Quantity on Hand - Cats

  • Thread starter Thread starter Leo Loeb
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Leo Loeb

I am building a database for a non-profit group that offers spay/neutering of
feral cats to control populations and environmental impact. We need to report
on a quarterly basis the number of colonies, number of cats and number of
spayed/neutered cats. There is a lot more data management but this aspect of
inventory control is the key to helping the organization and teh area of
present concern. On a quarterly basis, a volunteer calls the colony
caretakers and gets a count of additions, deaths, missing and adoptions. At
this stage I am completing the development of the tables and their
relationships and am looking for advice before I go too far.

In the database, I have a colony table (tblColony) that is in a one to many
relationship with a table of all the cats (tblCats). I've looked at Allen
Browne's sample ( http://allenbrowne.com/AppInventory.html) and have
incorporated tables tblAcq, tblAcqDetail, tblDel and tblDelDetail that link
in a one to many relationship with the tblCat table to handle the
transactions of addition and deletions to the population. I am uncertain
whether I need a StockTake table and am looking for input in this regard.

When a colony is added, cat acquisitions are increased, one cat at a time by
colony. When the quarterly audit occurs, further additions and deletions
occur. Since each Cat is an individual, the quantity on hand is either zero
or one. My questions are: 1) Do I really need a StockTake table? 2) What
is a reasonable way to build reports that will show quarterly inventories
(Colonies, Cats and Spay/neutered cats).

Thank you,
Leo Loeb
 
On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:41:00 -0800, Leo Loeb <Leo
I am building a database for a non-profit group that offers spay/neutering of
feral cats to control populations and environmental impact. We need to report
on a quarterly basis the number of colonies, number of cats and number of
spayed/neutered cats. There is a lot more data management but this aspect of
inventory control is the key to helping the organization and teh area of
present concern. On a quarterly basis, a volunteer calls the colony
caretakers and gets a count of additions, deaths, missing and adoptions. At
this stage I am completing the development of the tables and their
relationships and am looking for advice before I go too far.

In the database, I have a colony table (tblColony) that is in a one to many
relationship with a table of all the cats (tblCats). I've looked at Allen
Browne's sample ( http://allenbrowne.com/AppInventory.html) and have
incorporated tables tblAcq, tblAcqDetail, tblDel and tblDelDetail that link
in a one to many relationship with the tblCat table to handle the
transactions of addition and deletions to the population. I am uncertain
whether I need a StockTake table and am looking for input in this regard.

When a colony is added, cat acquisitions are increased, one cat at a time by
colony. When the quarterly audit occurs, further additions and deletions
occur. Since each Cat is an individual, the quantity on hand is either zero
or one. My questions are: 1) Do I really need a StockTake table? 2) What
is a reasonable way to build reports that will show quarterly inventories
(Colonies, Cats and Spay/neutered cats).

Thank you,
Leo Loeb

This isn't really a traditional inventory table; if you have a hardware store
you will be tracking the total number of 3/16" bolts or 60 watt lightbulbs,
but not the individuals. In an Inventory app you will be adding to or
subtracting from a stored count; you don't need to do so, since you can
instead just run a Totals query to count the number of cats (the records in
your cats table).

I'd rethink whether Allen's excellent inventory application is really
applicable to this rather different task! When you add a cat to your cats
table, *just add a record* probably using a subform on the Colony table. When
a cat dies or (better!) is adopted out, just delete it from the Cats table, or
set the value of a field in the cats table indicating that animal's fate.

For your quarterly reports... just use queries.


John W. Vinson [MVP]
 
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