(simple) business Database design

I have a need to track Bookings. I am guessing the DB will consist of tables
for Venue, Artist, Rates, Discounts, Bonuses; and then one for Bookings where
I look-up values found in the other tables. From the DB I want to generate
reports (or whatever they will be called) that will allow me to print
invoices, booking confirmations, calculating discounts and bonuses

How do I do this? Is there a guide I can use that is a similar project
(transaction-driven model of DB)

DM in UK wrote:
I have a need to track Bookings. I am guessing the DB will consist of tables
for Venue, Artist, Rates, Discounts, Bonuses; and then one for Bookings where
I look-up values found in the other tables. From the DB I want to generate
reports (or whatever they will be called) that will allow me to print
invoices, booking confirmations, calculating discounts and bonuses

How do I do this? Is there a guide I can use that is a similar project
(transaction-driven model of DB)

These are broad brush-strokes, as we don't know the business rules that
apply, but in principle it sounds ok. Time spent getting your tables
right will be repaid handsomely. You might like to look at the
Northwind database that can be installed with Access - in 2003 look
under Help/Sample-Databases.

Try pinning down the relationships between your various entities.
One-to-one, One-to-many, many-to-many? You may find you have more
specific questions as you work through that process.

I'd think of a booking as a record which brings together (via Foreign
Keys) records for Artist and Venue, and records financial details. Does
an Artist have a Rate? A Venue? Hard to be more specific without real
detail of how this has to work in the real world.

Phil, London

On Mon, 6 Apr 2009 06:39:03 -0700, DM in UK DM in
wrote:

I have a need to track Bookings. I am guessing the DB will consist of tables
for Venue, Artist, Rates, Discounts, Bonuses; and then one for Bookings where
I look-up values found in the other tables. From the DB I want to generate
reports (or whatever they will be called) that will allow me to print
invoices, booking confirmations, calculating discounts and bonuses

How do I do this? Is there a guide I can use that is a similar project
(transaction-driven model of DB)

Just to add to Philip's good advice... you should NOT succumb to Microsoft's
temptation to edit your data in tables. Tables are for data storage, and are
very limited in capability for user interaction. Instead, remove all
Subdatasheets and Lookup Fields from your tables, and use Forms instead; these
can have subforms and combo boxes and will allow much better control and user
interaction.
--

John W. Vinson [MVP]

Philip & John offer good suggestions.

I'll add something else to consider ...

If you are not familiar with "relational" and/or "normalization", you'll
likely not get good use of Access' features/functions. Access "expects"
data organized in a particular way. If you don't provide data structured
that way, both you and Access will have to work harder. Another way to put
it is that you can drive nails with a chain saw, but it really isn't the
right tool, is it?!

Good luck!

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

"DM in UK" DM in wrote in message
...
I have a need to track Bookings. I am guessing the DB will consist of
tables
for Venue, Artist, Rates, Discounts, Bonuses; and then one for Bookings
where
I look-up values found in the other tables. From the DB I want to
generate
reports (or whatever they will be called) that will allow me to print
invoices, booking confirmations, calculating discounts and bonuses

How do I do this? Is there a guide I can use that is a similar project
(transaction-driven model of DB)