setting up a form or table?

[Guest]

I am using Access 2003. I am trying to set up a database for my
jewelry business. I have receipts from my purchases, receipts I
write for sales to customers, and an inventory to keep track of.
Can someone help me with this.

I have these tables:
Inventory - SKU, price description qty
Customers - address etc...
Receipts - sku, price pd, desc. qty
Categories - necklace, bracelet. etc...
Catalogs - SS2004, FW2004, SS2005, FW2005 etc...

I want to be able to input my purchases and have it add to my inventory.
Would this be a table or form and how do I link these?

My sales I want to input the SKU and have it add the description and price
to the customers receipt and subtract it from my inventory. Would this be a
table or form and how do I link it so it adds and subtracts?

Also I have read do not use look-up fields. I have lookup fields in my
inventory for the different catalogs and the categories. What should I use
instead of a look-up field?

I also want to, maybe this would be a form???, key in a SKU and have it pull
up all the information from the inventory table so I can edit it or add to
it. Also if there is two identical SKU's it would pull up both of the SKu's
to edit and/or delete one.

Is this too much to ask? I am getting frustrated reading and re-reading
books to figure this out. Thanks to whoever tries to help me with this big
task.

 

[tina]

as an Access newbie, you're setting yourself a big job, Laura. as a
self-employed business owner, it sounds like you're going to depend on this
database in running your business - which makes it mission-critical. all of
which is to say, you might be better off to search for tried-and-true
commercial software to fit your needs, and invest in that, rather than
building a program yourself. if you're determined to do it yourself, then it
will be well worth your time to learn 1) the basics of relational design
principles, and then 2) the basics of the Access software tool - before
jumping into database development with both feet. for more information, see
http://home.att.net/~california.db/tips.html, beginning with Tips 1 and 2,
in that order.

hth

 

[Guest]

Thanks Tina for the information. I have been doing my business for 3 years
and have wanted to learn access to go to that next step. I have been playing
around with it but just wanted to get my feet wet with a few more step into
the pool. I was really confused with differences between tables and forms
and the website you gave me answered alot of my questions. Do you think I
might just get some information on setting up I guess it would be a form to
edit and input data into my inventory or is this too big a step to take right
now. Thanks.
--
Thanks,
Laura

as an Access newbie, you're setting yourself a big job, Laura. as a
self-employed business owner, it sounds like you're going to depend on this
database in running your business - which makes it mission-critical. all of
which is to say, you might be better off to search for tried-and-true
commercial software to fit your needs, and invest in that, rather than
building a program yourself. if you're determined to do it yourself, then it
will be well worth your time to learn 1) the basics of relational design
principles, and then 2) the basics of the Access software tool - before
jumping into database development with both feet. for more information, see
http://home.att.net/~california.db/tips.html, beginning with Tips 1 and 2,
in that order.

hth

 

[tina]

i really think you need to learn the basics of relational design, and lay
out the entities/relationships of your business process based on those
principles; and then invest in a good basic book on Access to walk you
through the steps of building the database structures based on your data
model. once you've done that, you'll be ready to build the user interface -
queries, forms, reports.

hth

Thanks Tina for the information. I have been doing my business for 3 years
and have wanted to learn access to go to that next step. I have been playing
around with it but just wanted to get my feet wet with a few more step into
the pool. I was really confused with differences between tables and forms
and the website you gave me answered alot of my questions. Do you think I
might just get some information on setting up I guess it would be a form to
edit and input data into my inventory or is this too big a step to take right
now. Thanks.