Hi

please excuse a beginner question, but I'm trying to devise a way to track multiple dates that relate to specific payments: when the request for payment 1 was received, when it was approved by Dept A, when it was approved by Dept B, when it was submitted to Accounting and when it was paid. I need to track these dates for up to 24 payments. Our database has separate records for each grant on which these payments are made. Is there a simple way to avoid having to create 5 date fields for each of the 24 payments? I suspect this is a job for relational databases, but I haven't ventured into that world yet.

thanks for any help,

Chuck

A relational structure is the way to go. Here's the basic idea:

Track your payments in a separate Payment file. The payments are linked to Grant by Grant ID. I would then put the five date fields in the Payment file, along with payment amount, and probably a Status field that is calculated based on which dates are entered.

So a Grant can have multiple Payments. Each Payment has five date fields that determine the Status.

With this model it's pretty easy to run a report for all Payments whose Status is "Pending Approval" or whatever.

Thanks, Ender

So do I need 5 x 24 date fields in the related database? I'm assuming not, or what would be the advantage of making this relational. I think I need to read up on relational structures. Will experiment and pester smarter people again later.