Help with a ToDo List

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Joe Cilinceon - 13 Jan 2005 01:46 GMT

I've thought about using Outlook but have kind of gotten off that idea for
awhile. I'm thinking of just setting up a table that will list the things to
do for a given day and loading it when the program starts with an append
query. Now the things that I want on it are 1st of every month run a given
report, 11th of the month print late letters and invoices, etc. I also want
the items to stay on the list until we check a Completed box. I will add
addition things as the need arises. My question is this the best way to lay
out the table/tables and a method of adding an item that is supposed to fall
on the 1st to the next or previous business day. Any help would be
appreciated.

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Thanks

Joe Cilinceon

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LeAnne - 13 Jan 2005 18:39 GMT

> I've thought about using Outlook but have kind of gotten off that idea for
> awhile. I'm thinking of just setting up a table that will list the things to
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> on the 1st to the next or previous business day. Any help would be
> appreciated.

Hi Joe,

You would create this the same way you would any other database...by
defining your entities (real-life persons, places, things, and/or events
you want the db to keep track of) and their attributes (categories of
information relevent to each entity) *first*, before you ever start
thinking about how you want your end products to look. Entities and
attributes = tables and fields. In a nutshell, it's up to you to develop
& set up your db schema in such a way that the relationships between
tables are clearly understood by Access, and therefore clearly defined
(not of the dreaded "indeterminate" type) when you create them. Access
then uses the relationships to find associated information in your db
quickly and efficiently and display it in whatever format you specify.

Your description above gives very little information, but I see at least
2 classes of information to keep track of: Tasks, the things to be
accomplished; and People - since you say "we" I'm assuming more than one
person in your organization. Now, ask yourself, how are these entities
related? Can a task be accomplished by one OR MORE persons? Can one
person be assigned one OR MORE tasks? Are certain tasks assigned on one
OR MORE dates? Can a certain date have one OR MORE tasks assigned to be
completed that day? Depending on your answers to these & similar
questions, additional tables may be needed to help define relationships
between categories of information.

Hope this helps...post back if you have additional questions.

Good luck,

LeAnne

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Joe Cilinceon - 13 Jan 2005 18:54 GMT

Thanks for responding LeAnne I was beginning to think no one was seeing my
posts in this group. What it boils down is this todo list relates to what
has to be done on set dates during a month cycle. Now by people it is not
based on individuals in any way other it is a reminder to print invoices on
the 12th of the month or the next business day. Same thing with late letters
and other tasks we perform during the month. I wanted the items to stay on
the list until we mark then as completed then they can be deleted (check
box). I was looking at using the task manager in Outlook but couldn't seem
to get any answers as how I could set up a function to send the task to
Outlook task manager.

I guess my real question is how to add fixed data to a table automatically
based on a date.

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Joe Cilinceon

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John Vinson - 13 Jan 2005 22:18 GMT

>I guess my real question is how to add fixed data to a table automatically
>based on a date.

You'll want an Append query to do this. You can use the DateSerial()
function to generate dates. You might want to just fill out the task
list for the next five years all in one go. Since you don't clearly
state how you determine which dates need to be selected or how I can't
be all that specific!

John W. Vinson[MVP]

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Joe Cilinceon - 13 Jan 2005 23:30 GMT

Here is an example John, all dates are only subject to the next business day
if the date falls on a Sunday only.

Run Auto Pay credit cards on the 2nd of the month
Lock units past due on the 6th of the month.
Late Letters printed and mailed on the 11th of each month
Invoices mailed on the 13th of the month
Pre-lien letters sent on the 16th of the month
Lien letters sent on the 2nd of each month
etc.

As you can see everything has a day of the month to do it. This is a very
small storage business (my wife and I with 455 units) that I'm trying to
bring from paper ledgers to a computer on a very tight budget. Every tenant
is due on the 1st of the month, unless paid in advance. We are using Outlook
at the moment but find it kind of cumbersome in that all we need is a daily
list of things due on that day of the month. Thanks for the response John.

Signature

Joe Cilinceon

> >I guess my real question is how to add fixed data to a table automatically
> >based on a date.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> John W. Vinson[MVP]

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John Vinson - 14 Jan 2005 02:16 GMT

>Here is an example John, all dates are only subject to the next business day
>if the date falls on a Sunday only.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>Lien letters sent on the 2nd of each month
>etc.

Ok, try this. Create a Table named Num, with one long integer field N;
manually fill it with values from 1 through the number of months
you'll want to fill out your schedule. Be generous; I'd put in 120 or
so (your table won't be all that big).

Create another table, Events, with two fields: Event and DayOfMonth,
filled with the information above (and the rest of it).

Your ToDo table should have four fields: ToDoID (Autonumber); Event
(text); EventDate (Date/Time; don't use the reserved word Date for the
name); and Done (Yes/No or Date if you want to enter the date actually
done).

Create a Query by adding [Num] and this events table to a query grid,
WITHOUT any join line. This will give you a "Cartesian join" - if
there are 20 events and 120 N's, you'll get 2400 records.

Put a calculated field in the Query:

EventDate: DateSerial(2005, N, [DayOfMonth])

and include the Event field from Events. Change the query to an Append
query and then append it to ToDo.

To get weekends converted to Monday, run this Update query:

UPDATE ToDo
SET EventDate = DateAdd("d", 3 - DatePart("w", [EventDate], 6),
[EventDate])
WHERE DatePart("w", [EventDate], 6) < 3;

The DatePart function will return 1 for Saturday, 2 for Sunday, ... ,
7 for Friday - the 6 specifies that the week starts on Saturday.

John W. Vinson[MVP]

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Joe Cilinceon - 14 Jan 2005 13:34 GMT

Thank you John I give it a real try.

Joe Cilinceon

>>Here is an example John, all dates are only subject to the next business
>>day
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>
> John W. Vinson[MVP]

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