Training Course Bookings
When a local language training company found that they were
spending too much time administering their course bookings, they
turned to Computing Services for the solution.
After looking at the requirements and the possible methods of
providing the solution, we decided to build the system around
Microsoft Access 2000. (It is now running in Access 2003, and the
upgrade went smoothly with very few changes).
In order to ensure that the users of the system don't see any of the
underlying tables, Data Entry Forms were created for all the inputs
required - Clients, Trainees, Hosts (because the courses are
designed for foreign business people needing to learn English, they
live for the duration of the course with a local family), Courses
etc. This ensures no data is ever required to be entered more than
once. As a result, wherever possible data is selected from drop-down
lists.
Rather than using Access' built-in reports designer, (firstly
because it leaves a lot to be desired in formatting the text, and
secondly because the information needs to be emailed to the
recipients, who may not have the ability to read Access' Snapshot
report output), all output is written to Microsoft Word, where it is
then saved as Rich Text documents (which can be opened in any word
processor) or is inserted directly into an email. These reports
cover all output from the system, from the Joining Instructions to
the Course Completion Certificates.
In order to automate as much as possible, the system also
generates the invoices to be sent to the client. The information
from the invoice is also written out to a .iif file for importing
into QuickBooks (their accounting software package) at the end of
each month, which saves having to manually input the sales
information into QuickBooks.
The end result is a system which automates much of the day-to-day
routine of handling the course administration.