Spreadsheet

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Guest

I Have i a fairly complex question to ask.
The company I work for is a millwork company, we build custom cabinetry and
such. Currently we do cutlist within a Microsoft Office Binder which has a
cutlist spreadsheet in it. In this spreadsheet we seperate each item, such as
a desk and a wall would each get a new page number or continue onto the next
page number if there are alot of components to the product. On our
spreadsheets we havthe following columns: # PCS, Description, Thickness,
Width, Length, Material, Notes.
At the end of a project I currently have to go through and manuallycalculate
all the quantities of each item for Job Costing (ie: the plywood needs to
come out of inventory).
I wanted to know if it is possible to make an Access Database that does the
same type of thing. It also needs to be able to do calculations to add up the
materials.
If this is possible how complex of a system will it be?
 
My first answer would be "Yes". You can write a database to add up the
materials and to do the type of costing you are talking about.

Having said that, have you looked into canned software that can do job
costing for you? It does not make sense to customize a program if there is
one already on the market especially if you are not proficient at database
programming.

The complexity of the database obviously depends on your needs and
expertise. I would first look to see if there is an accounting/job cost
package that would work.

Jackie
 
Cut list programs are very complex. My first Excel program ever written was
a cabinet cutting program which one would enter the cabinet size and style
and get a cutlist from it. My first Access program did something similar for
acrylic sheet goods. So the answer is yes. It's been almost 14 years since I
wrote those, and I have no idea where they might be now.

It took me about 3 weeks to write the Excel program and I was already
proficient in Excel. I don't remember how long it took to do the Access
program, but I spent over a year learning as I worked. In addition to your
requirements, my shop also worked in solid wood for face frames and doors on
American cabinetry, and Baltic Birch and other various sheet sizes for
European and laminate work. My program figured the solid wood in both rough
and trim sizes and figured sheet goods based on different sheet sizes
(49x96, 60x60, 60x72, up to 61x145) I also figured Corian countertop sizes
which comes 30"x up to 145"

I haven't written one of those in a long time, but I'd be happy to answer
your questions as they come up. I spent over 30 years building cabinets and
millwork, so I ought to be able understand what you need to do. <g>
 
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