customers name address etc.
2: record the sales for each call made
3: record and remind me to contact my customer at a latter date.

I am after a simple database, whereby I can simply open my program and see

a nice coloured index card, fill in the required information and also see
what sales I have been made in the past.

The problem is with every book and training program which I have seen,

they all seem to go into great depths, and thereby forgetting, and assuming
that people like me know how to do the simple things!

 

[Immanuel Sibero]

Agreed,

I've seen this many times before, where people buy or use Access as if it is
a finished product. Access is not a finished product, in fact all the
software in MS Office are not finished products. You wont get well crafted
letters, well designed analytical spreadsheets just by buying MS Office. You
still have to build them yourself. In addition, also note that buying a car
repair tool set does not all of a sudden make you a mechanic. You still need
to learn how to be a mechanic or get someone else who IS a mechanic to use
those tools.

So, I agree with the options: invest the time to do it, or have someone do
it.

Immanuel Sibero

 

[TC]

Well said!

There is one problem, though, that I feel some sympathy for.

When you buy a toolkit, you know that you are not a mechanic. When you look
under the hood of your car, you know that you don't understand the purpose
or function of most of the bits that you see. You can easily see, that you
should not use your bright new toolkit, to start fooling around with those
bits of equipment.

But there are no such obvious warnings when the average user gets a copy of
a database tool such as Access. The user soon grasps the basic concepts of
tables, records & fields. He easily creates a test table, & adds some
records to it. So before long, he launches off on a larger task: for
example, creating his invoice system. Let's start with the Invoice table:
ProductCode1, ProductCode2, productCode3, ... etc! A few weeks later, he
comes to this or other groups, complaining that he can't get any of his
forms & reports to work properly.

My point is, that there is no big sign that says: "WARNING: Database design
is not as simple as it looks. You need to understand about an important
topic called Normalization. Here are some references for you to read. Plan
on spending *at least a few months* to get an understanding of this
important topic. If you do not understand this topic, you will not be able
to write form & reports that manage your data in a convenient & accurate
manner."

So, the average user is a chump if he starts fooling around with the bits &
pieces under the hood of his car. But even the brightest person can easily
get well out of his depth in a DBMS, really through no fault of his own.

Just my 2c!

TC