Database Design

This spring I took a class on database design for my job and what a handy skill that has turned out to be! I decided to create a database in Access for my home business. With this database I will be able to track the same basic information that all businesses should track: purchases, sales, and inventory. The same information can be tracked in Excel, but learning Access is truly handy since data can be related and centralized in one location.

Here is a general breakdown of each unit.

PURCHASES
- included all purchases that I make for the business
- tracks vendors that I purchase from and sell to

INVENTORY
- tracks all consumable supplies in my possession
- allows me to see what I have on hand, when I purchased something, and from where
- tracks finished products and what supplies and labor are put into each one

SALES
- tracks all sales of products that I make.
- tracks my customers, where I sold a product, and how much it sold for

Here is the general diagram of relationships for my database:



It seems more complicated then it is, but each box represents a table in access and each line in the box represents a field of data that I collect. If you prefer Excel, each box can be a separate spreadsheet.

Now I will begin the long and arduous process of filling in the inventory.