<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">I have found Filemaker to be quite reasonable to work with, as long as I keep my needs relatively simple. Just mimicking examples in the manual has gotten me as far as I need. Some sort of automated scheduling would be a bit more work, probably, but likely quite doable. But you'd have to be very clear on the process (clear to the exceedingly stupid and blindingly fast computer!). I usually try to focus on what questions I really need answered, and set up the databases; their relationships; and the views, sorts and filters to answer them.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I've never used Access, so I don't know whether it would be more difficult or not. Same for Time & Chaos. But it is true that any way you do it will take hours, perhaps days to get fully up and running from scratch. Of course, data entry is usually a bigger project than that...</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Doug</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Sep 6, 2007, at 8:03 AM, Jeff Tanner wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR><DIV><DIV>On Sep 5, 2007, at 6:01 PM, Douglas Wood wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; ">My oldest brother thinks I should get a "real database", meaning Microsoft Access (sp?).<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>We tried setting up Access database for my home business, but it was far too complicated and confusing. Time & Chaos works well enough for much less dough.</DIV><DIV>Jeff</DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>