Lookup Problems

[abomb]

Hey everyone,

I'm sure this must have come up before but I couldn't find one that quite answered my question. I'm pretty good with FM but have only worked with it a short time so still don't know all the ins and outs.

I don't have a real specific problem, but more of a general one. First, my database is fairly straight forward. Our business quotes on work. If a bid is accepted, we get an order. There are three main tables. Quotes, Orders, and Estimators.

I set up the Quote table to be the main source of information. My goal is to make it so that you don't have to spend alot of time entering data, but can get a lot of return information off of it, hence a database.

I then made my Orders table similar to Quotes table. On Orders I have a value list linked to Quotes by Quote Number. When a quote is selected, all information is copied using Lookups(have about 15 to 20). Just need to fill in a few more fields specific to orders to save new Order record.

In the Estimators table, I have a record for each estimator and a portal to Quotes and Orders (on different layouts) to show all quotes and all orders.

I had this all working well, but I don't really like how it's organized. I have found if I want to edit an Order, for example, the change will not be reflected anywhere else. This has really become a headache trying and trace back the problem and then re-do the record. Any way to fix this? or is my design flawed and need to change. I would like to keep as much as possible because I have already put alot of time into it, but am starting to think I should change the structure/design.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[RalphL]

I would think that if you change an order, you would not want a quote to change. Nor would you change a quote after you accepted the order.

Changes to the order should appear in the portal in Estimators. These are fields from the Order table.

I assume that the portals show quotes & orders for the estimator.

[abomb]

Your right,

I'm an idiot. My portal wasn't working right because I didn't have the fields defined correct. I got the portal to work correctly. Your also right about the orders. If these change I don't want to change the quote. Sometimes I just don't think right. Will get back if something else goes wrong.

Thanks again