I'm posting this again, since I'm not able to work it out so far.

I've got three files - the first (EVENTS) is the main data entry file. The second file ALLNAMES is just a repository for the names (a one to many line items file - and won't be accessed by user) and the third file STAFFNAMES (to be accessed infrequently) is a selection of staff-only names.

Data to be entered in EVENTS is name and type of person (ie: staff or other). When entering data in EVENTS the entry of names creates (via a relationship EVENTS ID - ALLNAMES ID) individual records in the ALLNAMES file for each name. That's all fine so far no probs.

When I enter a person type in EVENTS as 'other' it should only create a new record in ALLNAMES. But when I enter the person type in EVENTS as 'staff' I want to create a new record in ALLNAMES and a new record in STAFFNAMES as well. And this need to happen without any user access to the other files. That's where I come unstuck.

Have I made it clear? Is it possible?

I know I could do an import of 'staff' records from ALLNAMES each time the STAFFNAMES file is accessed, but I would like to do it without that if possible.

Any suggestions?

I don't get the reason why you want to separate Allnames and Staffnames. It looks like it is no good db architecture.

Just create a table Names with a flag field to identify staff members from other people.

This way you can use only one relationship and one portal to enter data in Events, but it remains easy to break your related records behind the scenes using 2 other relationships based on the value of the flag field.