streamlining

[mttmwsn]

I'm fairly new to MS products and I need some NG help.

I'm doing a big construction project and I have serveral companies sending
me billing data in excell format. I want to create a summary of my spending
to see if it matches up with my budget.

What I want to do is to centralize the accounting data in access. My
problems is that each company has a different way of formating their data in
excell.

I thought that maybe I can create a form in access to allow each accountant
to input their data directly, but if they screw up, then I have bad data in
my database %P

Ideas?

[Larry Daugherty]

If all of the accountants are on the same LAN then giving them each
their own copy of the application FrontEnd as an MDE with the BackEnd
in a folder on the server is the way to go. People are much less
likely to screw up the data entry on a well designed form than in an
Excel spreadsheet.

If the accountants are not all on the same LAN you could try basically
the same thing using Remote Desktop or Terminal Server.

If you must use Excel spreadsheets then you could provide an Excel
template that all of the accountants must use to report their data and
get into your hands. That would freeze the form of the data coming in
to you so you'll only need to deal with the thing you created.

HTH
--
-Larry-
--

"mttmwsn" <[e-mail] in message
news:S6*******************@newsfe12.phx...

I'm fairly new to MS products and I need some NG help.

I'm doing a big construction project and I have serveral companies

sending

me billing data in excell format. I want to create a summary of my

spending

to see if it matches up with my budget.

What I want to do is to centralize the accounting data in access.

My

problems is that each company has a different way of formating their

data in

excell.

I thought that maybe I can create a form in access to allow each

accountant

to input their data directly, but if they screw up, then I have bad

data in

my database %P

Ideas?

[mttmwsn]

If you must use Excel spreadsheets then you could provide an Excel

template that all of the accountants must use to report their data and
get into your hands. That would freeze the form of the data coming in
to you so you'll only need to deal with the thing you created.

I'm probably going to end up using an Excel template, but I'm anticipating
that these accountants have their own invoice templates which are linked to
their inventory spreadsheet. They will probably raise Kane if I try to ask
them to migrate over to my template. What can I do about this?

[Pete_UK]

I receive telephone data from a number of different suppliers each
month for my clients. Obviously, they all use a different format. I
have devised a number of "translators" - excel files which take the
data in a particular format and convert it into "my" standard format.

If you are not successful in persuading the accountants to change to
your data format, then perhaps you could set out to do something
similar.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Oct 27, 10:35 pm, "mttmwsn" <[e-mail]:

If you must use Excel spreadsheets then you could provide an Excel
template that all of the accountants must use to report their data and
get into your hands. That would freeze the form of the data coming in
to you so you'll only need to deal with the thing you created.

I'm probably going to end up using an Excel template, but I'm anticipating
that these accountants have their own invoice templates which are linked to
their inventory spreadsheet. They will probably raise Kane if I try to ask
them to migrate over to my template. What can I do about this?

[Terry Bourne]

I suugest the last thing you should do is try to get each company to change
the way in which it submits its data to you. I assume no standardised way
was specified when initial contracts were drawn up. To get all to agree and
follow a standard set by you would probably cause havoc and confusion -
besides which each company may have a valid internal reason for producing
its accounting data in its' own chosen way.

Since we are talking .Net here, it would surely be easier and potentially
less error prone to write a program using the office inter-op libraries, to
convert each company submission to a standard format Access, Excel or
whatever.

One of the great benefits of .Net is that in all areas from chosen
development language to data entry/storage you can allow people to do things
their own way! My experience has been to always let people do things the way
they want, unless there is a very valid reason for not doing so.

Regards
Terry

"mttmwsn" <[e-mail] in message
news:S6*******************@newsfe12.phx...

I'm fairly new to MS products and I need some NG help.

I'm doing a big construction project and I have serveral companies sending
me billing data in excell format. I want to create a summary of my
spending
to see if it matches up with my budget.

What I want to do is to centralize the accounting data in access. My
problems is that each company has a different way of formating their data
in
excell.

I thought that maybe I can create a form in access to allow each
accountant
to input their data directly, but if they screw up, then I have bad data
in
my database %P

Ideas?

[Larry Daugherty]

That's a business/political question, not an Access question nor a
technical question.

HTH
--
-Larry-
--

"mttmwsn" <[e-mail] in message
news:x2*******************@newsfe11.phx...

If you must use Excel spreadsheets then you could provide an Excel
template that all of the accountants must use to report their data

and

get into your hands. That would freeze the form of the data

coming in

to you so you'll only need to deal with the thing you created.

I'm probably going to end up using an Excel template, but I'm

anticipating

that these accountants have their own invoice templates which are

linked to

their inventory spreadsheet. They will probably raise Kane if I try

to ask

them to migrate over to my template. What can I do about this?

[Pete_UK]

The OP posted this in four newsgroups - dotnet.general, Access, Excel
and Excel.misc - so I think we have all read it in different groups
and wondered what the other posters are talking about !!

Pete

On Oct 29, 1:28 pm, "Larry Daugherty"
<[e-mail]:

No. This newsgroup has nothing to do with .Net. It is a newsgroup
for developers helping developers of MS Access, the Relational
Database platform, to resolve specific technical issues. Original
Poster was unsure about using Access or Excel. It seemed that Excel
was the better choice for him.

I believe that the .net newsgroups all have the word "net" embedded in
their names.

HTH
--
-Larry-
--

"Terry Bourne" <[e-mail] in message

news:u6**************@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

Larry
I think we are talking different things here. From the phrasing of

the

original question I inferred rightly or wrongly that this was some

Main

Contract/Sub Contract relationship where the format for submission

of

progress reports - including financial - could have been expected to

be

resolved at the time of drawing up the relevant contracts.
Clearly the points I made are not appropriate to scenarios you refer

to.

I am a bit puzzled as to why you say we are not talking .Net here.

This is a

.net newsgroup is it not?

Regards
Terry