Hi! I have a 4 file database I'm working on for my church. It is fairly straightforward, but I have at least 1 design issue. Here's the layout... I have a Family file, Person file, Tithe file, & TitheDetail file. The relations are simple with all relations to Family based on a FID field, all relations to Person based on a PID field, and all relations to Tithe based on a TID field. The difficulty I'm having is that the Family file contains the address info for the family unit, but one of my tithe reports is in the TitheDetail file which requires address info. I've created a PID field in TitheDetail that looks up the value from the TID relationship back to Tithe. I've also created a FID field that looks up the value from the PID relationship back to the Person file. OK, sounds screwy, but it works... sometimes.

Clarification of Relationship model:

Family <-> Person <-> Tithe <-> TitheDetail -> Family & Person

I have the TitheDetail info in a portal within Tithe which allows me to create records within the portal (ease of use), but when the records are created in this manner, the PID & FID fields aren't looked up and the relationship is useless for reporting with address info from Family. If I use a button on the layout that goes to related record or creates new record, it seems to work, but then I lose my ease of use. Any input, ideas, alternate designs?

Here is what I suggest. Create a nice layout in your Tithe file. When the user wants to create a new one they click a button, fill in the information and then click on "OK" or "Save" or something like that. Then the scripts can make sure that the IDs are all appropriately set and send the user back to the main Person screen or where ever.

This is not really losing "ease of use".