I am very new to working with filemaker and could use some help. I have a medical clinic and we use a software package based on filemaker pro version 4.1 to do all our billing and record keeping. It came with several complex reports, however I would like a fairly simply one that the software developer will not help me with. This is what I would like to do:

The database contains information for 4 doctors and the procedures that they perform each day. For example: Dr Jones logged 3 xrays and 2 office visits. I would like to have a report that looked like

Date

Dr smith

3 Xray

2 Office visits

Dr Jones

5 xray

4 office visits

etc

The trouble i keep running into is that there will have to be a count done on the procedure field across all of the patients seen on that day to determine the number of xrays done that day. Another catch is that the procedure field has been set up as a repeating field.

Thanks

FileMaker Version: 4

Platform: Windows XP

Well, this is a classic case of "don't use repeating fields for important data, especially data that need to be used for reports."

If you have full access to the files, you should create a line items file for Procedures. Then the report above is not very difficult.

You could get the basic file, with data, by exporting the data from your current file, answering Yes when it asks "split repeating fields into separate records?"

This will give you at least the data to do reports; but I'd recommend using it for data entry also (showing as a portal in the main file). You should face the fact that your original files were inadequately designed. Your data is too important to use such a primitive system, IMHO.