Hi all,
After some advice about software for work.

Basically, when a person is on-call, we have a logbook in which we record the following:
- on-call persons name
- date of call
- time of call
- area
- enquiry
- our answer
- time taken

I want to make it so that it is all done electronically on a laptop and the user will be able to search the past entries in case the query has been answered before and we dont have to go through researching it again.

Considered doing this in Word or Excel as a basic table but was hoping for something a bit more substantial than that. Also, as time goes on the amount of data would grow considerably as we keep the data for many years.

Maybe Access? What do people think? Or is there something out there already I could modify (and is FREE)?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers.

Probably best to use Excel, if it will do the job. It's simple, well-known, and it will be easy to maintain.

You could use a database like Access, but it's a minefield. You could probably make it work, and it may be ok for ever and a day, but in my personal experience Access can be unreliable and a PITA. If it decides to throw a wobbler your database will probably be trashed. Poor database design can make your life a nightmare if you're unlucky and/or inexperienced.

Any relational database will do the job - just a bit difficult to set up if you aren't familiar with setting up database tables, queries, forms and reports - otherwise if you are familiar with them an absolute doddle to do.

There might well be suitable freeware programs around - Google is your friend.

I see David J beat me to it - I don't completely agree with him - but then I have been using Access extensively and only ever found it unreliable as it approaches 2GByte at which stage it's very unreliable and messes up your data. - But he is right - you need to understand the basics of data table design and links etc. before attempting to use it and back up your data regularly in case you or someone messes up.

Excel can be dangerous if you are sorting data regularly as you can quickly get it mixed up if you don't include all fields. - Best advice I have is never sort your main data but copy it to another worksheet and sort there - and scan a few rows for accuracy after the sort.

[Edited on 29/12/08 by Ivan]

quote:

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Originally posted by mads
Hi all,
After some advice about software for work.

Basically, when a person is on-call, we have a logbook in which we record the following:
- on-call persons name
- date of call
- time of call
- area
- enquiry
- our answer
- time taken

I want to make it so that it is all done electronically on a laptop and the user will be able to search the past entries in case the query has been answered before and we dont have to go through researching it again.

Considered doing this in Word or Excel as a basic table but was hoping for something a bit more substantial than that. Also, as time goes on the amount of data would grow considerably as we keep the data for many years.

Maybe Access? What do people think? Or is there something out there already I could modify (and is FREE)?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers.

---

You can either do it in a database or a spreadsheet.
A flat file database isn't that different from a spread sheet, in fact it can use spreadsheet tables.
A relation database uses more than one table the table are connected by relationships ie, a table containg details of calls would be linked by relationship with employee table and client name name details..

However unless your database gets very big a flat file database should work.

Access is a database manager it can be used to create either flat file or relational databases, in fact you could probably adapt one of the sample databases to your requirements reliability issues when using Access for really big databases has been touched on but shouldn't affect your application however the biggest single drawback is cost ------- Access is relatively expensive.

The alternative is to create a database using Open Office but that is more complicated as the database part of open office isn't fully mature particularly with regard to forms and reports.

I think what you are really looking for is call tracking or asset management tracking software, it is just possible a free ware or shareware solution exist.

I had quick search a couple of promising bits of software but most of the free GPL solutions would require running a Linux server -- which is actuall no big deal.

I will have a look around to see if I can find a free or low cost windows solution.

[Edited on 29/12/08 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 29/12/08 by britishtrident]

It sounds like one of the many issue tracking systems could be suitable for your needs e.g. Liberum Help Desk which is free.

A fairly comprehensive list of issue tracking systems is available on Wikipedia

Cheers for the replies all.

The laptop will have both excel and access installed on it already so that part isnt an issue. Also, I know my way around Excel and am familiar with how to work Access (though nowhere near as skilled as yourselves).

As for installing Linux (cant do - IT department would have a fit at just the suggestion) so a call handling software would need to be windows based. Plus, locally based rather than over the net as people would work from home and not all have the net (surprising I know)

cd.thompson - you're right. I dont need any relationship tables. Only reason I thought of using Access was so there is a front end for other users to use and a back end where I can deal with any issues and create any new queries/tables etc. If I were to use Excel, could I have something similar? Would need two front ends - one for users to input their info and another for searching (with different field options).

[Edited on 29/12/08 by mads]

Ok a simple flat file Access database,

Details of each call are stored in a simple table that looks very much like a spread sheet.
Each row will contain all the information about a call ie
record number, client name, employee name, issue, action, date & time created, date resolved, notes.



To enter look at or edit each record a form is created, the from is just that an on screen form with type in boxes, drop down boxes boxes can be used for information that is repeated used such as employee name..

To get meaningful information out database queries and reports are used to pick out for example all the calls from "Joe Bloggs" which were dealt with by employee"Jim Smith" in July 2008.

Access has wizards to create a database with all this.
To create or alter a database in Access it has to be switched into design mode ------ have a look in the access Help menu.

I also seem to recall on the MS Office CD a sample name and address database is provided get it loaded on to your PC and have a play with it in data entry mode and in database design mode.

When you get round to creating the table for your data base first start by looking at all the information you already log on paper and in which order it whould normally be entered.