New Project

[scouser]

Hi guys. Back on the development trail having enjoyed a long break after the birth of my son

How quick one forgets!!

Project: My father-in-law would like me to develop a DB for his new company. They buy and sell plant hire (all done the old fashioned way, on paper).

His requirements are a little beyond anything I have attempted in the past so was hoping for some sound advice.

He would like to be able to record both Sales and Purchases. I have never worked with Stock before. What is the best method, any examples (did a search on stock prior to posting). He would also like to have VAT as an option (this stumped me on my last project!!).

Many Thanks,
Phil.

 

[neileg]

This will be a complex application. Plant hire is by nature a complex activity, since items of plant can be hired or sold, or hired then sold. You may have the added complication of plant hire with operator, where the operator is paid by the hour but the machine is hired by the day! You will have to deal with differential hire rates for daily, weekly or monthly hire. And so it goes on. By comparison, VAT is the easy bit.

I would have a good look at the commercially available software before you do anything. This will give you an idea of what functionality you will need, and may also identify that buying off the shelf is a more practical solution.

 

[scouser]

Thanks

Thanks for the reply. From what I can gather plant hire is misleading. They just buy plant from auction and then sell it on (no hiring). They buy it, stock it and then sell it. Each piece of equipment has a unique serial number so I am told!!).
Many Thanks,
Phil.

 

[neileg]

Ah, much easier. If you are tracking each piece of equipment individually it will be relatively easy. I would start with a single table with a record for each piece of equipment. You can probably get away with keeping the purchase and sale information in this one record, too.

 

[Lightwave]

I'm kind of probably with Neil eg on this one - might be a lot simpler to buy an off the shelf piece accounting software for this sort of item.

If you can build it in access would be a really good piece of work if nothing else to improve your knowledge of access.

You could start by getting a simple book about book keeping - this will help you identify that you first have to model a set of books of Prime entry namely the Cash Book, Purchase Ledger, Sales Ledger and Journal. All transactions will go through these books first - including items like VAT and discounts..

A simple book keeping reference should highlight the complications that you will inevitably face - items such as difference in VAT rates / Discounts for certain customers etc..

Specifically with VAT once the businesses turnover is over a certain amount it will be required to register for VAT purposes and VAT returns will need to be done on a monthly basis so you will need an accurate record of the VAT both coming in and the going out. The business will pay or recieve a return from this depending on the amounts recorded

You will have to realise that from the beginning your father in law will need to have accurate information on cash flows and balance sheets which will be difficult to get from the off with a system that you might design. If it is a small company your father in law will probably know roughly what the cash position is however if there is a rapid expansion cash position could be very important to guard against overtrading.

For your relationship with your father-in-law to remain as good as possible I would be careful before committing to a project which is really quite big. What's in it for you? Off the shelf packages are pretty cheap and will cover all these bases and have few bugs!! Does your father in law have an accountant who could advise on the usual procedure for start up companies... Plus you should consider the expansion plan for the business - Off the shelf packages such as Quick Books and Sage Line 50 can incorporate items such as payroll etc...

Don't want to be negative but I would go down the off the shelf route.....
ps congrats on the birth of your son

 

[scouser]

Thanks

Thanks for the replies guys.
I will have a good think regards your suggestions.
Phil.