User restriction on form

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Guest

A signed paper form helps to verify that the person who signed authorizes or
approves of what has been entered on the form. Is it possible to perfom an
analogous action in an Access form? If a manager completes a section of an
Access form (adds fields to a record or adds records to a table), is it
possible for somebody viewing the form (record) later to verify with
reasonable certainty that the manager actually added the information (rather
than that somebody else entered information in the manager's name). I am
assuming that anybody viewing the record would either be aware of this
feature or (in the case of an outside auditor, for instance) would have it
explained by somebody who is aware of the feature.
 
Have you thought of only allowing the manager to change or
add data to the form(or select fields) and everyone else
has read only permission?

Chris
 
If you are using user level security, you could allow only the manager to
edit the data (such as a Yes/No field) which indicates that the manager
approves (or provided) the information. Or, easier, but less secure, you
could require a password (hard coded or stored - maybe encrypted - in a table
or text file) that changes the locked property of a control to allow the
manager to edit.
 
Limiting data entry to a single person (or to a small group of authorized
persons) is not an option. The form in question is a recommendation form.
Any person in the company may make a recommendation (this is a third party
requirement that cannot be changed). After that the manager assigns a person
to respond to the recommendation. Two weeks or so after that another person
follows up to verify that the response was implemented and effective.
Finally the manager signs the form. Originally a paper form was passed from
hand to hand. Later a Word document with form fields was maintained on a
network location. Initiating the recommendation by means of a paper form was
and must remain an option. Both systems require a lot of maintenance in that
somebody needs to enter each recommendation into an index, keep track of
repsonses and follow-ups, and so forth.
If data entry is restricted then those with permission will have to
transcribe hand-written records (or copy from Word documents, or something
like that). I can tell you that managers will not accept that solution.
However, the replies to my questionhave got me to thinking that perhaps text
boxes could be programatically locked after they have been "signed". The
text box for the response could have an Exit event that brings up a message
box or form. The user would enter a password which would cause his or her
name to appear in the Signature text box, and also lock the text box into
which they entered the response.
Response and follow-up could be in separate tables if that would make
security easier. The main table would be the Recommendation table, and
related tables could contain Response and Follow-up.
There are other wrinkles, such as what to do if a person without computer
access starts a recommendation, but those sorts of things are solveable if I
can figure out how to address the security issues.
Also, the official version of the form must continue to be a signed paper
copy, but in the hope of one day getting away from that I want to find a way
of demonstrating that a database can provide the same assurance as an ink
signature that the words can be attributed to a particular person.
 
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