I am continuing to work on my quoting database. In case you not aware of my database, I am designing a very ambitious database for the start-up company I work for. We manufacture specialty chemicals for research and the database I am designing is supposed to track a customer’s quotes and orders.
I have had quite a bit of help in the forms here in the past and I figured I could get a few suggestions on my next step. I have the general form made for each quote/order however I can’t really decide how to design the way each quote treats the quote “status”. Such as marking it to be shipped, package, canceled, etc. Right now I have all the status as a combo box; however I would like a few things to happen for different status.
1) Although I will do this last I want to make it so you can’t go backwards in the chain of status. Example- A Order that has been marked “shipped” can’t go back to “processing” status.
2) Next I want Access to automatically e-mail different people at different status points. Once the quote has been accepted by the customer I want access to e-mail the laboratory and tell them the product and amount to package. Also I want access to e-mail the customer once the order has been shipped with the shipping details. I have a pretty good idea how to do this, but I am not sure if a combo box is the best way.
3) I also want a live feed like list with the current orders sorted by status and ordered by oldest first, this would appear on the switchboard or main page.
Like I said I have a combo box in place for status right now, however I have seen templates which use a button system which has a separate table for status and also uses yes/no boxes. Any suggestions on how to approach this plan?
I have had quite a bit of help in the forms here in the past and I figured I could get a few suggestions on my next step. I have the general form made for each quote/order however I can’t really decide how to design the way each quote treats the quote “status”. Such as marking it to be shipped, package, canceled, etc. Right now I have all the status as a combo box; however I would like a few things to happen for different status.
1) Although I will do this last I want to make it so you can’t go backwards in the chain of status. Example- A Order that has been marked “shipped” can’t go back to “processing” status.
2) Next I want Access to automatically e-mail different people at different status points. Once the quote has been accepted by the customer I want access to e-mail the laboratory and tell them the product and amount to package. Also I want access to e-mail the customer once the order has been shipped with the shipping details. I have a pretty good idea how to do this, but I am not sure if a combo box is the best way.
3) I also want a live feed like list with the current orders sorted by status and ordered by oldest first, this would appear on the switchboard or main page.
Like I said I have a combo box in place for status right now, however I have seen templates which use a button system which has a separate table for status and also uses yes/no boxes. Any suggestions on how to approach this plan?