Creating a Database for the company I work for rental customers.

[Guest]

Ok I'm not exactly sure how to explain what I want so bare with me and if you
think you can help me but need to ask me questions please email me. I need to
create a database for the customers in that rent out copiers from us but i
need to have this informaiton in it: Name, company, phone# ext, PO#, System#
Product,Make. Model, Serial#, Meter reading for both last month and this
month Coverage, amount due, location, overage and the date the contract goes
thru. What I need to know is do i need to create one for each customer? Some
may have more than one machine but my problem is they are not do all at once
but some are do like on first, some on the second etc. I need to be able to
keep up with for each day that there do. Where I can look at and get the
inforamtion I need to then bill it in QuickBooks. Can some PLEASE help me i
am lost and need to try and get this done for my boss. If I didn't explain
good enough just email and ask me what you need to know like I said.

 

[Guest]

Jess,
First, it would not be proper for anyone to Email advice to you. This is a
public forum where all questions and answers need to be visible to anyone who
might have an interest in the information. It is how we all learn. I would
suggest you visit this site. It will give you info on how to participate in
these groups
http://www.mvps.org/access/netiquette.htm

What you are proposing is pretty complex for a beginner. The first issue,
before you ever create your first object in Access, is the structure of the
database. Creating a well designed and normalized database is the most
important thing you can do. A poorly designed database will make everything
you do with it harder. I would recommend you find a book on relational
database design and start there. You will need to understand in detail what
data is needed and how it is used.

You also need to get specific business requirements from your boss. Users
will generally give you very broad descriptions of that they want - very much
like your description of your problem. That is not nearly enough detail.

Don't be discouraged, if you work at it, you can get there, but it will take
some serious study and learning. Use these news groups when you have
questions or problems.

So for starters, you will need a Customer table with information about
customers. If you have multiple contacts for a customer, then you need a
contacts table with information about individuals within the customer's
organization. You also need a table to hold information about each copier,
regardless of where it is or who is using it. Since one customer can have 0
to many copiers and, I assume, a copier could be moved from one customer to
another, a many to many relationship exists between customers and copiers.
This required a junction table of Customer/Copiers to show what customer has
what copier. You also need a table to record usage and a table to record
invoices and payments.

That should give you a bit of a start. Good Luck.