Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

+44 (0)1747 822616

Looking for help? NEW Tutorial video Sample Download

Walk Through - Creating an MS Access Stock Control Database

If you would like to try and create your own stock control database then read on...

In this article we'll guide you through some step-by-step instructions for creating your own stock
management database or stock control system in MS Access.We have also included some hints
and tips based on our many years of experience creating Access databases for real businesses. To
download the database we'll be making in this tutorial for free, click on the link above. You can also
follow this tutorial using our YouTube video that explains each step and provides demonstrations
to help you do it yourself; click on the link above to open the video in a new tab/window.

Before you get started

Please note that in order to follow this walkthrough, or run the free finished database linked above,
you must have a full version of Microsoft Access installed on your computer.

Plan
It might sound obvious, but one of the most important points when creating yourstock control
database is deciding exactly what you need it to do, and what it is for.Getting the design right is
much easier once you understand the purpose of the database.A well-designed database will be
simpler to maintain, and to adapt later on if your requirements alter.

For example, the simple database we are creating needs to be able to:

Log orders from customers

Track stock levels
Warn when parts need to be re-ordered

Think about the details of the way your business works. Does each customer order one type of
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
1 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

time? Do you have just one supplier for each part you stock? Do you order a range of items from
each supplier or does each supplier just provide you with one type of item? Your design will also
be different if you stock items for manufacturing rather than to sell on. Keep the answers to these
questions in mind as we go into the next step.

Define the tables required

Information in a database is held in tables. By this point you should have some idea of the
information the database needs to hold to achieve your goals.You need to categorise this
information into a set of tables.To start with you dont even need to do this in Access, just make
a list by hand or in another program.

The tables within our example database are: Parts, Customers, Orders, PartTypes,
PurchaseOrders and Suppliers.To keep things simple, we are going to assume that each
customer orders just one part at a time, and that we order just one part from a supplier at a time.
Of course this might not be true for you; your customers may order a whole selection of items
together, and you will probably buy a range of items in one go. In this case youll need a table that
holds all the parts linked to each order, probably called Order Items.

Weve made a similar sort of assumption about customers, assuming they are all individual people
or small companies; for large business customers with multiple addresses or phone numbers to
store you would perhaps need a more advanced set of tables to hold all the information
consistently. But all this is a more advanced topic really, so well just show you the simple way for
now using tables with more basic goals.

Set up fields within the tables

Within a table, information is held in fields.Basically a field is the specific piece of information
about the thing the table is responsible for. Typical fields in the Parts table for example might be
PartNumber, PartDescription, Supplier and StockLevel. If you picture a table as a tabular grid, then
the fields would be the column headings, with each row representing an entry in the table, or
record.

All tables should have a unique identifying field called the primary key that cannot be the same for
any two records or ever be empty. So in our parts table, the PartNumber is unique for each part
and every part has one so we can just use that. But for other tables where this may not be the
case, we can invent ID numbers or codes for internal use in the system to make sure it can
uniquely identify any entry in any table. In Access there is something called an auto-number field
that you can use as the primary key if there is no other obvious choice or preference, which just
assigns a new sequential number to each record in the table.

For each field in the table, you need to pick a data type to show the type of data it will hold, such
as Number, Text, Date/Time or Currency. Within each type you can further specify the exact
nature of the data, such as the number of characters for a Text.You might already use part
numbers within your business, and the format you use is likely to help you decide the data type for
the field Part Number. Your part numbers might be something like ACBD2222, in which case you
might choose to use an 8-character text string.

Now were going to imagine that our business deals with large numbers of different parts which we
classify into different types.We have a table called PartTypes, which lists the different types of
Parts. We want to make our Parts table have a field that can link to the PartTypes so that each part
can be assigned a type. The field in the parts table needs to the same as the primary key field (the
thing that identifies the record to the system) in the PartTypes table, which weve made a
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
2 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

1-character code. The Parts table would also be related in a similar way to the Suppliers table, so
that you can find out who supplies a particular part.

Making our design on paper.

Think about how you will be using the fields, and make sure you define them in the most logical
way for your purposes. For example, it can make sense to store peoples names as First Name and
Surname separately rather than as one field so that you can easily sort and list names in
alphabetical order (of surname). A tip we find useful is to hold postal addresses as one field,
rather than split them into individual elements of the address such as Address Line 1, Address Line
2, Town, County and Postcode. This makes it much easier to incorporate addresses into forms
and reports, and it eases data entry because Access is happy to store the multiple lines in one field.

While thinking what fields you need, you should make sure they all have unique names, unless two
fields actually contain the same information. Only in this case should you give them the same
name, like with PartTypeCode earlier. Something to keep in mind with your names is that if you
want to progress to using SQL queries or Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code with your
database, you will find life easier if you have no spaces in the table names or field names. So that is
why weve been writing PartTypes as one word, rather than having the space.

Another tip to keep in mind is that is it bad practice to give a field a name that is already being
used behind the scenes by Access for something else. These so-called Reserved Words include
things like name, date, level and money, among many others. You can look up a full list of
Accesss reserved words online to make sure none of your fields use one. This can help avoid
confusion in the database engine between predefined words and your field names, which if left
unchecked can sometimes cause serious errors.

Create your tables in Access

To create a Parts table and define its fields:

1. In MS Access 2013/2010/2007 click on the Create tab on the Ribbon, then on Table Design.
This opens a new table in design view. Each row in design view represents a field in the table.
(In Access 2003, click on Tables in the list of Objects then click the New button which opens a
dialog box called New Table. Finally select Design View, and click OK.)
2. Click in first column, top row.
3. Enter the name of the first field (PartNo)
4. Use the Tab key to go to the next column where we define the data type. Click the
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
3 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

drop-down and select Text.

5. Use the Tab key to go to the next column, and enter a description for the new field.
6. As this will be the primary key for the table, click the primary key button on the toolbar.
7. On the General tab, at the bottom of the window, click in the Field Size row, and enter 10 to
define a text string with 10 characters.
8. On the General tab, click in the Caption row, and type the label you want for this field
on-screen (e.g. Part Number).
9. Click in the second row to define the next field in the table. And so on.
10. When you have finished adding fields to the table, close it by clicking on the X in the top right
hand corner.Access will ask you to name the table. Enter Parts.

The Parts table of our example stock control database contains the following fields:

Unique part number to define

PartNo 10-character text string
each part

PartName 50-character text string Name/description of this part

The unit of measure for this

PartUnit 20-character text string
part e.g. Kg, Meters, box of 10

SupplierRef 6-character text string The supplier of this part

The number of this part in

StockLevel Integer
current stock

The minimum number of this

MinStockLevel Integer part in stock before you need
to re-order

CostPrice Currency The cost price of this part

SalePrice Currency The sale price of this part

PartType 1-character text string The type of part this is

Tip : it is often useful to include

a Notes field for any other
PartNotes 255-character text string
information that you might
want to add later.

We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
4 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

The Parts table in Design View (Access 2013)

The Parts table in Design View (Access 2003)

The screenshots above show the Parts table from our stock control database in Design view.
Using Design View enables you to define all the fields in your table, specify their Data Types,
describe them and define their format.
Tip Do complete the Description of the field. When you use the Form Wizard to create forms
for you later, this description will be displayed in the status bar to help users.
Tip If your field has an abbreviated name, or has no spaces in it, use the Caption area to write its
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
5 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

example if your field is called POQty, enter Quantity in the caption.

The Customers table is as follows:

Unique 8-character reference

for this customer based on first
4 letters of surname (e.g.
8-character text string SMIT0001). This will make it
CustomerRef
easy to find individual
customers. This field is the
primary key.

CustomerFirstName 20-character text string The first name of this customer

CustomerSurname 25-character text string The surname of this customer

CustomerAddress 255-character text string The address of this customer

The telephone number of this

CustomerTel 15-character text string
customer

The Customers table above is designed for a business whose customers are predominantly
individuals as assumed earlier.When your customers are mainly larger businesses, and you may
have several contacts at each business, or each business might have several sites, then you will need
a more complex solution.

Once you've got the hang of it, go through the rest of your planned tables setting them up too.
Youll see your new tables appearing in the object browser on the left as you make them (press
F11 to bring this browser up if you can't see it).

Relationships
Relationships are set up within the database, to show the way in which one table relates to
another. A one-to-many relationship is the most common kind of relationship. In this
relationship, a record in one table can have more than one matching record in a second table, but
each record in the second table can have only one matching record in the first table. For
example, each Part can have only one Part Type, but for each PartType there are likely to be many
parts of that type.

If each part has only one supplier as in our example, then this is another straightforward
one-to-many relationship. If each part can be supplied by several different suppliers, then you will
need a different design.

In our example database, the following relationships between tables are required.

Suppliers - Parts, to specify the supplier of each part.

Parts - PurchaseOrders, showing
We use cookies, just to track visits the
to ourpart ordered
website, we store noon a purchase
personal order.
details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
6 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

Parts - Orders, showing the part ordered by a customer.

Customers - Orders, showing the customer for each order.
PartTypes - Parts, classifying each part into a particular part type.

As an example well show you how to set up the relationship between the tables Parts and
PartTypes. Before you start doing relationships it is a good idea to write some sample information
into your tables that features entries which are as long as you think youll ever use. This will help
out a little with some settings youll need to adjust later.

1. Set up the field PartTypeCode in the Part Types table as a single-character text string defining
the part type.
2. Make this field the primary key
3. Open the Parts table in Design view.
4. Add a field PartTypeCode to the Parts table. Make sure it is also a single-character text string.
5. Now click in the Data Type column of the Part type field to display a down arrow. Click this to
display a drop-down list, and select Lookup Wizard.
6. Select I want the lookup column to look up the values in a table or query. Click Next.
7. From the list of tables displayed, select the PartTypes table. Click Next.
8. Click the fields you want included in your lookup column. In this case, we will select both
fields. Click Next.
9. A sort order can be selected if required. Select Description. Click Next.
10. The next step allows you to define the width of the columns in your lookup column and to
specify whether you wish the key column (the column containing the primary field key) to be
displayed.By default the key column is not displayed, and in our case we just want to view
the description, so leave the tick in the box.Now set the width of your lookup column by
dragging the edge to the position you require. If you have already entered some data in the
PartTypes table this will be displayed to help you to adjust the column to the width of the
likely contents. Click Next.
11. Now select the label for your lookup column. The suggested label will usually be correct.
Click Finish to complete the Lookup Wizard.You will be asked if you want to save the table
so that relationships can be created. Click Yes.
12. To complete the relationship, select Tools, Relationships, or click the Relationships button on
the toolbar to display the relationships window. You will see the Parts table and the PartTypes
table with a line linking the PartType field in Parts with the PartTypeCode field in PartTypes.
13. Right mouse over this line, and choose Edit Relationship (or double click on the line). Tick
the Enforce Referential Integrity box. You should always tick this as otherwise the
relationship has little value. For example if you have defined three different part types in
the Part Types table: E Electronics, S Software, H Hardware, ticking the Enforce
Referential Integrity box will ensure that you will not be able to define a new part as any part
type other than these. Also, if you try to delete a part type from the PartTypes table, when
parts in the Parts table have this part type, the database will warn you.
14. Tick the Cascade Update Related Fields box. This means that you can change the primary key
in the primary table (e.g. the PartTypes table), and it will be automatically updated in the
related table (Parts).
15. The third box is Cascade Delete Related Fields. Ticking this means that if you delete a record
e.g. Software, from the primary table (e.g. PartTypes), then any records in the related table
(Parts) with that part type will be deleted too. Normallyyou would not want this to happen
if you had parts of type Software in the Parts table then you would not want to delete that
part type, so leave the box unticked.There will probably be examples in your database where
you do want to tick the Cascade Delete Related Records box.It normally applies when one
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
7 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

OrderItems tables (listing multiple items on an Order), then you would want to delete all
OrderItems if you deleted an entire Order.

The Relationships Window in Access 2013

The Relationships Window in Access 2003

So now youve seen how to set up a relationship, you should now go through the tables setting up
the relationships you had planned in your design. Once youve done them all we can move onto
the final part of our database.

Creating a reorder query

In general queries are used to extract data and information from your database. In our example
we want to know whether we have less than the minimum stock level for any parts, so that we
know when you need to order more. You can extract all sorts of other information with queries
though. You might want to know all the parts supplied by a particular supplier, or how often a
particular customer ordered last year. Often you will extract the information using a query and
then use an Access report to present the data in a clear way, but here well just be doing the query.

So now lets go through how to set up a query to show which parts are below their minimum
stock level, and tell us the suppliers from whom they should be reordered.
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
8 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

To set up a query to show which parts are below their minimum stock level, and the suppliers
from whom they should be ordered:

1. In the Create tab, click Query Design (Access 2013/2010/2007). Or in Queries click New, then
select Design View and click OK (Access 2003).
2. In the Show Table box, select Parts. Click Add. Select Suppliers. Click Add. Click Close.
3. The Query Design grid is now displayed with the chosen tables above. Fields to be included in
the query are added by dragging them from the table to the grid, or double clicking on them.
4. The fields we require are PartNo and StockLevel from the Parts table, and SupplierName and
Address from the Suppliers table, so select these.
5. We only want to display parts whose stock level is less than the minimum stock level for this
part. This is done by setting a criterion for this field. Enter <= [MinStockLevel] in the criteria
row of the Stock Level field (column).
6. Click the X in the top right hand corner of the window to close the query. Access will ask you
if you want to save changes to the query, and will ask you for a name for the query (e.g.
LowStockLevels)
7. Now double click on the query you have just created, to view the parts with low stock levels.

The query design grid in Access 2010

The query should be visible in the object browser on the left. Double click on the query to view
the parts with low stock levels once you have some working data in the system.

One more thing about the query: the lines between the tables in the query dataset are called Joins.
Joins are automatically created between tables when there are fields that already have a relationship
between them or between a primary key and another field with the same name. Usually you would
want a join here, but there will be cases where you dont want to join these fields for various
reasons, so keep in mind that you may need to check all the joins once they are created.

Join Properties in queries are very important when your query uses more than one table. If the
query does not seem to give you the results you expect, check these by right-clicking on the line
joining the two tables in Design view. Here you can choose whether you only want to see parts
that have a supplier, or all parts with low stock regardless of whether they have a supplier (by
picking Include all records from Parts and only those records from Suppliers where the joined
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
9 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

of this, so show all suppliers even if they dont supply any low stock parts, which in this case
wouldnt make any sense, so just ignore that one.

So now we have completed the database as per our design. We can enter all the data we need
and it will tell us when to reorder products. Of course the potential uses of a database are many,
so now were going to discuss briefly a few ways you might want to expand on this database to
make it more useful and more user-friendly.

Forms in MS Access
In MS Access, you use forms to view, enter and edit data, and to control the database.When you
have set up all the tables and relationships in your database, the Form Wizard is very helpful in
setting up forms based on your tables, for data entry, viewing and editing. You can then make
changes to the form produced by the Form Wizard, adding and editing features as required.

Forms in MS Access can also be used to display buttons and links to provide access to all the other
forms and reports.We always set up a form of this type and call it the Front screen.Setting up a
clear top level form like this makes it easy for people to use the system with no database
knowledge.

Reports in MS Access
MS Access reports allow you to display information to the user in a convenient way which can be
viewed on screen and then printed if required. Normally the information for the report will come
from a query.The Report Wizard will help create simple reports. More detailed reports are
beyond the scope of this article.

Security
You might want to make sure that no one who isnt trusted can tamper with your data. The
simplest way of protecting the database is to set a password.

1. To set or change the password, the database must be opened for exclusive use. To do this,
open MS Access, use File, Open to select the database. Click the Open box to the right of
the Open button, and select Open Exclusive.
2. Select Tools, Security, Set Database Password (Access 2003). Or select the Database Tools
tab in the Ribbon and click on Set Database Password (Access 2007). Or go to the File menu,
select the Info submenu and click on Set Database Password (Access 2010/2013)
3. Enter the password you require, and re-enter to verify. The password is now set.

When creating a large stock control database, or one that holds sensitive information, you may
require more complex security. For example, you might want to restrict access to some of the
information in the database, or you might want to let some users view the information in the
database, but not to change it. MS Access allows you to define types of user, and apply levels of
security, so that you can specify what actions are available to each type of user. This is beyond
the scope of this article, but it is called 'user-level security' if you want to research it more.

Automation
Access allows you to write custom code in its Visual Basic for Applications language, known as
VBA. You can set up a piece of code to run when you perform certain actions or just on
command. This enables you to automate many processes. For example, you might want your
system to adjust your recorded stock levels automatically whenever a delivery is received, or you
might want the Customer Reference field to be built automatically from the surname of the
customer. Using VBA to automate features can make a database more powerful and easier to
We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
10 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM
Tutorial - How to Create an MS Access Stock Control Database: PLUS Fr... http://www.software-matters.co.uk/creating-ms-access-stock-control-data...

use, but it does require programming knowledge so its a more advanced step to take in your
databases development.

So that's all for this tutorial article. If you decide that building your own stock control database is
not for you after all, we at Software-Matters are happy to offer advice about alternatives via our
free initial consultation.Contact us on 01747 822616 or fill in an enquiry form here and we will
get back to you. Thanks for reading!

WHAT WE DO WHAT WE'VE DONE ARTICLES BENEFITS CONTACT US

Microsoft Access Design & Stock Management Our Recent Projects Benefits Home T: 01747 822616
Development Customers and Information News Growth E: Web enquiries
Bespoke Database Design Enquiry Management How to Import an Esri ASCII Efficiency Contact form
Excel & Spreadsheet Design Order Handling Grid into an MS Access Save Money
Web Software & Design Planning and Scheduling Database Save Time
Management Software Design Software Creating an MS Access Information
Bespoke GIS Print Industry Software Contact Management Less Stress
Database/Software Design Project and Scheduling Database
VBA Programming Software Creating an MS Access Stock
Database FAQs Simple Accounts Software Control Database
Tuition Database Examples MS Access help & tips
MS Excel help & tips
Management Software Tools
Bespoke vs off-the-shelf
Spreadsheets and Excel
Viewing data out of the office
MS Access Benefits
MS Access 2007 Benefits
MS Access 2010 Benefits
MS Access 2013 Benefits
MS Access 2016 Benefits
MS Access and MS Excel
Training
MS Excel Benefits
MS Excel 2007 Benefits
MS Excel 2010 Benefits
MS Excel 2013 Benefits
MS Office 365 Comparison

Copyright Software-Matters 1994 - 2014 E&OE. Terms

Software-Matters is a trading name of Software-Matters (Software Solutions) Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 10264370. Registered office: Ramley
House, Wyke Street, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 4NA

We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. ACCEPT COOKIES What are cookies?

This document was created by an application that isnt licensed to use novaPDF.
Purchase a license to generate PDF files without this notice.
11 of 11 03/03/17 6:53 AM