It is starting to sound like Access can't do this most basic thing
No database should. It violates the very notion of a relational database wrt parent/child records.
If I know the Owner information, I know the Vehicle information
But do you know the owner info if you know the vehicle info? I'm guessing yes, so...
Your child table (vehicle) needs a related field to link to its parent record, yes? Then put whatever you know into the parent record. That will create a parent record id that you put into the child record, which creates a child record id (assuming you're using autonumber fields as id fields). However, if you make the owner name (or whatever) a required field then you either need to enter dummy data (TBD) or don't make it a required field. As long as your vehicle form shows the owner id, you have a way to know which owner belongs to the child record you create. It should not be an issue to update the parent record when you get the info you need. However, I do accept that id fields are usually not shown on forms; there has to be something that points you to the owner info that you have. If you use a form/subform design as suggested, your main form owner is TBD. Just don't allow duplicates of owner name I guess. If need be, make the owner info a composite index so that you can have two different John Smiths as owners.
Last edited by Micron; 01-24-2024 at 08:13 PM.
Reason: added info
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Paraphrase of Professor Brian Cox.