Linking Forms - Concepts

The information that makes up your business management and accounting system is stored in a database. This database consists of a large number of interconnected data files. Creating a form or report involves connecting these data files together, filtering out unwanted information and adding up or performing other types of calculations on that data.

To use an example, an invoice transaction has its data stored in a number of database files. Some of these files include:

• Customer Records (Custrec) - This file holds the name, address and other accounting information related to your customer.

• Invoice Transaction File (Invoice) - this file holds the main details of the transaction, such as the account customer code, the invoice total, the order number.

• Invoice Stock Items Transactions File (Contents) - this holds the information about the individual products or services sold for each transaction created.

Since the data that makes up an invoice transaction is held in separate files, when we want to print information about an invoice, plus customer details and stock information on the same report, we must tell Visual Builder to connect them together. Connecting files together is referred to as linking.

Files can only be linked if they share something in common. Links in CAPITAL almost always revolve around these things:

• Transaction Numbers

• Account Codes

• Product Codes

• Miscellaneous Codes

(Miscellaneous codes include such things as the salesperson code, department code, cost centre code, etc.)

When you wish to link database files together so that their combined information can be presented on a report, you must determine what data they share in common. The Customer Records file can be linked to the Invoice Transaction file because both databases contain an account code field.

You cannot link the stock file to the customer file because they have nothing in common. The stock database has a product code field, but there is no such matching field in the customer database. Likewise, the product database does not have a customer account code field in it.