creating invoices

A

andrew

Greetings all-

I fear this an elementary question for an advanced discussion group; perhaps
one of you could stoop to my level--

I am working on a financial database for a cooperative in rural Morocco; I
need to create an invoice form for them that includes client data, purchased
items, payments (oftentimes multiple), totals and amounts due. I have
attemted to link all of the data by an AutoNumber "TransactionN" in a client
data table, however in the form version I inevitable end up with errors or
fields that should have data entered are not available. Particulary when I
added fields/sub-forms for payments. Updates often require closing the
program.

I am not a computer programmer, just a layman, and I'm working on a french
version of the program (I don't know french), but any guidance to the proper
design or setup of these tables and queries would be most appreciated.

Many thanks-
Andrew
 
J

John W. Vinson

Greetings all-

I fear this an elementary question for an advanced discussion group; perhaps
one of you could stoop to my level--

I am working on a financial database for a cooperative in rural Morocco; I
need to create an invoice form for them that includes client data, purchased
items, payments (oftentimes multiple), totals and amounts due. I have
attemted to link all of the data by an AutoNumber "TransactionN" in a client
data table, however in the form version I inevitable end up with errors or
fields that should have data entered are not available. Particulary when I
added fields/sub-forms for payments. Updates often require closing the
program.

I am not a computer programmer, just a layman, and I'm working on a french
version of the program (I don't know french), but any guidance to the proper
design or setup of these tables and queries would be most appreciated.

Many thanks-
Andrew
Click to expand...

An Invoice will typically be an Access Report (not a form; forms are for
onscreen viewing, Reports for printing). It will usually be based on a Query
joining together several tables. You will certainly *NOT* be joining an
autonumber in one table to an autonumber in another table, though! Autonumbers
are meaningless arbitrary identifiers; you may well have an autonumber primary
key in each table, but you should also have Long Integer "foreign keys". An
Invoice would have a unique InvoiceID, but it would also have a non-unique
ClientID allowing you to enter multiple invoices for the same client.

The Northwind sample database is one place to look - it generates an invoice
report. It's not perfect and certainly won't be a database you can use "as
is", but it can be a useful learning tool. You may also want to check out the
references at:

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP):
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials


If you wish, you could post the names and relevant fields of your tables, and
indicate how you have them related (if at all).

John W. Vinson [MVP]
 
A

andrew

access 2000.

There's also an update on the plight:
I was able to create a form into which I can enter the necessary data for a
report to create an invoice (client data and purchase information); however,
we'd like to have a report that includes these things in addition to the
payment information (oftentimes multiple partial payments- thus the reason
for two embedded tables within the primary form). I haven't yet found a way
to include these two independant tables in a report? Is it possible? If so,
how?

Andrew
 
J

John W. Vinson

access 2000.

There's also an update on the plight:
I was able to create a form into which I can enter the necessary data for a
report to create an invoice (client data and purchase information); however,
we'd like to have a report that includes these things in addition to the
payment information (oftentimes multiple partial payments- thus the reason
for two embedded tables within the primary form). I haven't yet found a way
to include these two independant tables in a report? Is it possible? If so,
how?
Click to expand...

A Report (based on the client table) with two subreports: one for the
purchases (one, two or many), and a second subreport for the payments. Use the
ClientID or the InvoiceID as appropriate for the master/child link fields. Can
a single payment apply to multiple invoices?

How are your tables related?

John W. Vinson [MVP]
 
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