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Stumped creating set design

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    Stumped creating set design

    I'm stumped trying to create this set.

    I have a client who has a dry cleaning service. He takes in cleaning for various dry cleaners and sends the clean clothes back to the originating cleaner store. Each dry cleaning store submits its own invoice number with the clothes.

    So, he needs an invoice with his own invoice number, that will list all those invoices received from each customer.

    I am thinking to automatically generate HIS invoice numbers, "cleaner"+ltrim(str(recno()+1000)). Currently, I am using a one to many link set - customers===>invoices, and that lists those invoices for each customer.

    I've gone round and round with myself trying to figure out how to do this, and I've given up, so I am asking for help.

    If you need more information or files or anything, please respond or email [email protected] .

    Thanks in advance.

    #2
    RE: Stumped creating set design

    Hi Adrienne

    I am a dry cleaner! If I understand your problem correctly the your client receives a job sheet from the feeder stores with a list of all the garments on each sheet. I have the same thing with all my client hotels. Simply the number on the incoming note is the customers order number which can on on the invoice header and then each garment can be listed on the invoice detail section with its own ticket number, So the linking field would be the customers order number. Please let know if you need more help.

    Keith Hubert
    London
    Regards
    Keith Hubert
    Alpha Guild Member
    London.
    KHDB Management Systems
    Skype = keith.hubert


    For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Stumped creating set design

      Adrienne, beware of using recno() in the expression used to calc the new invoice number. It could lead to duplicate invoice numbers. The record number for a transaction record is not static. When your customer deletes records and packs his table, the total number of records in the table is reduced, and 'record numbers' previously assigned to earlier transactions will again be available for the next transactions.

      -- tom

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Stumped creating set design

        Very interesting. How can you be certain that two customers have not generated the same order number (or do you do that in which case there is no problem).

        Bill
        Bill Hanigsberg

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Stumped creating set design

          If you are going to make one invoice for each incoming shipment then I would make the invoice number a character string such as (YourInvoiceNumber)-(TheirInvoiceOrDocNumber)

          Example: if you received garments on their invoice or shipping documentation that had a nubmer of "5348" and your next invoice number was "21098", your invoice number could be 21098-5348.

          If you plan on issuing one invoice for multiple incoming shipments then that wouldn't be a suggestable solution.

          In that case I would simply have one invoice number for display at the top of your invoice and then list all their jobs as line items in the invoice body.

          Mike
          Thank you,
          Mike Konoff

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Stumped creating set design

            Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing right now. Problem is my cleaners wants to put several client invoices on ONE of his invoices, and those client invoices have several items on them. My client is Celebrity Cleaners.

            So Celebrity Invoice-->Client Account-->Client Invoices-->Invoice Items
            . Right now its Client Account-->Client Invoices-->Invoice Items.

            Sorry I didn't get back on this earlier. Seems the message board server were down all day yesterday.

            Any ideas appreciated.

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Stumped creating set design

              This client is never going to delete records because I am setting up the application so that he cannot. He is buying a brand new computer just to house the program and the application I'm working on, so I don't think there will ever be a problem with too many records, however, if there is, I can always go back and change it, but I doubt that will be for years.

              Tom Cone Jr wrote:
              -------------------------------
              Adrienne, beware of using recno() in the expression used to calc the new invoice number. It could lead to duplicate invoice numbers. The record number for a transaction record is not static. When your customer deletes records and packs his table, the total number of records in the table is reduced, and 'record numbers' previously assigned to earlier transactions will again be available for the next transactions.

              -- tom

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Stumped creating set design


                It is quite possible that two different customers would generate the same invoice number. The only thing I want to generate is a unique invoice number to give to the customer.

                Unique Invoice-->Customer-->Customer Invoices-->Customer Items


                William Hanigsberg wrote:
                -------------------------------
                Very interesting. How can you be certain that two customers have not generated the same order number (or do you do that in which case there is no problem).

                Bill

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Stumped creating set design

                  We use Recno() for a default IDNo. Not calculated, just default and unique. It's brought to light a few very interesting events - like duplicating records today that were created months ago. We handle deleting a record by entering zzz in a field and every once in a while overwriting the zzz records with new ones, but we don't delete many.

                  I taught the keyboard lady . She just loves catching those duplicates as soon as they happen.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    RE: Stumped creating set design

                    Hi Adrienne
                    Let me see if I understand your problem ok the cleaner gets
                    garments from the shops the shops take the customers garments and give the customer a tracking number for each customer so if the shops have 5 customers they will send over 5 different ticket numbers so when the cleaner gets done he wants to bill the shop with one invoice number showing the shops ticket numbers and description price ect. for each ticket number on one invoice

                    If this is correct I think I have a set design for you let
                    me know

                    Ray

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE: Stumped creating set design

                      That's exactly what I'm talking about. Appreciate the help. I just can't seem to get a grip on this.

                      --
                      Adrienne


                      Ray wrote:
                      -------------------------------
                      Hi Adrienne
                      Let me see if I understand your problem ok the cleaner gets
                      garments from the shops the shops take the customers garments and give the customer a tracking number for each customer so if the shops have 5 customers they will send over 5 different ticket numbers so when the cleaner gets done he wants to bill the shop with one invoice number showing the shops ticket numbers and description price ect. for each ticket number on one invoice

                      If this is correct I think I have a set design for you let
                      me know

                      Ray

                      Comment


                        #12
                        RE: Stumped creating set design

                        Hi Adrienne
                        Ok here we go I have not tested it but it should work

                        You need 4 tables

                        Table# 1 Invoice header table
                        Cust ID
                        Invoice#
                        Invoice date

                        Table# 2 customer table with
                        Cust ID
                        Name
                        Address
                        City
                        State
                        zip
                        Phone#
                        Fax#

                        Table# 3 Customer order# Table
                        Invoice#
                        Ticket#

                        Table# 4 Customer order detail
                        Ticket#
                        Item/Service#
                        Description
                        Qty
                        Price

                        What your going to do is make a set they all are 1 to many
                        links
                        Table 1 is the parent table link the customer table# 2
                        to table# 1 using the customer ID field link table 3 to table 1 using the invoice# link table# 4 to table# 3 using the ticket# field

                        Hopefully you see the flow when you bring up your form you
                        will type the customer ID to bring in the name and address
                        and assign the invoice number you will then jump down to
                        table# 3 ware you will put the ticket# they get from the shops then you jump to table# 4 ware you put the Item/service# description qty price ect that will keep everything the way you want.

                        Ray

                        Comment


                          #13
                          RE: Stumped creating set design

                          Hello Adrienne,

                          First off, I echo Toms thoughts, NEVER use the record number as key or unique value. It will bite you as the record numbers change whenever a table pack or database compact routine is run against a table with deleted records.

                          I think you are making this to complicated (if I'm correctly understanding the issues involved).

                          You should have a customer table that contains records of the cleaners customers with a unique ID value for each.

                          You should have an invoice header table that contains simple things like the date, customer ID and a simple auto incremented field that gives you a unique id value for each record. This will be the linking field to an 'item' table linked one to many to the invoice header. This item table will contain the details of each item in a particular cleaning job for a given customer. The item table would probably contain a description of the garment or process and could contain a field to hold the identification value the customer supplies to the cleaner for each item.

                          Now when sending the clothing back to the customers, you would run a report showing all current invoices for that customer, which could also show all the child records for each invoice and the customer supplied ID for each item. You could then group the customer supplied ID within a given invoice with group totals, etc, or lump all invoices together for a given customer and group all customer supplied ID for all invoices.

                          There are some issues with the autoincrement field rule, but I have found it to be extremely reliable as long as you follow the 'rules'. If you are running on a standalone system or a small network I doubt you'd have any problems with the autoincrement rule. Strictly speaking, the autoincrement rule does not guarentee a unique value. If you turn off the increment rule and input a manual value and turn the rule back on you can run into duplicate values or if you allow a user to input values directly into the autoincremented field you will have a mess. There are more sophisticated methods for guaranteeing a unique value but in general I've found the autoincrementing rule to meet most needs.

                          Good luck,
                          Jim

                          Comment


                            #14
                            RE: Stumped creating set design

                            Hi Jim
                            I considerd your angle and it is a good one the only thing
                            is that he could have 5 or 10 items on a givin ticket so he
                            would have to key in the same number multible times

                            Oops wait he could use a prev value rule your write this
                            is simpler

                            Thats what this Msg board is all about diffrent obhectives
                            Ray

                            Comment

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