I have a file called "sales" showing sales for different companies for
two products - A and B. The two products have to be in separate detail
files as they have different pricings and definitions. I want to
produce an invoice in "sales" showing all sales for both products. I
can make invoices separately in files A and B but I can't produce a
combined invoice in "sales".

I currently have a layout in "sales" with portals for A and B, but
when I come to show the results on an invoice the layout doesn't work.
I have tried the sliding/printing but some of the portal results for
product B are over 200 and my layout cant cope!

Is there a way I can have two body and two header parts on one report
to show results from each file?

Why not combine both product sales for a single invoice and simply flag the
detail record as to which product it represents. Then create a grouped
report that can summarize each product and produce a total. Your invoice
should have a portal for the detail line items, do not make repeating fields
in the invoice header.
Remember, don't print your invoice from the layout where you are inputting
the data, always create a report layout with sub and grand totals.
Hope this helps,

Paul

"Hannah" <hannaheast (AT) lou11 (DOT) fsnet.co.uk> wrote

Hannah <hannaheast (AT) lou11 (DOT) fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

No, they don't. A single file can have as many different "Types" of
items as you care to put in there. Simply mark them as different types,
and if necessary, leave SOME fields blank on each record. Then your
reporting is simple, not to mention your maintenance of the file.

I've had up to 9 different child entities in one single child file for
this very reason. No problem whatsoever. In that case, I maintained
separate key fields for each type to make things simpler.

However, since you do have the two separate files, I'd suggest your best
bet is a third reporting file, where each set of data is imported and
summarized. Then purge after each report is done.

Question: What do you do when one company wants to order BOTH types of
product? Two invoices? Seems inefficient.

Lynn Allen
---
www.semiotics.com