Fields requiring input

[Guest]

Can anyone tell me a good way I can 'Walk a user through' the filling of a
form?
This is used by our on the road service techs and sent into accounting and
is filed with a job/project.
Our workbook has 6 sheets, each covering one week, plus a (hidden) TOTAL
sheet. The sheets contains three forms/pages.
Form 1 is Weekly Expense Report -break down of type of expenses (normal
expense report)

Form 2 is Service Itinenary -User checks type of service performed (paid,
warrenty, etc.) and fills in total time spent in each catagory.

Form 3 is hidden from the user and accumulates the total time spent each day
(regular hours, overtime) times the rate listed for each catagory in cells in
a table.
This form is hidden from the user.

The values from Form 3 are carried over to the hidden TOTALS sheet. This is
used by accounting who 'un hides' and keeps this info with the job/project to
see the actual 'cost' of a project.

So, I need to find a way to bridge the gap with the service tech as many
don't use a computer fluently. I have no choice is the use of this process
but am being asked to 'nail it down' (the fields with the formulas) and find
ways to help 'walk the user through' filling it out. I've been looking into
data validation to prevent blanks on critical fields. On odd thing I found
the dates all seem to calculate correctly ecept they are requiring them to
use military time to correctly pick up AM or PM. Also told I need to 'factor
out' the half hour lunch period each day.
Any tips or hint would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Probably the simplest method is to use input boxes, but this leaves a lot of
room for error if standard words or phrases are desired in the user's
response. A more accurate method where there is a limited number of
available responses from the user is to create a UserForm that offers only
those options for the user to select from. Some people prefer using Active X
or DAO controls like TextBoxes for users to enter their responses into
instead of input boxes, but I don't know that there is an advantage either
way.

In any event, it largely depends on what type of data will be entered by the
user as to how I would personally design the input medium. A second
determining factor is the degree of accuracy that is required in the answer
and code that would have to be used to ensure that accuracy (i.e. UserForm
with preset options vs InputBox).

Since there was very little information provided about the data to be
entered, the form layout, etc. it is difficult to offer any coding
suggestions.

 

[Guest]

Ok, Thanks, we're off to a good start. Start with a sheet representing a
week, containing 3 forms.
First =expense rpt, need to 'guide the user' to fill required data (week
ending date, name, employee id, job number) to be entered,
Second = User enters start and end times for work, travel and lunch for each
day
Third form = hours totals (from second form) times rates per hour(in table).
My second and third forms don't need guiding prompts however I am struggling
with calculating the values of total hours for each catagory so they can
apply to the correct rates (Regular work hours rate, overtime hours rate,
travel rate and lunch is always 1 hour no rate). I have added some
validation to the start and end time fields to help the user 'Must be entered
in military time' but still can't get all the catagories to total correct.
ugh. Considering our user base this is not going to be an easy task geting
them to use it. But alas, I have no choice. So I'm tasked with 'make it
work', lock it down, train the users.
Any tips are really, really appreciated. I haven't used excel for a while
but I'm working on it as fast as I can.