Sales and Inventory DB

[Dig]

Hi All:

I am not sure this is the right place for this question but if not I am sure you will tell me.

I need a free sales and inventory DB to manage my vitamins in my store. We have maybe 100 items and I would like to use a scanner and have the DB keep track of how many items I have and have left after I sell an item. Maybe a warning to reorder when items get to a set number.

There are many free items similar to this out there but I don't want to install and uninstall 20 programs until I find the right one so I hoped coming to an Access forum would help me find a program that is recommended by users and experts here.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[burrina]

Microsoft has a lot of Templates that may suit your needs. Do a Google search!

[Dig]

I wish that were so. I checked before I wrote this request and only found the old Northwinds template. This is ok but I was hoping for something a little easier and better. If this is all there is then I guess I am stuck but there are a number of free sales and inventory DBs on google ABC Inventory Software, Pos Maid, inFlow Inventory Free Edition, etc but I just didn't want to install and uninstall a dozen programs and was hoping someone could make a suggestion.

Thanks

[burrina]

What you are asking for for FREE I don't think you will find in Access besides a template by Microsoft. Too much time and expertise to develop such a thing.
If on the other hand you are willing to pay for such a thing, there are a lot of them.

Good Luck!

[June7]

I doubt you will find something that exactly suits your requirements. You might find something close and will then have to modify. Downloading a number of dbs should not be too much burden. There really is no 'install and uninstall'. They are just files. Delete if no longer wanted or let them sit. I expect you could learn something from each and apply to your own.

[Dig]

I doubt you will find something that exactly suits your requirements. You might find something close and will then have to modify. Downloading a number of dbs should not be too much burden. There really is no 'install and uninstall'. They are just files. Delete if no longer wanted or let them sit. I expect you could learn something from each and apply to your own.

Thank you all for your help but as I said there are a lot of them out there and it appears that I will have to try numerous ones to find one. As far as there is no install... that is not exactly true as many of them are exe's. I was trying to avoid the install and uninstall because as you know windows gets cranky over time when there are too many introns in the registry.

Anyway I will continue my exploration and hope for the best.

[orange]

Do you have a clearly described requirement? You will find many "inventory/stock control" type databases or templates online. But most will be too generic or too detailed to meet your specific needs. Based on your description, my guess is that you are not familiar with database principles nor design. I'm going to point you to a tutorial that will show you a technique for describing your requirement and translating that into tables and relationships suited to your situation. This tutorial has a well described requirement, and a series of documented steps to identify tables and attributes; to build relationships and create a data model representing a database to meet the business needs. Once you have gone through the tutorial, you can apply the same approach to your business.

Database Principles

You can post back if you have any problems.

[Dig]

Do you have a clearly described requirement? You will find many "inventory/stock control" type databases or templates online. But most will be too generic or too detailed to meet your specific needs. Based on your description, my guess is that you are not familiar with database principles nor design. I'm going to point you to a tutorial that will show you a technique for describing your requirement and translating that into tables and relationships suited to your situation. This tutorial has a well described requirement, and a series of documented steps to identify tables and attributes; to build relationships and create a data model representing a database to meet the business needs. Once you have gone through the tutorial, you can apply the same approach to your business.

Database Principles

You can post back if you have any problems.

Thank you for your information but I do want to make sure you understand that I am more than familiar with database design as I used to teach Access at ExecuTrain for many years. I have designed numerous databases for my own business and for other companies.

There comes a time in ones life where a decision is made between the time I want to spend on this compared to the cost to obtain one. There are numerous free databases online and Access templates. There are also many low cost solutions for POS systems. By coming to this forum I was just hoping that maybe someone might just say, "Sure guy, here is what I am using and it is no (low) cost and can easily handle your needs."

I have already modified the Access Tradewinds database which I remember from over 15 years ago maybe longer. It is fine for what I need but again I just asked to see what others may suggest.

Sorry to have confused everyone.

Thanks

[orange]

Dig,

We get lots of requests here so don't be offended by the questions asked or some of the assumptions responders make. Obviously you are more proficient with Access than many posters. I don't use, nor haven't been involved with POS applications, so have no direct experience info to offer.

Is the problem with your modified Tradewinds - too much maintenance..? or what exactly. Yes, the build/adapt vs buy is always there. You are in position to know the implications.

You may want to ask - If you use or support a POS application, can you please tell me about that application? Is purchased vs custom (self made)? What are major features? And shortcomings?

Good luck.