Vehcile Fleet and Maintenance Database

[DH_FE]

I'm new to Access in the sense that i've never fully utilised it, and i'm getting a bit stuck with the forms.
It's my understanding that a form is basically how you visualise the database to the user (if i've got this wrong please correct me).


I'm trying to create a servicing/maintenance database for the vehicles in my companies fleet. I've collected all the data on multiple tables;

• Drivers (Name, Vehicle Assigned/Registration, Local Service Centre)
• Service Centres (Name, Address, Contact No)
• Vehicle Detail (Registration, Make, Model)
• Servicing History (Registration, Date, Mileage)

The database also links to another which stores the vehicles currently registered with the company - though not in as much detail as on my database It's just the Registration, Fuel type and if it's currently active in the fleet.



The form i would like to create would initially show a list of the Drivers, with the registration of their currently assigned vehicle, and the date it was last serviced - so at a glance you can see the most recent records for all vehicles.


There would also be options to;

• Add a Service (date, mileage)
• Update/Add Driver Details (update vehicle assignment, local service centre)
• Update Vehicle Details (adding new vehicles should be taken care of by the linked databse)

If this isn't enough information to begin with, let me know and I'll work on providing as much information as I can - as this is for my work, the info I have populated my database with is confidential so I will need to re-reate what I have with fake data.

 

[plog]

a form is basically how you visualise the database to the user

I hate to be the pedantic on the internet, but I think a more apt statement is:

Forms are the way you allow users to interact with the data.

Reports are how users consume their data.

So, when a user just needs to see the data you should use Reports. When they need to do stuff with data you should use Forms. The development process should be this:

Tables then Reports/Queries then Forms.

You have a database with data in it. Can you create all the reports you will need from it? I would focus on this and not forms right now. No point creating a beautiful form system to get data in if you can't get the data you need out of it.

My advice is to set up the Relationship tool, bring in all your tables, establish the relationships, expand all the tables so you can see all fields, take a screenshot and post that screenshot back here. We can validate if your table/fields make sense.

 

[DH_FE]

perfect, thanks. No wonder i was having so much trouble with it - if i've missed out a whole section of the process.
I'll work on the reports for a while and get back to you


thanks again.