Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have a craft business that sells products from 80 different vendors, each vendor has a vendor number,& their own monthly sales sheet(currently on paper). on each sale I record on their vendor sheet, the date, a description and sale amt, which I total at the end of the page and if needed several pages and the end of month.
What I would like is 2 major things. First a universal data entry page that has the entry for the current date, an entry for the vendor number, an entry for the description and the sales amount. this would be transferred to the correct vendor spreadsheet page, for a cumulative monthly record. then the fields cleared for the next sales entry. The spread sheet would have a running total monthly for that vendor, later be printed out and archived

There maybe templates available but I am too new to see how they might work for me. I could write these with some pointers to tutorial that would show these features. I think I would need to also protect the spread sheet field after entry, as not to overwrite the data.
Is this project feasible, should it be in a database or spreadsheet or both??
Thanks for any advise Wyndham

You must not try to do this with a spreadsheet. WIth a spreadsheet can do a quick mock-up at best. Each and every (semi-)professional solution involves a database.

What you want is possible using a database. However, relational database design is not intuitive. There is a substantial learning curve and not something you will likely pick up in a day or two. You must first design the tables and relationships before even considering the Form. For a tutorial on database design see
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ima ... torial.pdf
Look at the top of this Base Forum page for other Base Tutorials and when you open that page there is another selection Database Examples that can sometimes be of help. Try a few of the example databases to get an idea of what is possible.

Today's input form: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=104050

I can see that a DB most likely will be a long range solution, with a lot of learning in a new field.

It is not half as complicated as a convoluted spreadsheet. A lot more development work but very easy to use over the years. Just enter as many data as you want into the finished database. Everything else remains the same. No formulas to copy, no references to adjust, no missing data, no wrong data types, no more typos on item names that have been entered already, no more IF formulas. Just enter new data.

Try this demonstration database, it might get you started in developing yours. The form document Transactions is where all the data is displayed and can be edited.
When using Embedded databases like this, be sure to backup the .odb file frequently, because there is a known problem with corrupt files. The problem can occur at any time but more commonly occurs on laptop computers where the user shuts off the computer before Base has time to complete saving the file to the storage device.

thanks, this gives me a direction to follow