Advice on best way to set up a new database

Hi, I have just successfully set up my first access database after many
hours investment and I'm now about to start on my 2nd.

I would like a bit of advice on the best way to set it up. I am capturing
the following:

name
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/information-technology/13467-advice-best-way-set-up-new.html
time start work
time go to lunch
time return from lunch
time spent on breaks
time left work
plus time spent on task (about 200 tasks)

What I then want is to be able to run reports on how much time has been
worked and how this is split between tasks (both at individual name level
and at total level) and (both at daily, weekly, monthly level).

The main element that I am unsure of is the best way to record the 200
tasks.

Any advice greatly appreciated, should I just go for 1 big table with a
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=13467
field for each task and thus one row per person/day?

Thanks.

 
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Hi

I'm good enough at this stuff (access) to give advice on setting up an
entire d base - I have made many myself and they are all different as the
clients want them to record different items and do different functions (and
results).

But in general - if you have already set up a d base yourself it would be a
good idea to start the next as a fully relational database. You will need at
least 2 (prob more) tables and other items such as forms queries, reports,
etc what I am getting at is that this would be an ideal time (your second d
base) to start to learn the basics and then see how far you can progress
towards your aims -that is, as all programmers will agree - is to get a
database that will do what its meant to and, hopefully allow you as the
programmer to learn a little bit more as you progress.

Start with a couple of tables and see where you can go from there.

The one bit of advice I will give is to try and work out as much as possible
what you want the end result to be and then design the d base along those
lines.

Good luck

--
Wayne
Manchester, England.



"red6000" wrote:

> Hi, I have just successfully set up my first access database after many
> hours investment and I'm now about to start on my 2nd.
>
> I would like a bit of advice on the best way to set it up. I am capturing
> the following:
>
> name
> time start work
> time go to lunch
> time return from lunch
> time spent on breaks
> time left work
> plus time spent on task (about 200 tasks)
>
> What I then want is to be able to run reports on how much time has been
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=13467
> worked and how this is split between tasks (both at individual name level
> and at total level) and (both at daily, weekly, monthly level).
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=13467
>
> The main element that I am unsure of is the best way to record the 200
> tasks.
>
> Any advice greatly appreciated, should I just go for 1 big table with a
> field for each task and thus one row per person/day?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>

ooops = very important "not" missing from the 1st line of last post.

I'm "not" good enough at this stuff

Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=13467

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 2057 +0100, "red6000"
wrote:

>Hi, I have just successfully set up my first access database after many
>hours investment and I'm now about to start on my 2nd.
>
>I would like a bit of advice on the best way to set it up. I am capturing
>the following:
>
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=13467
>name
>time start work
>time go to lunch
>time return from lunch
>time spent on breaks
>time left work
>plus time spent on task (about 200 tasks)
>
>What I then want is to be able to run reports on how much time has been
>worked and how this is split between tasks (both at individual name level
>and at total level) and (both at daily, weekly, monthly level).
>
>The main element that I am unsure of is the best way to record the 200
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=13467
>tasks.
>
>Any advice greatly appreciated, should I just go for 1 big table with a
>field for each task and thus one row per person/day?

NO... absolutely NOT.

That's called "committing spreadsheet on a database" and it's a venial
sin, punishable by being required to read Codd and Date's textbook in
its entirity.

If you have a Many (employees) to Many (tasks) relationship, you need
*three* tables, one of them a table of Tasks, one row per task. I'd
actually suggest creating two additional "tasks", Lunch and Break; the
accounting will be simpler. Your tables would be something like

Employees
EmployeeID
LastName
FirstName


Tasks
TaskNo
TaskName


Timesheets
EmployeeID
WorkDate Date/Time
StartTime
EndTime

Activities
EmployeeID
WorkDate
TaskNo
StartTime
EndTime

Each activity will be stored as a record in the Activities table; the
EmployeeID identifies who was doing the work, the TaskNo what they
were doing, and the start and end times identify when.

This can get much more elaborate, but the principal will hold that you
store data *in fields*, not in fieldnames!

John W. Vinson[MVP]