How do I save a report in Access 2010?

[Seth Schrock]

I'm creating a billing database and I'm wanting to be able to save the report that I use for the bill. I thought about using a Make Table query, but then you get a ton of tables. I could also export to PDF. My main problem is that I want a link to each bill in the customer form so that if a customer has a question about the bill, I can just pull up the customer's form and then click on the link to bring up the bill in question. I don't know if this is possible or not, but it would be easier than having a to search through a folder with bills for each customer for the past 5 years.

[gnawoncents]

Is every bill unique, or are they based on the same fields? If they are based on the same fields, I would suggest not saving the bill as an image, but rather data. Create an append query each time a bill is finalized that stores all the relevant data. Then you can have a form used to select the appropriate bill to view and populate it back into an image type view like the original. This method would require only a few more database objects and take very little storage room.

[Seth Schrock]

All the data for the bills would come from the same table using the customer ID to separate the bills. Using the method that you suggest, would the link to the bill be created automatically, or would I have to manually program the link for each bill? I have never used an append query so I'm not familiar with the process.

[gnawoncents]

It depends on how you set up each bill. If each record already has everything you need for the bill, including some sort of unique bill ID, then you don't need the append query at all. In that case, all you need is a selection filter on your customer form for the current customer ID that then offers a list (sorted by date, bill ID, or some other criteria). Once you select the correct bill, it can be displayed in the report you already have or, if needed, one created especially for that task.

The only reason you would need a new table to append records to would be if the bill has some needed data that is not stored in its record source.

[NeoPa]

For this to work this way you need to treat your data like a database Seth. Forget deleting records when they are not current. Simply flag them as deleted (or paid, or invoiced, or whatever. You get the idea I assume).

On that basis you can reproduce any historic bills you need to from the original data. Only your design and your provided options differentiate between current bills and historical ones.

[Seth Schrock]

Okay. So I just need to add a "Billed" field to the table to mark it as such. Is there a way to create a list of the bills so that the query for the historical bills are automatically created and can be selected? The way the bills work is that I'm going to run a selection query for a data range. So if I bill the customer for June 1st through June 30th, I don't want to be able to pull up a bill for June 15th through July 15th. I want it to be locked in as June 1st through June 30th. Would I do this by assigning the charge an invoice number and then creating a combo box with a list of the invoice numbers for that customer and make an AfterUpdate event to go to that invoice? Am I'm on the right track?

[NeoPa]

Fundamentally yes.

A field to indicate 'Billed' could well be an Invoice Number field which, as you say, could also be used to group those items together which appeared on the same invoice. It sounds like you have the concept fully understood :-)

[Seth Schrock]

And I have make the create bill query only put records where the billed field is null so that the same record cannot be billed twice. Wonderful! I think I know how I'm going to do it now. Thanks.

[NeoPa]

Sounds good to me :-)