Shoudl I use access?

[Wendy]

I work for a department that has approximately 400-500 employees, faculty,
administrators, and union employees. We currently have 2 spreadsheets, one
for fauclty and admin, and one for union people. I am trying to create an
Access database in which I can combine all employees. This database needs to
contain accout information/breakdown for where their salaries are being
charged to, area information, possible additional compensations, increases....
The problem is that all employees are charged to different and/or many
accounts. Accounts are also changed often based on grants, or basic
changes....
Is Access the appropriate program to keep this kind of data? If so, what is
the best way to lay out the data, meaning, where do I start?

 

[Klatuu]

Access will be an ideal tool to use for your purposes. You have asked the
very best question first! How should I lay out my data. Without knowing
your business rules and what data you have available or need, I can't be
specific on what tables you need or what data elements you need in the
tables. So, here is how you start. Get a piece of paper and a pencil so you
can draw some pictures. First, draw a rectangle. In the rectangle, write
"Employee". Now, make a list of everything you know or want to know about
that employee. First Name, Last Name, Employee Number, Department, etc. Now
what other entities do we need? Oh, yes, you mentioned Grants. Make another
rectangle and lable it "Grant" (notice I never use the plural). Make a list
of everything you know or want to know about a grant. Do this for all the
various entites, Account for example.

Once you have that done, go back to the Employee list. Look at each item in
the list. Ask this question about the item - Does this apply to only this
employee or does it apply to more than one employee? For example, an
Employee ID belongs to one employee; however, his Department will belong to
more than one employee, so now we have a new entity. "Department", so draw a
new rectangle labeled "Department". Draw a line from the Employee rectangle
to the Department rectangle. Now we have a relationship. Then we have to
ask can an employee work (charge time) in more than one department. If he
can, we need a rectangle between the "Employee" and "Department" rectangles.
Call it EmployeeDepartment.
Once you have your first assignment completed, we will explain this rectangle.

Post back when you are done, and I will give you an email address where you
can send the info to me so I can review it.

Good Luck

 

[Wendy]

Thanks. I have the rectangles, lines and lists on a word document. Let me
know if I can send it to you. Thanks.

 

[Klatuu]

david<>hargis==ngc<>com
(replace the <> with . and == with @ I don't what it to look like an E-mail
address for security reasons)