Too may fields!

[bj55]

I have 3 files linked, i.e. Addresses, Services, and Bills.

Services lists unique IDs, their text Descriptions, and 7 different price groups.

Customer_Status, which defines price group, is required entry in Addresses.

Lookup based on Customer_Status enters prices for each service into Bills of 20 lines max. for each Day. Services for several days are later linked via Bill_No to print as one Bill.

Problem: Bills, like individual quotes, are correct when viewed/printed in the correct one of seven layouts, one for each group of customers of the same status. So far, I have a Warning field which displays a message if the layout does not reflect correct Customer_Status. I need to keep wrong quotes or bills, i.e. wrong layouts for this customer, from showing up altogether.

Or, is there a way to have all 7 groups share the same layout?

If so, it would immensely help with problem no. 2: As mentioned, price quotes are entered via lookup to be alterable. Similarly, Descriptions get modified, sometimes considerably. I provide 4 menued fields for "patchwork" comments ("large," "small," "left," "right," etc.), which will appear after the basic description on the same line through text calculation. This now requires too many fields with too many mistakes possible. Any advice for this newbie would be greatly appreciated

[bj55]

I have 3 files linked, i.e. Addresses, Services, and Bills.

Services lists unique IDs, their text Descriptions, and 7 different price groups.

Customer_Status, which defines price group, is required entry in Addresses.

Lookup based on Customer_Status enters prices for each service into Bills of 20 lines max. for each Day. Services for several days are later linked via Bill_No to print as one Bill.

Problem: Bills, like individual quotes, are correct when viewed/printed in the correct one of seven layouts, one for each group of customers of the same status. So far, I have a Warning field which displays a message if the layout does not reflect correct Customer_Status. I need to keep wrong quotes or bills, i.e. wrong layouts for this customer, from showing up altogether.

Or, is there a way to have all 7 groups share the same layout?

If so, it would immensely help with problem no. 2: As mentioned, price quotes are entered via lookup to be alterable. Similarly, Descriptions get modified, sometimes considerably. I provide 4 menued fields for "patchwork" comments ("large," "small," "left," "right," etc.), which will appear after the basic description on the same line through text calculation. This now requires too many fields with too many mistakes possible. Any advice for this newbie would be greatly appreciated

[bj55]

I have 3 files linked, i.e. Addresses, Services, and Bills.

Services lists unique IDs, their text Descriptions, and 7 different price groups.

Customer_Status, which defines price group, is required entry in Addresses.

Lookup based on Customer_Status enters prices for each service into Bills of 20 lines max. for each Day. Services for several days are later linked via Bill_No to print as one Bill.

Problem: Bills, like individual quotes, are correct when viewed/printed in the correct one of seven layouts, one for each group of customers of the same status. So far, I have a Warning field which displays a message if the layout does not reflect correct Customer_Status. I need to keep wrong quotes or bills, i.e. wrong layouts for this customer, from showing up altogether.

Or, is there a way to have all 7 groups share the same layout?

If so, it would immensely help with problem no. 2: As mentioned, price quotes are entered via lookup to be alterable. Similarly, Descriptions get modified, sometimes considerably. I provide 4 menued fields for "patchwork" comments ("large," "small," "left," "right," etc.), which will appear after the basic description on the same line through text calculation. This now requires too many fields with too many mistakes possible. Any advice for this newbie would be greatly appreciated

[dkemme]

Why not have a relationship in Bills that will pull up the correct price based upon Customer_Status and Service_ID. Bit easier to do in FM7 but to do in FM5, create a calculation in both Bills and Services with the two above fields concantenated, then create a relationship between these two caclulate fields. Then the correct price will be entered regardless of which layout they happen to be on.

I would be leary of a 20 lines max in bills. Someday, sometime, someone will want more than 20, and if you are using a repeating field or 20 separate fields, you have unneeded complexity. Why not have just one entry per bill? Then find all the bills for that customerID for that day and then print.

[dkemme]

Why not have a relationship in Bills that will pull up the correct price based upon Customer_Status and Service_ID. Bit easier to do in FM7 but to do in FM5, create a calculation in both Bills and Services with the two above fields concantenated, then create a relationship between these two caclulate fields. Then the correct price will be entered regardless of which layout they happen to be on.

I would be leary of a 20 lines max in bills. Someday, sometime, someone will want more than 20, and if you are using a repeating field or 20 separate fields, you have unneeded complexity. Why not have just one entry per bill? Then find all the bills for that customerID for that day and then print.

[dkemme]

Why not have a relationship in Bills that will pull up the correct price based upon Customer_Status and Service_ID. Bit easier to do in FM7 but to do in FM5, create a calculation in both Bills and Services with the two above fields concantenated, then create a relationship between these two caclulate fields. Then the correct price will be entered regardless of which layout they happen to be on.

I would be leary of a 20 lines max in bills. Someday, sometime, someone will want more than 20, and if you are using a repeating field or 20 separate fields, you have unneeded complexity. Why not have just one entry per bill? Then find all the bills for that customerID for that day and then print.