novice help with invoicing

[monkeydriver]

I recently started using the business productivity kit that you can download from the filemaker site my only prob is that the invoice only has 8 product fields, how do I add rows as needed. HELP. thx

[aldipalo]

The line items fields in the BPS package are repeating fields. Go into database table and change repetitions to what ever number you want.

You do that by going to the layout you desire, click on files>define>database. Go to the proper table,"SalesOrders." you will note there are several fields in the table

ProductID>Number>8

*8 reflects the number of repetitions set. You need to change every field that applies to your invoice to the same number of repetitions.*

HTH

[comment]

FMI should be shot for promoting this template. Do yourself a favor and move to a true relational design.

[monkeydriver]

thx for the help.

Could you recomend a relational design template that would be good for a biz with products/ inventory?

[comment]

No, but only because I don't work with 3rd party templates. I believe Business Tracker is a solid one - but I doubt it can be recommended to a beginner. For something simple like BPS you should be able to roll your own. In many ways, it's easier than modifying some other person's work.

Anyway, here's a tidbit from Filemaker Help (Working with related tables and files > About relationships) that practically says it all:

For example, a typical Sales database may have these tables: an Invoices table, which keeps a record of each invoice; a Products table, which stores the products and their current prices; and a LineItems table, which stores sales data for each line of the invoice, including the item being sold, the quantity, and the price at which it is sold. Because invoices are a mix of dynamic and static data, you use both related fields and lookups to display your data. Records from the LineItems table are displayed dynamically, in a portal on the Invoices layout, but the actual sales price of each line item is entered using a lookup, so the invoice totals remain the same, even if prices change at some future date.

[bruceR]

I agree FMI should be shot for using repeated fields in a high-visibility example solution. But it's easy enough to fix by adding a line items table plus other necessary mods.

[comment]

It's not THAT easy to integrate into someone else's work. The BPS is six separate FILES. Lots of relationships, spread over the six files (some of them using constant 1 - another reason to call in the firing squad...). Icons stored externally, etc. etc. I'd rather start from scratch.

[bruceR]

But you're not the one with the problem. It is quite easy, actually, to switch BPS from repeats to a line items table.

[Søren Dyhr]

But you're not the one with the problem. It is quite easy, actually, to switch BPS from repeats to a line items table

I think it's cure vs. fix ...we can all remedy something, but could we look at ourself in mirror afterwards??? I think the t-shirts above from Thinkgeek ...says it!

--sd

[comment]

It might be easy for you - but then you're not the one with the problem either... :

Seriously, though - I think that to adapt a template one needs to thoroughly know and understand the template. Otherwise you may fix one thing and break 5 others in the process. That's why I prefer to build from scratch. But that's just me, and the OP now has the benefit of both opinions.

[monkeydriver]

I have to say the template you recomended is very good and far more along the lines of what I have been looking for. I do agree having 6 seperate files is ridiculous when it can be done in one. I am a newbie in FM but it is much better to be lead down the right path then left tooling around with something that is far less intuitive...so THANK YOU!

[monkeydriver]

Comment - I have 1 more question. The business tracker template you recomended is great but when invoicing the inventory doesn't automatically update. In the help it says this can be scripted.....I just don't know how to do this. I imagine it is fairly simple. little help? - thx Rob

[comment]

"Recommended" is stretching it a bit. I don't think I have spent more than 15 minutes with it. And since I said that "to adapt a template one needs to thoroughly know and understand the template" ...

However, there is a section of the forum dedicated to BT. Have you tried searching there?