Hi
Reading Albert's items about MSACCESS raised the old debate about storing
check totals or recalculating every time one accesses them.

I would appreciate informed comment. In Albert's example of hotel rooms I
see no problem with recalculation. However in a debtors system I see major
problems with not keeping running balances by debtor to crosscheck against
movements to provide some level of audit control against file corruption
either by way of machine error or by deliberate deletion of invoice data for
example. Personally I insist on a triple check that batches say a trip of
invoices when they hit the debtors and a balance by debtor and a balance by
stock. It requires a much deeper understanding of the system to work around
that even if one can get at ED.

The same goes for Stock and Stock movements. I remember one fabulous
system where one just deleted the stock item if you did not like it. Great
I just stole a 205l of oil, whack no stock recreate it with new lower
figure, and all this within the provided programs.

Also, not being an SQL man, can someone tell me if the SQL delete command
will take out say part of an invoice line that links back to an invoice
header that cross links to a debtor and stock.

The Sarbanes Oxley mob would do better looking at true internal controls
than the pernickety external controls they are causing chaos with world
wide.

Thanks in advance
Peter McMurray