Need some help tracking hours

[Starman]

I'm hoping that somebody can help me out. I'm fairly new to Access and I have a big work project I'm trying to get through.

I need to keep track of all of the vendors and contractors that come to my facility and their orientation status. I've got a db set up now for that - tables for companies, reps, orientation, etc. The tricky part for me is that I need to keep track of when they are coming in and when they are leaving.

I'm not really sure the best way to set up my db to track this. The other thing I would like to be able to do, if possible, is to have a computer set up for these people that they could clock in and out on their own. Some of these people are here everyday and I could easily assign them an ID# or something. I would like to have to avoid manually entering all of this information, if possible.

So, 1) what would be the best way to organize my db to track these hours and 2) is it possible to have people enter this data on their own somehow?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

You don't post your location. Be aware that in the USA, if this is intended to be any kind of fiduciary system that involves someone getting paid, you will need to certify it with one of the offshoot branches of the NLRB.

The problems with the kind of system you describe is that an honor system doesn't work. Not because people don't have any honor - but they surely can just forget to enter your data for you. If you cannot close the loop through automation of some type, you might be in serious trouble getting your data into your system.

Then, just when you've got it all in place, you find out that adding date differences can get more than just a little crazy because of the fact that date & time as a data type is not an elementary type. It is a CAST of true type DOUBLE. Oh, it is accurate enough. The real problem is that the DATE data type is an inconvenient size. Its "natural" units are DAYS, not hours. On the other hand, it is a true timeline. That as, the difference between two date/time combinations is the elapsed date/time between them - in units of days and day fractions. It becomes a pain in the toches to keep the units straight.

Then you find that when you add time-based numbers you run into the further problem that formatting accumulated hours can be difficult on a good day because of type DATE being a cast of DOUBLE. You will become very good friends with user-defined formats.

 

[Starman]

I am in the good ol' USofA. I have nothing to do with paying these people. Thankfully, that is left to another department. I work in a large hospital, so I need to know when these people are here for a few reasons. In case of disaster, I can quickly find out who is in our facility. If I need to find out who may have had contact with a patient or staff member on a certain day, I can look up who was around. Or, if I need to know who was in the building who may have had access to a certain area.

I'm aware that I need to make this as fool proof (and dummy proof) as possible. That's why I was hoping to get some help. I have a passing familiarity with the basics of Access and I'm reading as much as possible to learn more. I was just hoping that I could get some tips and tricks here.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There are no fast, easy, AUTOMATIC ways to enter data unless you have a device doing it, not a person.

There are all sorts of tips and tricks available regarding time accounting once you have the data in and in the format you wanted. Search this forum for topics such as

Time Accounting
Elapsed Hours
Work Hours (or Working Hours or Hours Worked)
Shift Hours