I'm an ex-pat now in the States, working for a small Police Department. I'd like some help completing a pretty basic database of people we have in custody at local jails. All the info in the database is public info.

I have made a start - and I suppose it's almost just a flat database.
I have a number of fields:
Last(name)/First/Location/Date In/Billable?/Other Holds?/Date Out/Notes

The "Location" field is a drop down menu of around 6 jails.
The "Billable" and "Other Holds" fields are check boxes (true/false)

I'm stuck when it comes to making reports - I have borrowed a Sams book and I'm starting it but I don't want to wade through 1000 pages for what may be my only ever database (although it's getting interesting).

Now - for the reports what I want to do is this - create a sort of splash screen with buttons that will let me click on a button to show me the people in the jails. eg
Button 'A' will show everyone ever booked into Jail No 1
Button 'B' will only show those still in custody in Jail 1(ie those with no date out shown) **Very Important**
Button 'C' will show everyone booked into Jail No 2
etc etc

Apologies to anyone who may have seen my cross post in the PC Plus forum, but that seems very very quiet. Any help appreciated on this.
Thanks.

I think the first thing to do is rethink the table design. As you say, it's too flat. Off the top, I see at least 3 tables:

Inmates
InmateID - LastName - FirstName - other inmate info

Jails
LocationID - Location - other location info

DidNotPassGo (sorry couldn't resist)
InmateID - LocationID - DateIn - Billable - OtherHolds - DateOut - Notes

From there, the queries for your reports should be fairly simple. I wouldn't have a separate button for each jail, I'd have a button for a specific type of report, and a combo box to select which jail it was for.

After implementing those suggestions you might want to look at a simple switchboard solution for others that may want to utilize the information

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.
So, if I create 3 tables, can I input them all onto one form for input? (bear with my ignorance).
As the database will get bigger and bigger, the most important part of any report will be those still in custody. At first, I thought that I'd just report (and occasionally print but not often) each jail individually, but showing all on one report would work.
Using your method, would I have to input the name of the inmate twice? Or could the InmateID in the Inmates table be copied automatically to the InmateID in the DidNotPassGo (I like that) table.
Initially, everyone will be in the DidnotPassGo table, until they get released of course.
I'll start work on it when back at work tomorrow.
Cheers

Getting a report on just one jail would be no problem. I said I wouldn't have separate buttons, that's all. Select a jail, then press a button to get a report on the one jail.

You should not have to input the same thing twice. You could have one form that updated both tables (I assume that the jail table wouldn't change often, so I wouldn't include it). Another way would be to have your form bound to the "DidNotPassGo" table. You'd have a combo box to select the inmate, and if it was a new one, pop up a separate form to enter their info. Play around with both and see what works best for you.