Where do I start?

[Stitcho]

Im looking at creating a database which includes some sort of diary system but I havent got a clue where to start, how to structure the tables, etc.

I am new to our company so I am looking to streamline some of their processes. Basically there are 4 people in our department and at the moment we use Excel as a mini diary system for our work on a day to day basis (our company uses Lotus Notes not Outlook and the diary system is a load of cr*p, plus also I want to integrate this into a database I have already written for our developers). Going down the page we have a section for each week which contains 4 rows (1 for each person). There is then 5 columns in each section which represents Monday to Friday. Our office administrator then goes in each month and updates the dates manually for the entire month.

Do I need to have a row in my database for every day of the year or is it done in weeks? I did a search for Access diary threads but there doesnt seem to be much info and the example one on iSam seems to have been taken off

 

[Ron_dK]

Im looking at creating a database which includes some sort of diary system but I havent got a clue where to start, how to structure the tables, etc.

What do you got sofar. You may post your DB and give us some specific questions.

I did a search for Access diary threads but there doesnt seem to be much info and the example one on iSam seems to have been taken off

iSAM has been replaced by VSAM, but reading your question, I think you need to search for normalisation on this forum.

Hth

 

[Stitcho]

I dont have anything in Access so far in regards to the diary. It is just being used for other things at the moment, or do you mean the Excel diary?

I'll have a scout around for normalisation then, I can get by with things in Access but im still learning a lot.

 

[ahuvas]

I just posted a topic on this as well - I cant find any examples. Ill be watching this thread with interest.

 

[Mike375]

ahuvas

I just saw your post.

There are a few things about a diary that first need to be considered.

Is it being used in a sales situation such as telemarketing or a very relaxed slow moving situation such as a medical specialist's secretary scheduling appts for patients/.

Are the people with who appts will be made already in the data base. For example with telemarketing the prosect details will already be in the data base. For a medical specialist there would be a mixture of existing patients and new patients.

Is the appt setting process part of sales statistics etc.

Does the diary have to cater for perhaps one person who schedules appts and that person might be scheduling for five different people.

Is the person or people who will use the diary likely to be there for the longer term and have time to get used to the diary system. A medical specialist's secretary would be a Yes and a telemarketer would be a No

 

[Stitcho]

My diary system is going to be quite simple really as it is just a schedule tracking diary. There are 4 of us who will need to access it and update it and literally all we will be doing is entering some text to say who the customer is, what we are doing for them and how long it took. We dont need to schedule appointments or anything like that as its mainly just used for time tracking.

I would be interested in the scheduling part though as I have been asked by a family member to do something along those lines for her department in work.

 

[ahuvas]

Hi Mike I hav written some things in the other post.

Stitcho I have something that may be useful

 

[Stitcho]

Hi Mike I hav written some things in the other post.

Stitcho I have something that may be useful

Thanks. I took a look at it but it doesnt really do what I need for this database but it may be of some help for another I will be working on.

I've been scouring the internet for examples of database models, etc for this and there seems to be very little information on something I would have thought a lot of people would want.

 

[Stitcho]

Is this a very long winded way of doing it? Each day of the month is a new column in each table.

It seems to work fine by using sub forms but obviously im going to have difficulty displaying it correclty on the forms without having to manually update the days each month/year.

 

[chergh]

Is this a very long winded way of doing it? Each day of the month is a new column in each table.

It seems to work fine by using sub forms but obviously im going to have difficulty displaying it correclty on the forms without having to manually update the days each month/year.

That is just wrong.

The only information you need is:

When | Who | What

You then just need to display this info in the way that you want.

 

[chergh]

You could use the following as a start point:

1 tables containing all twelve months
1 table containing a list of numbers 1 - 31
1 table recording when, who and what

You could then use a crosstab query to create a grid of months and day and with a bit of poking have the who and what data display correctly within this.

 

[Stitcho]

That is just wrong.

The only information you need is:

When | Who | What

You then just need to display this info in the way that you want.

I thought it was a little over complicated but no one seems to know the best way of doing this.

I need to be able to display the information in a grid on the form. This isnt an appointments diary or anything just a way of recording what happens on each day