I think that you will find that 80% of your work will be outside of Access
(see below pasted in which is something I wrote for some people who were
doing this)
If you are going to transaction-based inventory tracking, then your idea is
a good way to do it that aspect of it.
Sincerely,
Fred
Most people would define inventory tracking is an information system that
always “knows†the current inventory. For those that don’t already have this
in place, this is a 10 times larger job than they think it is. So, for many
of them, a “less perfect†system that doesn’t fully do this would be better
for them.
The central “information†system can be paper/card or electronic.
Electronic systems can be of various types such as text documents,
spreadsheets, but most are database based. For this example
Here are the main steps.....alsway read the later ones befor you
start.....:where you are headed should always infleunce what you do.
1. Create unique “names†/ identifiers for all items that you want to
track. The most common example of this is your company’s part number for
the system, following all of the rules for a good part numbering system. An
alternative is sombody elses’s part number combined with their name. For
wording in this writing, I will presume you’re using “part number†This
includes defining all units of measure. . E.G. does a part number for rope
mean 1 foot of that rope, one 200’ spool of that rope etc.
2. Define your “sphere†of what will be considered to be “in†your
inventory. Is this your stockroom, your whole building, your whole
company, a single service truck?
3. List all of the current ways in your company that inventory of an item
in your “sphere†could be modified*. The 4 main categories of this are:
Income
Outgo (sales, consumption etc.)
Creation*
Destruction*
* E.G. If, by a manufacturing act, you use part a and part b to build part
c, that act “destroys†A & B and “creates†C
The results must be
4. Set up and implement procudures, rules, practices to make sure that
every instance of every item #3 will get recorded as a transaction for each
part number involved, and that happenings not under #3 are not recorded.*
Usually, this requires defining a mental or physical around your “shpereâ€.
For example, if your “sphere†is (only) your stockroom and your production
area, then your procudures must make sure that moving an item from your
stockroom to your production area is never recorded as a transaction, and
moving an item from either of those two areas to elsewhere is always recorded
as a transaction.
5. Get / Set up a data system which has a current inventory quantity for
each part number, and which supports receiving each recorded transaction and
making the appropriate modifications to inventory quantities for each
recorded transaction.*
6. Make sure each transaction gets processed in the data system.*
Note: A portion of the items under #3 (and processed under #4, #5 & #6)
might be, or are set up as happenings within the same data system.
Examples might be sales, shipments, usage on work orders, instances of
manufacturing, “receiving†etc.. In these cases, decide which of these your
data system can and will interpret and execute as inventory transactions, and
get/make a data system that properly does so. Then, when implementing your
procedures under #4, consider entry/execution of such an action in the data
system to also be recording of the inventory transaction
