Multiple Records Within A Single Record?

[Matt3433]

I'm new to Filemaker so bear with me if my question seems simple. Here's the situation:

I have a table that is being used to process receipts. Each receipt is recorded on a single record, but may be accounted across multiple accounts. Is there an easy easy way to create a layout or report for each account that will pull the proper information out of each record?

For example, let's say I spend $200 on computer supplies from Computers, USA on July 1. Of that $200, $100 went to overhead, $50 went to printing costs and $50 I charged to a project I'm working on.

How can I process all of that information on one record, so that I can sort my transactions by date and vendor, but that have separate layouts for Overhead, Printing and Project 1 that give me a ledger showing: date of purchase, vendor, description of purchase and amount charged to account?

Thanks!

[Quartekoen]

Welcome to the forums, Matt!

First of all, I'm assuming that your receipt layout has the prices broken down into separate fields, so that you can enter the individual costs for each area (such as overhead and printing) and then perhaps have a calculation for the total amount per receipt.

To get an overview of what you're looking for, you'll probably want to use a layout in List View. Enter Layout mode and choose the menu Layouts > New Layout/Report. Give it a name like "Overhead", and choose the Columnar list/report, then continue. You'll probably just want the Columnar List/Report (not the grouped data version).

On the next screen you'll choose want information you want to summarize. Select any fields you want, such as the date, vendor, and descriptions, and move them from the left window to the right. Next, choose how you would like your list sorted. Continue on with the layout wizard until you're done.

When finished, enter Browse mode, and it should list all the records (receipts) in a list for you to view.

Repeat as needed for your other views/layouts. :

[Matt3433]

Thanks for your response. This is the approach that I had started to take, but what if the accounts change from receipt to receipt? In my example I listed Overhead, Printing and Project 1, but what if in my next receipt I only have printing costs? How do I tell the Overhead layout to only show values that have the account code for overhead? Thanks for your help!

[comment]

How can I process all of that information on one record

You can't - at least not easily. You need at least three tables: Receipts, Charges (or Transactions) and Accounts. When you break up the receipt amount into charges against individual accounts, you would to do this in a portal to Charges, creating a new charge record for each. A charge record needs to have (at least) the ReceiptID, the AccountID and the amount.