Nice suggestion Tekime. That is actually an approach I toyed around with in my mind when I originally read this thread. It would make sense to me, that any given merchancdiser won't change their schedule from week to week too often. That being the case, one might be able to reduce the amount of data entry by laying out a week or so, and saying "this applies to the next 6 months."

I would have to think that would be the best thing. But that would also be a fairly large assumption, which could/should be reconciled with the client.

I think you have a great design there actually. The only thing I think could be done better, is the tbl_Shifts relationship. In that model, you can either: A) Allow "Stores" to share a general pool of "shifts" on which they can accept delivery, or B) Force "Stores" to re-enter their "shifts" for every "Schedule" entered.

Of course, this data re-entry could be by-passed with some slightly convoluted code - but it would be a hack at best. I don't have a good suggestion right now, other than saying I think the tbl_Shifts situation could be thought through a little better. It seems to me that a more direct relationship between shifts and stores is something that could greatly improve the flexibility of this model.

And wow - how is it we we're all born at around the same time? Was there something in the planetary alignment during that time that made us all endlessly interested in technical architecture? Maybe we'll never know...