Suggestion for Bill & Estimate in same layout

[cweihrauch]

Hi,

I have a billing system running on filemaker. Each bill has a serial number generated on creation.

Now, I need to add the possibility of making estimates. I would like to use the same layout.

I'm a little confused about the best way to do this ; I don't want to duplicate the layout, as I don't wan't to maintain and modify 2 layouts in future.

Ideally, I would like to use the same table, but then estimates would take up serial numbers which is not possible. Estimates need their own, independant set of serial numbers.

So should I use 2 tables, 'bills' and 'estimates' linked through a third table ?

In that case, how would I integrate the creation of records in the linked table, i.e. how would the serial numbers be generated. Can I do that without a script ?

I'm familiar with writing scripts, and should manage this, but would like to know if there is some kind of "relational way" or "best practice" to do this whilst maximizing flexibility and minimizing work for future changes (i.e. single layout, links to the same items table etc...)

FYI, we're in consulting, so the billing applies to 'virtual' elements. There is no stock-tracking or similar involved. So estimates can use the same 'items' tables as bills without risk of interference.

Thanks !

C

[comment]

Perhaps it would be best to use one table for both, and another table as a numerator for the bills - see:

http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/36155-auto-serial-in-based-on-if-test/page__p__168007#entry168007

[cweihrauch]

This solution seems good for me. Thanks for the suggestion !