Structure

[GrantSymon]

Hi,

I need a little advice (who doesn't). Maybe someone can help.

I've built a number of db, some fairly complex, some simple and the one thing that always wastes/costs more time than anything else is design, or structure. *:

I currently have a db which, amongst others, contains a Sales file and also a related file for Deductions which are incurred on those Sales. (These are royalty sales on photos). Up till now this has been fine, since the 2 were not directly related other than in summaries. IOW Deductions did not apply to specific items. However, this has just changed.

Deductions are now directly associated with specific line-items (in my case, photos) and so I'm hesitating whether or not to include these line-item 'negatives' in the Sales file (N.B... they are not *actually* negative sales... rather they are advertising expenses uncurred on specific items).

Any advice? Should I combine these 'deductions' or 'charges' into the Sales file, or is it better to keep them in a separate file?

Thanks!

Grant

[LiveOak]

I'm not sure I can give you a direct recommendation without more information, but I can make a suggestion for how to decide. Take a look a the current and possible future uses of the deduction information. If the reporting needed is very limited and the scope and type of deductions are limited and will not grow, you might consider including the information in Sales. If the types of deductions and reporting requirements are likely to grow, a separate transaction file is the more flexible approach.

-bd

[jasonwood]

I usually put discounts/deductions on the line item in a separate field. You can then summarize this field to find out how much you have "spent" in discounts.

Depending on the business, I would sometimes want to put this field on the invoice as well, so the customer can see that they have gotten a special price.