SBGFF,

I'm not sure how much experience you have in do this, but from your
comments, I'm guesing not a lot. But what you are undertaking is a BIG
project.


1. The first thing you need to do define is EXACTLY what you want your
software to do. You state you want have an inventory control system. Then
you talk about billing and organization of the parts shelf. From our
description, I'm not sure the "scope" or "things your project is to do" has
been defined.

2.. The second thing you need to do is identify all of the data fields that
you will need. The easiest way to do this is to look at all of your existing
forms and reports. You will need to have at least that much data.

3. As you are building your list, you need to identify if the data item is
a true data field or a calculated field. The price per item and number of
items is a data field. The total cost is a calculated field (price per item
* number of items).

Regarding normalization, there have been books written about that subject.
It is impossible to address that issue in a e-mail. However, here as some
links that might help you.

http://allenbrowne.com/casu-06.html
http://www.phlonx.com/resources/nf3/
http://www.blueclaw-db.com/database_3rd_normal_form.htm

I would suggest you do a google search on "Third normal form".

If you want, you can post all of your data fields here and I will try to
group them in 3rd normal form for you.

Good luck you have a huge task ahead of you.



--
Dennis