Generating stats - newbie question

[FavouredEnemy]

Hello all,

I'm building my first database. After 2 years of insisting that Access was the correct tool to use (rather than the 5 or 6 different spreadsheets currently in use), I've been given a copy of Access 97 to play with.

Aside from simply keeping track of all the info, which I have sorted, I need to have a suite of stat reports. This is where I'm struggling, and would really appreciate some help.

For a bit on context, I work in recruitment.



To start with, I have two tables. One contains data on individual candidates, and the other data on jobs. Each candidate has a job number, which is not unique to them (eg, job number 45454 could have 12 candidates).

Fields I believe are relevant to these stats are:

Candidate table:
Job no (a five digit code)
Date file received
File status (eg, active, signed off, conditional)
Sign off date

Job:
Job no
Business unit (one of four BUs)

I need to generate weekly stats showing the number of new files in, broken down by business unit, alongside the number of already existing files, also broken down by business unit, also alongside the number of files signed off, broken down by business unit. It all needs to be clearly labelled, and colour-coded if possible.

Thanks!

[cowboy]

Maybe a newbie question but not a small task. Just some things you need to get started on.

I need to generate weekly stats showing the number of new files in

For this are you inputing the information in a form or pulling from another source? You will need a date stamp in order to recognize if the stats are from the current week or past data. You will also have to determine with code or query what happens when you try to generate the report in the middle of the week, for instance does it take the last 5 working days of data or just the data from the current week. This is just a few things to think about to get you started on your first statement. Looking at the scope of work I would say it would take an advanced user a few hours depending how far you have gone, but for a newer user it is gonna take a while.

[FavouredEnemy]

Hi cowboy, thanks for the response.

On the candidate table, there is a 'date file received' field, which should be that date stamp you're after.

Would it be possible to generate a standard report of the style I'm after, whilst also allowing the user to state the date variables? I'm thinking something like "between 'this date' and 'that date'", with 'this date' being a week ago, and 'that date' being today's date. This should hopefully also allow us to go for monthly reports.

In terms of difficulty coding - I can see how hard it is now! Excel was definitely easier to learn as you went along...

[cowboy]

Yes what you are looking to do is definetly possible. Depending on your task, budget, and time table it may be cheaper to sub the task out to someone. If you want to learn the admins on here will answer questions as you have them but they will refer you to the same book they refered me too when I started or one similar. The book I learned from was "Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out". You can ask questions on here but one as elaborate as the one you originally asked most likely will get a generic response.