Distributors who are Customers - Best Structure?

[James Samuel]

I'll be as concise as I can, while seeking help to understand what the best table structure is for this scenario.

• A) Distributors sell my product, and so do I. I am a Distributor.
  
• Some distributors ask me to send the product to the end Customer, but they invoice them, and I bill the Distributor periodically
  
• C) Some distributors ask me to send product and bill the Customer. Then I pay them a commission.
  
• D) Some distributors buy product from me and handle their own sales.
  

So

• One Distributor can have Many Customers
  
• A Customer can belong to only One Distributor, but doesn’t have too.
  
• A Customer can be a Distributor, but may not be
  

I am wondering about the wisdom of using the Customer file to also record the contact details of Distributors?

IE Flagging them with a Distributor Code (T/F) in order to get the REPORTS I need - primarily "Sales by distributor"

I am enoying coming back to FileMaker after a few years absence, but having been a long-time developer (of modest applications) since 1985. Any help or pointers would be gratefully received :-)

James

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Skype: jmsinnz

[James Samuel]

I think I may have resolved this... the reporting that's needed, should ultimately drive the system and configuration (along with ease of data entry). And what we want to be able to display or report on easily is:

• Sales by product

• Sales of product by Customer

• Sales of product by Distributor

• Regarding above the Customer is the Distributor, but the Shipping address is different in each shipment.
  If a shipping address (person) later becomes a customer, then a script can handle transferring anme and address data into a new customer.
  
• Regarding C), the sale is 'mine' and I only need to "flag" it as a sale that I'm going to pay a commission on later.
  
• In the case of D) this is a bulk purchasing Customer, and needs no special treatment beyond being able to apply a discount rate to the product price.