Individuals and Groups In Same Table

[Steve]

How do others handle this situation .....

Associates may be individuals, businesses, organizations or groups. It is
desired to record all Associates in one table due to the relationship of
AssociateID to numerous other tables in the database. Since the big majority
of Associates are individuals, the associate table is set up with FirstName,
MI and LastName.

Do others put the names of businesses, organizations and groups in the
LastName field?

What do you do about data entry forms? For individuals there are three
textboxes labeled First Name, MI and Last Name. Do you use the same form to
enter businesses, organizations and groups? If you do, hjow many textboxes
does the form have to enter the name and how do you label the textboxes? Or
do you use a different form than the form for individuals?

Thanks!

Steve

[Marco Pagliero]

On 4 Apr., 20:15, "Steve" <[e-mail]:

Do others put the names of businesses, organizations and groups in the
LastName field?

What do you do about data entry forms? For individuals there are three
textboxes labeled First Name, MI and Last Name.

In your example probably last names of individuals and names of
businesses, organizations and groups are to be processed the same way,
so I would enter them in the same testbox of the same form and I would
label it "Lastname/Company".

Sometimes could be necessary to have also a combo where one can choose
the type "Com/Individual/Org/Gov" or whatever.

Sometimes it is different, when individuals are also part of a
company, then I have two textboxes, Company and Lastname, but then I
have to enter the last name of individuals in both.

Hope it helps.

Marco P