Annual Leave Database

message from Bryan Gwynne on 11 May 2004

I'm no expert in Access, not by any stretch of the
imagination. However, I have been set a task that I think
is just too complicated for me.

My boss wants a database that will plan our departmental--
15 members of staff--annual leave. The database must
satisfy the following conditions / criteria:

1. Each staff members annual leave year runs from the
month of their birthday, to the month before their
birthday the following year;

2. Each staff member has a different number of hours
Annual Laeave, depending on their length of service;

3. Each staff member can carry forward a maximum of 5 days
Annual Leave from one year to the next;

4. If an employee enters Annual Leave against the current
year, then only their current years leave total is debited;

5. If they record leave against the next leave year, this
would not debit the current years total, but would reflect
in the total hours left for the following leave year;

6. A maximum of five staff members are allowed off on any
day;

7. This information should be easily viewed, so that my
boss can see at a glance who is off on a particular day,
and whether someone can get a days Annual Leave request
granted;

I don't know what the best way to enter / view the
information would be. I'm guessing a calendar type
display, but as I say, I'm no expert at Access and don't
know how this would look / work far less how to code it!!

I'm not looking for someone to write it for me--although
that would certainly reduce the hassle--as I would learn
nothing from it. But, perhaps if someone could give me a
pointer to an existing database that could be used for
reference, or some hints / tips on how to set up my
tables, forms, queries etc.

I really would appreciate any help that anyone can provide
me with this.

My many thanks and kindest regards

Bryan

=?Utf-8?B?Q0gzM0NI?= replied to Bryan Gwynne on 11 May 2004

The ideas I have below will start you on creating the backbone for your project. Some of these ideas will require some basic programming, but once you know what you're looking for, you can search the MSKB and build it peice by peice using the code snippets and examples that are available. This post will give you a general idea of the methods and logic I would use to get this done, and in no means should serve as a diagram to follow.
The hardest part of DB design IMO is figuring out how THEY want the thing to work and putting it into some sort of logic that you can eventually replace with actual code.
As a network guy, I don't know much about actually sitting down and writing VB or VBA code, but for over 15 years I've been writing pretty darn robust solutions using a combination of wizards, snippets of code found in books or online articles, and resort to cursing or prayer until one of the above methods work. It's all in the proper setup of the "skeleton" of your DB and a good spattering of basic logic, and plenty of debugging (and coffee).

Archived message: Annual Leave Database (MS Access Error Message)