Can Access Do This?

I am in new home construction. I am trying to set a "Warranty Work Order" system. I want to be able to enter a customer name or address and see any previous work orders for them and create a new work order (invoice) that will be sent to the repair company needed. I would like the invoice to be auto-numbered for the repair companies to see.
I have a "customer info" table. Do I also need a table with the repair companies? With the tables, can I link to a blank invoice to fill out request for work that needs to be completed?
Thanks

Yes, Access can do all this, but I suggest you spend some time learning a
little bit about design theory. Nobody wants to do this, but the better
your initial design, the easier your life will be for years to come.

First, get the book "Database Design for Mere Mortals" by Michael Hernandez.
It is one of the best books on the market.

Next, go to my website: www.rogersaccesslibrary.com and go to the Tutorials
section. Here you will find several tutorials that walk you through the
Hernandez process.

Lastly, if you have *specific* questions, bring them back to this newsgroup
or other on-line forum. There is a wealth of help available out there, but
most people won't help unless it looks as if you are putting forth the
effort yourself.

--
--Roger Carlson
www.rogersaccesslibrary.com
Reply to: Roger dot Carlson at Spectrum-Health dot Org

"ELizabeth 0878" ELizabeth wrote in message
...
I am in new home construction. I am trying to set a "Warranty Work Order"
system. I want to be able to enter a customer name or address and see any
previous work orders for them and create a new work order (invoice) that
will be sent to the repair company needed. I would like the invoice to be
auto-numbered for the repair companies to see.
I have a "customer info" table. Do I also need a table with the repair
companies? With the tables, can I link to a blank invoice to fill out
request for work that needs to be completed?
Thanks

Hi Elizabeth,

You should have a table for your "repair companies' vendors.

You can have an automatically incrementing number for your work orders but
it must be one that you create and maintain yourself; do not use the
Autonumber field type for that purpose. To do so invariably leads to
problems later. The Autonumber field type is available to generate unique
ID numbers for use as primary keys in your tables. It should never be used
as data in your application nor ever be visible to users of your
application.

I don't know how to address your question about "linking to a blank
invoice". If the person generating the work order already has the
information and brings it to the computer for completion of the Work Order
then you'd generate a form for them to complete and then, usually you'd
create a Report with all of the information on it. If the business needs
are such that you first need to complete the Work Order header and then have
someone go on site to complete the line items then you'd probably print out
a Report with the header information completed and lots of lines on the
pages for writing the items. In that paradigm you'd then need to make
another pass at the computer in order to enter the manual data before
generating the final form of the Work Order to send to your vendor.

HTH

--
-Larry-
--

"ELizabeth 0878" ELizabeth wrote in message
...
I am in new home construction. I am trying to set a "Warranty Work Order"
system. I want to be able to enter a customer name or address and see any
previous work orders for them and create a new work order (invoice) that
will be sent to the repair company needed. I would like the invoice to be
auto-numbered for the repair companies to see.
I have a "customer info" table. Do I also need a table with the repair
companies? With the tables, can I link to a blank invoice to fill out
request for work that needs to be completed?
Thanks