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how to best structure this?
i am upgrading a cost calculator from excel to access so need some advice on
the best way to structure this please!? i'm starting with one spreadsheet called Linehaul Costs, which details the breakdown of the costs and the total calculated cost to get to each destination. i will describe how my excel table is set up first: at the top of the table i have a user entered field for "handling at uplift" and "average container weight" then i have a list of linehaul suppliers with 2 columns, "fuel surcharge" and "base container weight" then i have a table with destinations which has 4 columns Column 1 is "base cost" (some are user entered and some are calculations as some destinations is the same cost as 1 route plus a second leg to get to the final destination Column 2 is "additional weight" the amount charged per extra tonne. Column 3 is the subtotal of the base cost + (the additional weight * the difference between the between the average container weight and the suppliers base weight) Column 4 is the total cost which is calculated as the subtotal + suppliers fuel surcharge + handling at uplift So far in Access I have created a table listing my Destinations and another table listing my Linehaul suppliers, I'm unsure of the best way to merge the rest of the data in to access, some destinations have more than one supplier and in the final cost calculation the user has to choose which suppliers they are using in their quote. i hope this makes sense and someone can point me in the right direction! |
#2
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how to best structure this?
"ivory_kitten" wrote in message
... i am upgrading a cost calculator from excel to access so need some advice on the best way to structure this please!? You can't "upgrade" from Excel to Access, they are two completely different animals. As you know, Excel is a spreadsheet application. Access is a toolkit which enables a user to *develop* an application, it doesn't really do anything for you straight out of the box. Is there something you want to do but can't using Excel? If you do go down the Access route, are you comfortable with the concept of data normalisation? Keith. www.keithwilby.co.uk |
#3
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how to best structure this?
Hello Ivory Kitten,
Structure starts with a clear understanding of the entities that you want to database, the relationships between them and a clear understanding of what you want your database to accomplish. Your post kind of hopped around and misxed terminology on your current system ("Lists", "Spreadsheet" "Table" and so really didn't even clearly describe your old system. Nor did you describe the real world process/situation that you are trying to database, although, since you know your business better than us, you probably mistakenly think that you have done so my mentionioning all of those terminologies of your busines. It appears clear that you have the following entities and have a mission to database them: - Linehaul suppliers - Destinations And so those probably should be tables. Include an autonumber Primary Key in each of them. After that it's unclear. A couple questions that might help you define it: Besides storing lists of carriers and destinations, what do want this database to accomplish? Are there entities in that first list that you describe, and, if so, what are they? Or is it just 2 blanks which a user fills in to trigger a calculation, after which the data is not stored? Hopes that helps a little |
#4
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how to best structure this?
ivory_kitten,
Let's start here... Jeff Conrad's resources page: http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/acc...resources.html The Access Web resources page: http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP): http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html MVP Allen Browne's tutorials: http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials http://www.databasedev.co.uk/table-of-contents.html -- Gina Whipp "I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors II http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm "ivory_kitten" wrote in message ... i am upgrading a cost calculator from excel to access so need some advice on the best way to structure this please!? i'm starting with one spreadsheet called Linehaul Costs, which details the breakdown of the costs and the total calculated cost to get to each destination. i will describe how my excel table is set up first: at the top of the table i have a user entered field for "handling at uplift" and "average container weight" then i have a list of linehaul suppliers with 2 columns, "fuel surcharge" and "base container weight" then i have a table with destinations which has 4 columns Column 1 is "base cost" (some are user entered and some are calculations as some destinations is the same cost as 1 route plus a second leg to get to the final destination Column 2 is "additional weight" the amount charged per extra tonne. Column 3 is the subtotal of the base cost + (the additional weight * the difference between the between the average container weight and the suppliers base weight) Column 4 is the total cost which is calculated as the subtotal + suppliers fuel surcharge + handling at uplift So far in Access I have created a table listing my Destinations and another table listing my Linehaul suppliers, I'm unsure of the best way to merge the rest of the data in to access, some destinations have more than one supplier and in the final cost calculation the user has to choose which suppliers they are using in their quote. i hope this makes sense and someone can point me in the right direction! |
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