I have been tasked with creating a database in Access for a Mortgage
Lending office. My boss wants a database that can be placed on the
office server. He wants all of the lending officers to be able to
access the database from their computers. He wants them to be able to
pull up a form containing all of the fields that are currently
available on the "log sheet." They have given me a list of fields.
They want the fields broken down into sections on the form. The first
section contains eight fields, Home Loan Coordinator, Today's Date,
Commitment Date, Closing Date, Property Address, Property City,
Property State, and Property Zip. The next section is about Borrower
information. I contains 12 fields related to contact information
regarding the borrower. Next is the co-borrower info, 12 fields
regarding contact info about the coborrower... The next section
contains info about the borrower's agent (12 more fields). Next is a
section regarding the Insurance Agent (12 more fields). Next is a
section on the listing agent, (12 more fields). The last three
sections are contact infor regarding the Borrower Title Co, Seller
Title Co, and finally a section on the loan itself, what kind of loan
is is, etc.

They want the loan officers to be able to input all this info, print
out the completed form on one page and have all of the info be recorded
on tables. They then want me to create reports. Things like a list of
all loans sold by a specific loan officer etc.

I entered all of the fields in one table. Then I used a wizard to
create a form from that table. It is huge. I don't know how to print
it all on one page and I don't know if I should create more tables with
the same fields that are in the different sections, like a table for
each section? Then create relationships between the tables? I am very
confused. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. Please get
back with me when you can.

I worked on a lending-mortgage app a few years ago with three
professionsal developers. One of them had already done the app in the
late eighties with DBase III. It took us about a year (we were working
on other things at the same time) to convert to Access and upgrade and
we billed TTBOMR for more than $100000 USD.
Maybe your boss doesn't need something so elaborate. If he/she does
then he/she needs to get a grip.

I am no longer associated in any way with the partnership which did
this work; at the risk of being accused of advertising I offer to pass
on to you their web site address (privately by e-mail) should you be
interested.

Do yourself a favor and ignore Lyle's Post. Paying $100,000 for this
type of application in Access is absurd. No one in this group is going
to attempt to walk you through designing this entire application. Your
questions will need to be a bit more specific. What is it exactly that
you are confused about. However, I will say that putting all the field
for this app in one table is a huge mistake. You will run into all
sorts of problems with this approach. What sort of a deadline are you
under? I would suggest that you start with a few beginner books.
Also, you will eventually come to the point where your boss will ask
for some functonality where using the Access wizards will just not cut
it so you will need to learn VBA.

If your boss wants this done in a relatively short amount of time, you
will need to be honest with your boss and tell him or her that you have
some reading to do.

On 20 Feb 2006 15:35:44 -0800, sstallman@gmail.com wrote:

It's unreasonable of your boss to expect you to be able to implement
this application. He may not understand what it takes to do this, or
what your skills are in this area.
It may be best to have this application professionally designed and
implemented, with you as the client contact, and one of the beta
testers. "Microsoft Solution Provider" in your yellow pages may be a
place to start. You will learn a lot and will be able to maintain the
application after delivery.

-Tom.


[color=blue]
>I have been tasked with creating a database in Access for a Mortgage
>Lending office. My boss wants a database that can be placed on the
>office server. He wants all of the lending officers to be able to
>access the database from their computers. He wants them to be able to
>pull up a form containing all of the fields that are currently
>available on the "log sheet." They have given me a list of fields.
>They want the fields broken down into sections on the form. The first
>section contains eight fields, Home Loan Coordinator, Today's Date,
>Commitment Date, Closing Date, Property Address, Property City,
>Property State, and Property Zip. The next section is about Borrower
>information. I contains 12 fields related to contact information
>regarding the borrower. Next is the co-borrower info, 12 fields
>regarding contact info about the coborrower... The next section
>contains info about the borrower's agent (12 more fields). Next is a
>section regarding the Insurance Agent (12 more fields). Next is a
>section on the listing agent, (12 more fields). The last three
>sections are contact infor regarding the Borrower Title Co, Seller
>Title Co, and finally a section on the loan itself, what kind of loan
>is is, etc.
>
>They want the loan officers to be able to input all this info, print
>out the completed form on one page and have all of the info be recorded
>on tables. They then want me to create reports. Things like a list of
>all loans sold by a specific loan officer etc.
>
>I entered all of the fields in one table. Then I used a wizard to
>create a form from that table. It is huge. I don't know how to print
>it all on one page and I don't know if I should create more tables with
>the same fields that are in the different sections, like a table for
>each section? Then create relationships between the tables? I am very
>confused. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. Please get
>back with me when you can.[/color]

$100,000 doesn't sound at all unreasonale for a complex application
that runs the business side of a mortgage management lending business.
Clearly, as Lyle points out, there are other solutions that can be
imagined that would do far less of the work and cost far less to
implement. But I disagree with the notion that that kind of price tag
is outside the realm of reasonable.

Jeremy
--
Jeremy Wallace
Fund for the City of New York
http://metrix.fcny.org

I have to agree with Tom; it sounds like your boss didn't realize how
big a task this would be. It's a great nod of confidence that he trusts
you enough to figure you'd be able to do whatever it takes to get this
job done, and there's nothing to say you can't. But what's clear is
that whoever ends up building this will have to be quite a competent
Access programmer, whether that person is a consultant you hire or you,
after having learned Access programming by dint of seriously hard work.

If you decide to take on that learning task, this group will be a great
resource. But know that it won't be about how best to build one or more
tables. It will be about actually learning a full programming language,
a full database environment, and a full set of form and report building
tools.

Jeremy
--
Jeremy Wallace
Fund for the City of New York
http://metrix.fcny.org

On 21 Feb 2006 13:06:12 -0800, "Jeremy Wallace"
<jeremygetsmail@gmail.com> wrote:

I fully agree. An "enterprise application" for a small company can
easily cost 100K and more. We have been fortunate enough to build
several of them, and each of those clients is still on our reference
list. The apps are worth the investment.
Of course not knowing more about the scope of the OP's app than a
paragraph or two it's anyone's guess if this app is in that class. But
don't dismiss it out of hand.

-Tom.

[color=blue]
>$100,000 doesn't sound at all unreasonale for a complex application
>that runs the business side of a mortgage management lending business.
>Clearly, as Lyle points out, there are other solutions that can be
>imagined that would do far less of the work and cost far less to
>implement. But I disagree with the notion that that kind of price tag
>is outside the realm of reasonable.
>
>Jeremy[/color]