General Access Question

[ACCESSROOKIE1950]

I've worked with access several times in the past few years. I have just built a access db for my son. He is a screen printer and embroider. He wants me to build another database to help him determine the cost of a job. The problem for me is this. the job depends on several varables, such as the number of stitches, the number of items being sewn. There is a price break on a certain number of items to be sew and the number of stitches to be sewn.


He currently uses a spread sheet to look at it but would like to use access database to put the numbers in and calculate the numbers. I want to know if it would be better to keep it in a spread sheet or make database?
Thanks in advance

[vicsaccess]

spread sheets work but not very user friendly. as long as you can see the equations and methods of the spreadsheet a database should be an easy way to get a customer friendly front end look. as a bonus it can also do all the invoicing and reports. basically figure out what criteria goes into the cost of a job, set up a default table with cost associated with each of the criteria then an entry form for the different criteria that automatically calculates the total cost with a query. you'll have fun doing it.

[Micron]

So this is an opinion question. Means no one is wrong or right, really.
I believe the easier tool for performing a host of calculations might just be Excel because that's what it does best. I don't know what is meant by them being not user friendly. Should be like anything else, I guess - easy if you know how or what to do. There is a lot of power in presentation by using merged columns/rows, calculated cells, conditional formatting, lookups or whatever. Workbooks are also fairly powerful from a vba perspective, and are hands down the winner if you need charts. I do agree that Access is better for storing/retrieving data as records and creating professional looking reports, but I still think those reports are best suited for dealing with a multitude of records rather than a one-off situation like an invoice for a small business. I've used Access for many years, but have and would still lean towards Excel for invoicing. The best solution might be a marriage of both applications.

[alansidman]

Suggest you read this:

http://forums.aspfree.com/microsoft-...el-349267.html