first i have a form to select a an employee's USER ID. second i have another form to input data. right now i have a command button on the first form to open the second form. when i created a command button to open the second form i have have chose the option to open the second form to find a specific record based on the first form. for some reason it doesn't work. it only works when i have both forms open and click on the first form.

this may sound confusing but if anyone understands me please help me. i really would appreciate it. thank you

If you close the first form before opening the second one, the second one can't find the USER ID that was on the first form. Make sure that the order on the command button is 1)open the second form, 2) close the first one.