report / db structure ???

[micfly]

Access 97 ***Newbie alert!



Hoping one of you kind gurus on here will take a little time and help me
out.

So far I've just been stumbling through this (and it's taking me forever)
and

I'm worried about getting too far and the whole structure is wrong.

I have the main form built (frmTracking) that I enter in the data and that
works pretty

well, but I've reached a point where I'm way over my head. I need to build

some reports to show the data and I can't figure it out.

The reports will simply show totals based on the salesman (Sls1 Sls2) or the
finance manager

(Fin Mgr). If you view rptFinTTL you'll see how I want it structured.

Would some kind soul please take a look at this and give me some input. You
are welcome

to view it here: http://home.alltel.net/mcfly/tmp/copy_of_db1.mdb, make any
changes

and email it back to: (e-mail address removed) (remove the nospam.). If I
could just see a few

examples I think that would get me started in the right direction. Thanks in
advance for any help!

 

[George]

Hello there,

Well, although you have built the main table and secondary tables you are
still using the main table as a spreadsheet.

Try to re-built (or upgrade) it into a relational database. e.g. sls1, sls2
etc should be kept in a different table (one to many relationship).

Also try to link some secondary tables (using combo boxes - lookups) to
record date into your main table, e.g. DealType.

Start reading a good book about relational databases first.

Hope this helps,

GeorgeyCY

Ο χÏήστης "micfly" έγγÏαψε:

 

[micfly]

Thanks for looking. As I said, at this point I am just starting out and your
advice is more like Chinese to me.
I'm more of a visual person so looking at some examples would really help me
get started. I can't find any
thing similar in Northwind or some of the other sample databases available.
Hoping someone might take a minute
and show me in this particular db to get me started. Thanks again...

 

[Larry Linson]

Hoping someone might take a minute
and show me in this particular db to get
me started. Thanks again...

Occasionally, you will find someone who'll "step in and correct" your work,
but that is not the purpose of newsgroups -- the purpose of newsgroups is to
assist you to learn how to do your work. They are not a "just fix my
database" opportunity.

Your first step has to be to do some study so that you can, at least,
discuss what you have and what you want. There are many resources available
for your self-study, a good place to start, and free, might be the
programming tutorial Crystal Long has at
http://www.accessmvp.com/Strive4Peace/Index.htm.

It's our experience if a participant does not understand his/her database
sufficiently well to describe what he/she has and what he/she needs to
accomplish, suggestions are often lost on that participant. One good thing
to remember is that, unlike a spreadsheet where presentation and storage of
data can be "one and the same", databases are "based" on the data, and that
is where one must start the discussion -- also, it is best to describe the
business function as well as the approach one sees (because sometimes the
best suggestion is "change your approach to...").

Finally, with all the worms, viruses, Trojans, and malware going around, it
is also somewhat unusual to find people willing to open and execute your
database.

There are good suggestions on effective use of newsgroups at
http://www.mvps.org/access/netiquette.htm.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP

 

[micfly]

Kind of expected that response and with understanding. I was only looking
for something I could actually look at to get me started not necessarily
someone to fix it. Not having much luck at this point :-(

 

[GenlAccess]

Against Linson's advice, I took a look. I did it in design view, for safety.

You need to describe the data you have, and what you are trying to do
(business perspective)... it appears you have just one table of data and a
whole lot of lookups, but what they are is a little cryptic. It is confusing
why you'd have two tables for Salesperson, Sls1 and Sls2, with identical
(test) data.

You've asked that someone dig in to your database, try to figure out from
what you have done so far (which you aren't too sure of) what it was you were
trying to do. It's probably not that complex, but you should be able to tell
the person trying to help, not just say "look at this" as though it were
clear and self-evident. You seem to be wanting totals in the report, by
salesperson. But, the report is not based on a totals query -- how did you
plan to get the totals, averages, and maybe counts, etc., if not in a totals
query? You can do some calculation in a report, but it's a lot easier,
generally, to do most or all in the query.

Oh, you do know that you can't interact with that combo box on the report to
select the salesperson, don't you? There's limited interaction with reports
in Access 2007, but not before. If you want to select what salesperson, do it
on a form and use that selection. But, you may want to print the data for all
the salespeople.

Also would have been good to say what version of Access.

Gen'l Access