Yes, I know but the powers that be said no until the end of next year.
Things like concrete work, new doors, new roofs, our salaries etc have all
the money spent until the last quarter of next year. Now with that said the
only time problem is filling it. This is a small 455 unit storage facility
that is pretty stable for 15 years now. With my wife and I it only requires
about 2 real days of work out of a normal week, my time isn't that filled.

To give you a better idea of what we took over on Oct 1 of this year. No
computer, paper ledgers, hand written letters and such. Since Nov. I've
managed to get it converted over to a very simple Access database system
that now handles most of the things that where done in the past by hand.

I do own Office XP Developers. I'm also a retired systems analyst, though it
was with a school system and had little to do with computers. I've not
programmed since DOS and Windows 3.1 and then nothing major. I also have
enjoyed doing what I've done so far and would love to take it all the way if
for no other reason than just self satisfaction of learning new things even
at my age.

What I've done so far is get the tenant records finished and working very
smooth. These include all information including contact info. The unit
tables are done and tied in with the tenants files so we know who is in what
unit as well as well as what each person pays for their units. The payment
side of this is where I am at now even though the method used at the moment
is getting the results. With what I have written so far, we generate about
20 reports required by the investors that where done by hand, as well as
late notices, invoices, payment receipts, auction letters, deposit slips. I
have even added a competition survey section as well as payroll, bank
deposits, credit card tracking. I even have a reservation system, waiting
list, and the ability to scan tenant id into the system. I send the reports
now by email in PDF format to the investors. All of this has taken me since
Nov 1 to accomplish.

Now, I want to bring the payment side up to more than a simple spreadsheet
that requires us to enter every detail of a payment. It works just like the
paper system did but is very cumbersome though more accurate than the paper
system. This ledger has a Transaction number (autonumber) custno, unitno,
date paid, how much, payment method, tracking number (check number, credit
card approval code), dates if from and thru. It gets very had to do when you
get partial payments, split payments (cash and check etc), over payments
that don't cover a full month, so we wind up with a credit. We also have to
deal with bounced checks, units in lien, auctioned units (sold to general
public at auction). etc.

Well I didn't mean to go on this long but I've really been frustrated in
finding examples for this aspect of database applications. It seems all
examples are for the same things and nothing on accounting at all. If I need
to track inventory, ship goods or had to list suppliers I would be covered.
g


--

Joe Cilinceon


"Brendan Reynolds" brenreyn at indigo dot ie wrote in message
...
Another way of looking at that, Joe, is that this project is occupying 50%
of your workforce! :-)

The value of your time, of course, is how much you would have made if you
had spent it doing, um, whatever you would have been doing if you hadn't
been doing this! :-)

--
Brendan Reynolds (MVP)

SNIPPED for size