Does anyone know exactly when the Before Insert Event Fires? I have a table for Data entry. I'm trying to build a key for the table to allow linking from different systems since each system has it's own definition of a Primary key I want to set up a field that will include the first 4 characters of the last name the first 4 characters of the first name and the DOB in the format mmddyyyy. I know it's not foolproof but it's the best I can come up with based on the data available. The problem is that the Data is entered into our system manually from Paper sign in sheets. the form is linked directly to the Person table and I want to create this key after the 3 Fields are entered. The After Insert event is too late the data has already been saved. But I think the before insert Event is too early because I'm not sure when it fires. I'm presuming that it fires as soon as the first key strike is hit when on a new record. That's too soon because the required data isn't complete then. Thanks for any assistance.