A simple data entry form for example that show customer details can be entered is probably easier and quicker to in Excel but if the company want to customise it then access is a better choice because of the wizards and design tools available.
Finally, if the southall illustration company wanted a customised data entry form, needed to produce a range of graphs and reports and do some specialised searching - so Access would be the perfect choice.
The consolation of my decision that Microsoft Access is the best application that suite the company need because this system will reduce the need of carried out some task manually such as producing invoices, tracking customer’s orders, and all financial information
System equipment
- Needs to run on existing PC.
- Approximate budget of £300 for purchase of software and development costs.
What is database system?
A database is a collection of data that is organised so that its contents can easily be accessed, managed and updated. The most common type of database is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganised and accessed in a number of different ways.
Why did the company introduce it?
The company introduced databases so that information can be easier to access by workers and so that all the info and customer details can be stored in the system and be found quicker. Introducing databases is a good way of storing records and is very convenient for a company size of southall illustration as one advantage of having databases is that you can change and obliterate records if you need to.
Benefits of introducing the new system (Database system) to Southall Illustration Company
- Southall illustration would benefit from using database system because it will take up less space to store information on database than on paper
- Finding information is quicker than searching through paper records for example if southall illustration wanted to find a particular customer details they can use the quires function in database system to find it out.
- Information can be sorted into a particular order - this would be difficult with paper records, by using the sort function in the database southall illustration company would be able to sort particular details in ascending or descending order.
- Data can be moved easily into other applications e.g. a mail merged letter so the company could save time in managing their business.
- More than one computer can access the data at the same time that could save time for employee to do their work.
- It is easy to add/change information.
Southall illustration make use of the database system to store the detail of customers, employee, design templates, invoice and order details, I had produced five tables and entered different types of information.
How did I design the Tables?
- I Select Tables in the Object bar
The purpose of each table in my database design
Customers detail table – this will hold details such as the name and address of existing customers
Design table - this will hold details such as the design Id, font and the colour of the design templates
Employee table – this will hold details such as the employee firs name, last name, DOB, address and so on
Invoice table this will hold details such as the invoice Id, order date, quantity, ship name, and ship address
Order table -this will hold details such as the customer Id, invoice Id, design Id, employee Id, quantity and unit price
Relationship
Relationships used to prevent the duplication of information in a database by repeating fields in more than one table, table relationships can be established to link fields of tables together through the use of primary keys.
In the example below, the customer table and order table were related because every order a company receives comes from a particular customer that have a unique customer number this unique number identifies each customers and that show one-to-many relationship because one customer can make many order
The same rule apply to order table and employee table because one employees can take many order, there is other type of relationship called one-to-one relationship as shown in order table with the invoice table that mean one order can have one invoice The same rule apply to order table and design table because one order can have one design.
Query
Queries mean selecting records from one or more tables in a database so they can be viewed, analyzed, and sorted on datasheet
In the example below Southall illustration used queries to find some specific information in the database such customer Id and customer names begin with the letter A
How did I design the Query?
- Select Queries in the Object bar
-
I add Customer details table to the query and select all fields to be included in the output.
Customer ID query
In this example, in the field Customer Id column and the Criteria row, key in: [enter customer id], ensure the customer query is open
Click the Run button
The customers Id are displayed
.
Customer names begin with the letter A query
In this example, in the field Customer first name column and the Criteria row, key in: Like "a*”, ensure the customer query is open
All first name beginning with “a” are displayed
Forms
Forms are used as an alternative way to enter data into a database table
For instance, southall illustration used forms to help the company to see all the fields in one screen, while if they were in the table view, they would have to keep scrolling to get the field they want.
How did I design the Forms?
-
Click on the Forms button and then double-click on Create form by using wizard.
- Then chose the style you like to appear in your form
Customer details form
Design form
Employees form
Invoice form
Order form
Report
Reports will organize and group the information in a table or query and provide a way to print the data in a database.
For example Southall Illustration used report to retrieved information from a
table or query such as invoice
How did I design the Report?
-
Click on the Reports button and then double-click on Create report by using wizard.
-
The next Report Wizard Box appears.
- The next Report Wizard box appears, that will allow you to sort your report
- Then chose the style you like to appear in your report
Southall Illustration invoice Report
Southall illustration invoice query Report
Data dictionary
Customer table
Design table
Employee table
Invoice table
Order table
Test plan
Testing is the process of checking all the function of the system work as planned and gives correct result. The main reason for test plan is to produce a test plan that would enable someone who knows nothing about the system to be able to test it thoroughly.
Validation
Test validation rule on Employee Id field
Report
Examine the logo reports
Queries
To check that query works
